In Brief: The 2026 SiteMinder Partner Awards recognize hotel technology partners that have demonstrated effective use of artificial intelligence to enhance hotel operations and guest services, underscoring AI’s expanding role in hospitality sector innovation.
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2026 SiteMinder Partner Awards Honour the Innovators Putting AI to Work for Hotels – Image Credit SiteMinder
The AI conversation within the hotel industry has shifted from hype to results, the 2026 SiteMinder Partner Awards, held Tuesday in London, has revealed. The annual awards program, hosted by SiteMinder, the world’s leading hotel commerce platform, honoured 12 hotel technologists and advisors from around the world who had turned AI into measurable impact for the world’s hotels over the past year.
Among the recipients was US-headquartered GuestCentric, which took home the top prize in the new ‘AI Innovation Partner of the Year’ category for Melissa AI, an assistant that answered guest questions and built tailored stays in real-time. Guest interactions with the assistant had lifted average direct booking value by 38% across more than 300 properties. Other winners represented the areas of distribution, operations and guest engagement, each showing how AI and automation were helping hotels act on opportunities as quickly as they appeared.
“We introduced a category dedicated entirely to AI use this year to recognise how quickly the technology and automation had become part of practical hospitality technology. The entrants showed real breadth, from guest-facing assistants and conversational data tools to revenue intelligence, dynamic inventory and operational automation. What stood out most was that AI was not presented as an end in itself; it was connected to hotel data and workflows to help teams make better decisions, reduce repetitive work and improve the guest experience. Several entrants also described how human oversight continued to be an important part of using AI responsibly,” said James Bishop, Vice President of Ecosystem and Strategic Partnerships at SiteMinder and a judge of this year’s awards.
Fellow judge Lisa Murphy, President of HEDNA, said, “There has understandably been a lot of discussion around AI and automation, and it remains hard for hoteliers to know what’s meaningful versus noise. These awards help demystify all of that by recognising results rather than promises. Every winner this year could point to real outcomes. Just as encouraging is how accessible that impact is becoming.”
The winners of the 2026 SiteMinder Partner Awards are:
Excellence Awards
AI Innovation Partner of the Year: GuestCentric, for Melissa AI, which also generated 40% of ancillary add-on sales across more than 300 properties.
Revenue Partner of the Year: Journeytok, for its combined CRM and guest communications solution, which automated up to 90% of repetitive guest journey tasks across more than 500 hotels in Europe and Latin America.
Hoteliers’ Choice Partner of the Year: HotelMinder, for launching Lobby, a vetted network of more than 100 hospitality consultants giving independent hotels on-demand expertise.
Rising Star Partner of the Year: ZHA Hospitality Holdings, which opened up new distribution opportunities for more than 180 hotels in its first 18 months in the ecosystem.
Performance Awards
Expert Partner of the Year (Americas): Swiss Hotelier
Expert Partner of the Year (ANZ): DigiStay
Expert Partner of the Year (Asia): Tom Inn Group
Expert Partner of the Year (EMEA): TrevPAR World
PMS Partner of the Year: 3RPMS
App Partner of the Year: Welcome Pickups
Distribution Partner of the Year: Nuitée
Reseller Partner of the Year: Noovy
Commenting on the win, Pedro Colaco, CEO at GuestCentric, said, “Independent hotels have always had to compete for direct bookings against bigger brands with bigger teams, and Melissa AI helps to level that playing field. This recognition confirms what our hotels have been telling us: when AI can build a guest’s stay and guide them through to booking, not just answer their questions, direct bookings grow.”
The SiteMinder Partner Awards are open to the more than 3,000 hotel technology providers and consultants that partner with SiteMinder to form the largest ecosystem within the hotel industry. They remain the only global recognition platform to celebrate the roles that power hotels from behind the scenes.
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About SiteMinder
SiteMinder Limited (ASX:SDR) is the name behind SiteMinder, the world’s leading hotel commerce platform, and Little Hotelier, an all-in-one hotel management software that makes the lives of small accommodation providers easier. The global company is headquartered in Sydney with offices in Bangkok, Barcelona, Berlin, Dallas, Galway, London, Manila, Mexico City and Pune. Through its technology and the largest partner ecosystem in the global hotel industry, SiteMinder generates more than 140 million reservations worth over A$85 billion in revenue for its hotel customers each year. For more information, visit siteminder.com.