Infinite Hospitality: How Tech is Driving The Era of Property Convergence

The once rigid lines that separated hotels, serviced apartments, short-term rentals, and extended stays are today blurrier than ever. Guests now move fluidly between these formats, expecting consistent, digital-first experiences and flexibility regardless of accommodation type. This convergence – of property types, lengths of stay, guest segments, and operating models – has given rise to the concept of “infinite hospitality”.

Multiple forces are driving this shift, including labour shortages and rising operational costs. But the most significant factor is the changing expectations of guests. Today’s travellers mix business and leisure, book at short notice, stay longer, and want greater control over their experience. In response, many operators are blending their offerings. However, not all systems are equipped to support the growing complexity of use cases – which is exactly the challenge Numa Group, Europe’s leading fully digitalised hospitality platform, set out to solve with Apaleo.

Tech agility underpins the ability to capitalise on convergence

Technological agility is now essential to meeting guest needs that span multiple stay types and service levels. Operators need open, adaptable tech stacks that integrate with best-of-breed tools and support a variety of stays. This thinking led Numa to adopt an open, headless infrastructure, selecting an API-first, cloud-native property management platform like Apaleo to support its operational model. The flexible architecture underpins all key aspects of operations – from onboarding and distribution to housekeeping, guest communication, and payments. It allows Numa to operate consistently across different segments, layering additional services as needed – from fully contactless stays in budget brands to high-touch experiences in premium properties – all on one core infrastructure.

Beyond efficiency, this adaptability enables rapid, scalable growth. Since adopting Apaleo, Numa Group has grown to nearly 9,000 units in 36 leading European cities across 15 countries in just five years, achieving 100% year-on-year revenue growth in 2024.

Onboarding new properties – such as the upscale hospitality brand Native Places and its more than 800 UK units – took days rather than months. With a flexible infrastructure, Numa could deliver a high-end guest experience, alongside other segments in the portfolio, without a complete system overhaul. Achieving this level of speed and flexibility would have been close to impossible with closed, all-in-one systems.

Meeting diverse guest needs with agent-led automation

Cost control and lean operations are critical in making convergence work – but not at the expense of guest service. At Numa, over 80% of workflows across housekeeping, maintenance and guest communications are automated, supporting a 60% reduction in operating costs.

AI Agent-led automation helps increase satisfaction and contributes to consistently high review scores. At Numa, 65% of all guest communication is managed by AI-driven agents, delivering instant, 24/7 support with consistent quality. The impact goes beyond reservations: Numa’s AI agent reads and processes all incoming reservation emails, automatically generating quotes. This has resulted in a 70% reduction in workload for the reservation team and a 90% improvement in response time, ensuring guests receive answers almost instantly.

AI-driven automation is also used for proactive issue detection through review and feedback analysis, enabling instant resolution, streamlined communication, and smarter operations such as optimised room assignments and flexible check-in.

In the era of hospitality convergence, adopting technologies like AI is essential, but success depends on open systems that enable seamless integration into daily operations.

AI as a profitability engine

At Numa, AI supports agent-led automation and data-informed decision-making. Sentiment analysis of guest reviews helps guide targeted investments, such as air conditioning upgrades, leading to improved satisfaction scores and higher ADR. In housekeeping, image recognition identifies whether kitchens were used, avoiding unnecessary cleaning and saving hundreds of thousands annually. A/B testing of features like room colour schemes allows data to shape design choices. These examples show how AI, when integrated into operations, can move beyond automation and cost reduction to drive long-term value.

In the context of convergence, operators who haven’t yet begun automating are already falling behind. Seemingly marginal efficiency gains can compound significantly–every 0.1% improvement directly impacts the bottom line. The good news is that making the shift is easier than it may seem. Open, cloud-based platforms require low upfront investment and deliver immediate returns. Their strength lies in the ability to integrate and adapt a wide range of technologies within a single core infrastructure. This kind of flexibility is becoming essential to meet evolving guest expectations and operational needs.

Convergence brings both risk and opportunity. Now is the time for operators to take a hard look at whether their technology can support the complexity, speed, and flexibility that this shift demands.