Today, we’re joined by Katarina Railko, a leading voice in hospitality technology whose expertise has been honed across the travel, tourism, and events industries. With a keen eye for industry-defining trends, she helps us unpack the significance of SiteMinder’s recent sweep at the 2026 HotelTechAwards, where the company celebrated its 20th anniversary by securing top honors. We’ll explore the evolution of hotel eCommerce, the strategic power of a unified technology platform, and how AI is reshaping revenue management. Katarina will also shed light on how hoteliers build and maintain customer trust in a fast-moving digital landscape and what the future holds for guest acquisition.
As a platform celebrates its 20th anniversary and a fourth consecutive win for ‘Best Hotel eCommerce Platform’, what does this tell you about the major shifts in how hotels sell rooms online? Could you detail a few key platform features that consistently help a base of over 50,000 customers drive demand?
It tells us that the industry has fundamentally shifted from using a collection of separate tools to embracing a single, powerful commerce engine. Twenty years ago, a hotel might have had one system for inventory and another for online bookings, often managed with cumbersome manual updates. Today, winning in this space means providing one unified solution that proactively generates demand. For a platform with 50,000 customers, the most critical features are those that create a seamless flow of information. An integrated channel manager is non-negotiable; it ensures rates and availability are accurately distributed everywhere, preventing overbookings. Paired with a high-converting booking engine, these features work in concert to capture the more than 130 million reservations they process annually, turning lookers into bookers with minimal friction.
The platform won top honors across a wide range of categories, including Channel Manager, Booking Engine, and Website Design. How does unifying these traditionally separate tools benefit a hotelier’s day-to-day operations and help them convert more direct bookings?
The primary benefit is a massive gain in operational efficiency and the creation of a seamless guest journey. When these tools are separate, a hotelier is constantly juggling different logins, manually updating inventory, and patching together data to see the big picture. Imagine the relief when it all just works together. For instance, a potential guest might discover the hotel through a metasearch listing, click through to a beautifully designed and mobile-friendly website, see real-time availability pulled directly from the channel manager, and complete their reservation through the integrated booking engine—all in a few effortless steps. This unified approach eliminates the risk of costly manual errors that Leon Wood of Waymark Hotels mentioned, and it gives the hotelier back a significant amount of time each week to focus on guest experience rather than data entry.
Winning the ‘Hotelier’s Choice Award’ for five straight years suggests an incredible level of customer trust, which can be hard to maintain amidst rapid industry change. From your perspective, what concrete steps are essential for a tech provider to maintain this level of confidence, and how is hotelier feedback typically woven into the product?
Earning that kind of trust, especially for five consecutive years, is about proving your reliability day in and day out. It’s not about flashy, one-off features; it’s about the platform being an indispensable and stable partner. Trust is built when distribution is exceptionally reliable and the technology demonstrably saves hoteliers time and prevents costly mistakes. The HotelTechAwards are grounded in over 100,000 data signals and verified reviews, so this isn’t just marketing—it’s a reflection of real-world performance. The best companies incorporate feedback by treating their customers as development partners. They don’t just solicit reviews; they actively analyze user data and host forums to understand pain points, ensuring that the platform evolves to meet the practical, on-the-ground needs of the modern hotelier.
The platform’s AI-driven insights for rate shopping and market intelligence were highly rated. Can you walk us through how a hotel manager might use a tool like this to make smarter pricing decisions in real time, especially when market conditions are unpredictable?
Absolutely. Let’s say a hotel manager in Miami starts her day. Instead of spending an hour manually checking a dozen competitor websites, she logs into her platform. The AI-powered dashboard immediately gives her a snapshot of the market, flagging that a competing hotel just dropped its weekend rates by 10%. At the same time, it highlights a sudden spike in flight searches to her city for an upcoming festival that wasn’t on her radar. The system can then recommend a strategic rate adjustment—perhaps holding firm on her weekend rates while offering a targeted package to capture that festival demand. It gives her the confidence to make quick, data-backed decisions and remain competitive, even in the volatile conditions that are so common today.
Little Hotelier was recognized as a top Hotel Management System for small accommodation providers. What are the unique challenges these smaller operators face, and how does an all-in-one system specifically address their need for both efficiency and growth?
Smaller operators are the heart of our industry, but they often wear every hat—front desk, revenue manager, marketer, and general manager. Their biggest challenge is a scarcity of time and resources. They can’t afford a complex, multi-system tech stack or a large team to manage it. An all-in-one system like Little Hotelier is their lifeline. It combines a property management system, channel manager, and booking engine into a single, intuitive interface. This means inventory is updated automatically across all channels, payments are processed seamlessly, and direct bookings can be taken through their own website. It solves their need for efficiency by automating the tedious administrative tasks, freeing them up to focus on creating unforgettable guest experiences, which is ultimately what drives growth and repeat business.
What is your forecast for the evolution of hotel guest acquisition technology over the next five years?
Over the next five years, guest acquisition will become hyper-personalized and deeply automated. We’re moving beyond just dynamic pricing toward dynamic everything. Imagine a hotel’s website that instantly customizes its imagery, text, and room packages based on a visitor’s past behavior or demographic data. AI will not only suggest the optimal rate but also automate the entire marketing funnel, from targeted ads on social media to personalized pre-arrival emails with curated local experiences. The ultimate goal will be to make the entire journey feel like a one-on-one conversation with each guest, driving higher-value direct bookings and fostering a level of loyalty that OTAs simply can’t replicate. The platforms that can unify all that data and automate those interactions will lead the industry.
