“AI can’t compensate for scattered data, disconnected systems or poor processes. If a hotel’s underlying systems are fragmented, AI will only make operational problems more visible.”
Between April 2025 and March 2026, startups across the hospitality technology sector pulled in more than $1 billion in funding across 40 companies, with property management systems (PMS) and AI-led platforms claiming the biggest slice of the pie. The numbers come from Abode Worldwide’s Hospitality Tech Investment Index 2026, which points to investors doubling down on the platforms that operators can’t run their businesses without. PMS companies led the charge with a combined $408.1 million raised across seven players, while AI-driven guest experience platforms (digital check-in, automated messaging, and upsell tools) brought in $152.6 million. Between December 2025 to February 2026, the sector’s three biggest raises happened almost simultaneously with Mews at $300 million, Kindred at $125 million, and Limehome at €75 million.
The report also highlights that the US led by company count with 17 of the 40 funded businesses headquartered there, but Europe delivered on deal size. Netherlands-based Mews took the top spot, Germany contributed four funded companies, and notable rounds also came out of Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Singapore. The market is also still very much in a growth phase, with more than half of the funded companies founded after 2020, and over half of all rounds came in at pre-seed through Series A.
We chatted with Jessica Gillingham, CEO and Founder of Abode Worldwide, to dig into what this means for operators, investors, and the future of hospitality tech
Q1: Based on the Hospitality Tech Investment Index, where is AI in hospitality genuinely delivering, and where is the industry still selling a promise it hasn’t kept?
AI is delivering where it’s closest to daily operational pressures. Guest messaging, digital check-in, reading and responding to reviews, revenue management and support workflows are already proving useful because AI removes repetitive work and helps stretched teams move faster. The more practical an AI tool is, and the more embedded it is in existing workflows, the higher the return.
The weaker claims are around AI as a catch-all fix. AI can’t compensate for scattered data, disconnected systems or poor processes. If a hotel’s underlying systems are fragmented, AI will only make operational problems more visible.
Q: Your report suggests the best-funded PMS players are building bigger platforms through acquisition rather than integration. Are we heading toward a hospitality tech landscape dominated by a handful of super platforms, and what does that mean for the startups that are still trying to carve out a niche?
The larger PMS players are becoming much more ambitious. We’re seeing them move beyond operations and into reservations, inventory, guest communication, data and AI. And acquisitions give them speed and control while capturing more of the value chain.
That does create a bit of pressure for smaller startups and niche providers. A point solution now has to prove why it deserves a place in the tech stack. Operators, who are drowning in tech, are less willing to buy more tools that mean more complexity. So while there’s still room for startups, the bar is higher. They need to solve a specific operator problem better than a larger or legacy platform can, while being easily integrated.
Q: PMS companies captured over 40% of total funding. At what point does that centralisation become a risk?
Centralisation becomes a risk when operators lose choice. Having stronger PMS-es can be good for the industry if that results in reduced complexity for operators. The issue comes when these platforms become too closed or make it harder for specialist tools to be integrated.
Also, the hospitality industry is too varied for only one or a few platforms to solve every use case well. An independent hotel, a serviced apartment brand and a short-term rental operator all need highly different workflows, even if they share the same broad category. So it’s unlikely we’ll see centralisation even if the current funding story shows PMS-es grabbing the largest share of funding.
Q: What does it mean for the market that so many of its most-funded players are still very young businesses?
It shows how quickly hospitality tech is changing, and how much upside investors now see in the category. For a long time, travel and hospitality attracted less funding than sectors like commerce or fintech, despite serving a huge global industry. Seeing these companies raise meaningful rounds suggests that the gap is starting to narrow.
The companies attracting funding are solving problems that have become more urgent in the past few years: labour pressure, rising costs, AI adoption and the growth of hybrid accommodation models. Many are building for today’s operating reality, rather than adapting older systems to fit new demands. It makes for an exciting market!
Q: Is European hospitality tech building something structurally different from its American counterpart, like different business models, different relationships with operators, or is this just a geography story?
Europe produces a slightly different kind of hospitality tech. The region has more fragmentation, more languages, more regulatory variation and a higher concentration of independent and hybrid operators. That forces technology companies to build for flexibility much earlier. The US market often rewards scale faster, while Europe often rewards adaptability.
Q: Are there important problems in travel and hospitality that investors are consistently overlooking, and if so, why?
Some of the most important problems in hospitality are still underfunded because they’re tricky to solve. Housekeeping, maintenance, and staff training, for example, all have a direct impact on margin and guest experience, but they don’t always have the immediate appeal for tech. Investors tend to favour categories where scale is easier to understand, such as fragmented workflows.
“For a long time, travel and hospitality attracted less funding than sectors like commerce or fintech, despite serving a huge global industry. Seeing these companies raise meaningful rounds suggests that the gap is starting to narrow.” ~ Jessica Gillingham, CEO and Founder of Abode Worldwide
Q: What is the one funding trend in your index that genuinely surprised you, and why?
The scale of PMS funding stood out. They’ve always been the operational backbone of hospitality, but the level of investor focus shows that this category is clearly being revalued.
The PMS is becoming the place where reservations, operations, guest data and automation meet. That makes it much more commercially important, especially when investors now see PMS as the layer that could determine how usable AI becomes for operators, rather than simply backing AI tools in isolation.
Q: Your index shows hospitality tech crossed $1 billion in funding over the past year. What does the distribution of that capital tell us about where real value will be created in the next five years?
The fact that capital is moving toward systems operators rely on every day suggests the next five years will be less about adding more tools and more about making the core of the business work better. The next big bets will likely be in the parts of hospitality where technology sits closest to revenue, labour and guest experience. PMS is also likely to remain one of those bets as it becomes the system of record for the business, helping operators turn data into action.
