More than half of hotels use AI to price rooms, but only 1 in 10 would rely on it for most decisions, RoomPriceGenie finds
New research finds hotels adopting AI faster than they trust it, while nearly half struggle to hire the revenue expertise they need.
More than half of hotels, 53%, now use artificial intelligence to help set room prices, but just 10% would trust it enough to make most pricing decisions on its own, according to new research from revenue management system company RoomPriceGenie.
The findings come from RoomPriceGenie’s 2026 State of Revenue Management Report, based on a survey of 450 senior revenue decision-makers across the UK, US, Canada, Mexico, DACH, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. The research points to a revenue management industry that is growing more sophisticated, with clear opportunities for improvement around trust, time and expertise.
Most hotels keep a human in the loop on AI pricing decisions
AI adoption in revenue management is already widespread. 53% of hoteliers already use it to support pricing decisions, including 16% who use it extensively, and a further 35% are piloting or considering it. Just 11% aren’t considering it at all.
Yet adoption has moved faster than hoteliers’ willingness to hand over control. While 77% say they trust AI to at least some degree, only 10% would let it make most pricing decisions, and most still check its AI recommendations by hand before acting on them. The next challenge for AI in revenue management is explaining itself well enough that hoteliers feel confident acting on it.
Four in ten hotels still have no real system behind their pricing
At the same time, a significant share of the industry remains at the other end of the technology spectrum. 43% of hotels surveyed still do not have a revenue management system, pricing their rooms either manually based on instinct or fixed seasonal rates (14%), or using spreadsheets with limited automation (29%).
Access to good information remains another challenge. Demand forecasts are rated the most influential input on pricing decisions (52% call them very influential), closely followed by competitor rates (51%). Yet only 30% of hoteliers say gathering the pricing information they need is quick or easy. That rises to 47% among hotels with an established revenue management system and strategy, pointing to a real opportunity for hotels earlier in their revenue management journey.
Hotels value revenue management, but pricing decisions sit across multiple roles
85% of hoteliers agree that revenue management is essential to profitability, and a similar share say a dedicated revenue management role is at least somewhat essential to their business, including 58% who call it very or absolutely essential. Yet pricing decisions rarely rest with a dedicated role alone: only 24% give a dedicated revenue manager primary responsibility for pricing. For many hotels, pricing still sits with general managers and owners alongside their wider responsibilities.
Property size plays a major role in when specialist expertise becomes viable. Hotels become significantly more likely to employ dedicated revenue expertise once they pass 50 rooms, with the median hotel making that hire at 146 rooms.
Nearly half of hotels struggle to find revenue management talent
Hiring that expertise presents another challenge. Nearly half (47%) of hoteliers say they struggle to find qualified candidates for revenue management roles, even as 70% believe expertise in the field is growing across the industry as a whole. The tension is particularly pronounced in DACH, where 66% report recruitment difficulties, and Canada, at 56%.
Chas Scarantino, CEO of RoomPriceGenie, said: “Margins are tighter than they’ve been in years, and guests compare dozens of options before they book, so a wrong price costs real money, fast. Our research shows that hoteliers see the value of better revenue management, but many are still trying to do more with limited time and expertise. AI has huge potential to help, but adoption alone isn’t enough. Hoteliers need to understand why a price is being recommended, make sure it fits their strategy, and feel confident acting on it. The opportunity is to give every hotel access to sophisticated revenue management without requiring a specialist behind every pricing decision.”
The full 2026 State of Revenue Management Report, including regional breakdowns and further findings on pricing strategy, leadership and technology adoption, is available at https://roompricegenie.com/state-of-revenue-management-2026.
