A new pan-European study shows that, although the majority of hotels have modern technological infrastructure, systems integration, data analysis and systematic revenue management still have…gaps, leaving the potential of artificial intelligence untapped.
The second edition of the major survey by the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland HES-SO Valais-Wallis, published on August 19, 2025 and based on a sample of 1,500 hotels from six European countries, outlines a hotel industry “equipped but not mature” in terms of technology integration.
Despite the near-universal use of digital systems – 75% have a Property Management System (PMS) and 63% update rates and availability via a channel manager – their use for strategic decision-making is significantly lagging behind. More than 70 different PMS brands are in use, leading to a fragmented picture and making interoperability and data analysis difficult, especially for small or independent hotels.
In revenue management, only four in ten hotels implement an organized yield management strategy. While PMS is the most widespread system (76%), only 44% of these hotels use a dedicated revenue management system (RMS) and 33% still rely on Excel. One in five hotels reported using external consultants, suggesting that while some hotels use structured tools, many decisions are still based on manual methods or external advice, i.e. not a systematic approach to revenue optimization.
Performance metrics are limited to the basics: occupancy (82%), average daily rate (61%) and revenue per available room (50%). Advanced metrics such as gross operating profit per available room – GOPPAR (11%), net average daily rate – NetADR (23%) or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization – EBITDA margin (22%) are rare. This suggests that performance scoring in many hotels is still focused on room sales rather than overall profitability. At the same time, sustainability and human resources (e.g. energy consumption per room 20%, staff retention 12%) are only sporadically recorded. The more strategic metrics are mainly monitored by luxury hotels, four or five stars, and by hotels in urban areas where data capacity and reporting systems are usually stronger.
The study also shows a difference between infrastructure and insight. While many hotels report using digital tools, they rarely translate them into advanced analytics or dynamic decision-making. A significant percentage of hoteliers also reported that they “don’t know” where their performance stands compared to the competition, indicating weak benchmarking practices among their competitors.
Combined with the wide variety of systems being deployed, these results indicate that despite the widespread adoption of digital tools, many hotels have yet to reach their full strategic potential.
