Bill Fanning, chief revenue officer (CRO) for the open cloud-based property management system Stayntouch, spoke to LODGING at HITEC 2025 shortly after his company was recognized as Hotel PMS of the Year by TravelTech, an independent market intelligence organization that evaluates and recognizes standout travel technology companies, products, and services. At that time, he commented on his thoughts on driving excellence and innovation, including with AI, and offered a preview of upcoming product introductions.
According to Fanning, innovation is business as usual for Stayntouch, whose platform was the first mobile-based property management system (PMS) when it was developed some 10 years ago. “It was based on the idea of making sure we had the best experience from the guest journey perspective. We made its interface intuitive enough to allow for fast adoption with fewer training hours, but complex enough to drive a really complex business on the back end,” he explained.
He said his company remains “best of breed” by doing what it does best—driving top-line revenue and managing costs from a hotel perspective—while staying in its own lane. “We’re not trying to build all kinds of other ancillary systems. We lean on our integrations. We manage over 1,200 of them tightly, seamlessly. And our open API structure offers the flexibility to grow and integrate with evolving tech strategies, so we can provide a seamless integration experience to any partner we bring into this ecosystem.”
Going forward, part of Stayntouch’s effort to “stay ahead of the curve” in terms of innovation involves taking a thoughtful approach to AI, rather than “launching a whole bunch of stuff to see if we get adoption,” he said. Fanning expects AI to be especially useful in facilitating companies’ speed to market with less research than in the past, and said AI is already being used internally by its clients for better sales support, for example, with an AI tool called Staircase. However, he noted, when it comes to using AI to benefit guests, there are more nuances to consider. “We’re putting a lot of time thinking about AI and figuring out the right way to develop software to solve real problems. We need to understand exactly how our interactions are going with our customers.”
Regarding upcoming product introductions, some of which will be AI-assisted, Fanning said, “We’re really trying to be deliberate about how we launch.” Stayntouch plans to make announcements later this summer about solutions related to predictive analysis about rates, communicating with a virtual hotel assistant, and what Fanning called “AI-enabled solutions from pre-check in to check-in to check-out.”
According to TravelTech, its annual TravelTech Breakthrough Awards—such as the one received by Stayntouch this year for its PMS system—“recognize global innovators transforming the travel tech landscape through one of the industry’s most comprehensive evaluations of breakthrough solutions.” Regarding the selection of Stayntouch as Hotel PMS of the Year, TravelTech’s managing director said, “Stayntouch’s solution is full-featured, flexible, and refreshingly easy-to-use. By empowering hotel operators, staff, and guests alike, Stayntouch is providing the next level of hotel management that combines hospitality excellence with modern technology.”
