LAS VEGAS—The American Hotel & Lodging Association announced its 2023 General Managers of the Year, TechOvation, and Technology Acceleration Award winners during presentations at The Hospitality Show at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.
AHLA’s 2023 General Managers of the Year are:
- Travelodge by Wyndham Memphis General Manager Harold Daniels, AHLA General Manager of the Year—Select-Service Property
- Embassy Suites by Hilton Minneapolis Airport General Manager Katie Ward, AHLA General Manager of the Year—Full-Service Property
- Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa General Manager Brian Kramer, AHLA General Manager of the Year—Resort Property
- Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa Managing Director Chris Sommers, AHLA General Manager of the Year—Independent Property
- SpringHill Suites by Marriott Orange Beach General Manager Michelle Davis, AHLA General Manager of the Year—Extended-Stay Property
- Hyatt Regency New Orleans General Manager Michael O’Keith Smith, AHLA General Manager Lifetime Achievement Award
General managers received their awards during the General Managers Summit at The Hospitality Show. The event will be held annually and bring together hotel GMs from across the country to hear from expert speakers, share best practices, network, and celebrate the industry’s GMs via an awards ceremony.
AHLA and its technology committee, HTNG, announced that PolyAI is the winner of the annual TechOvation Award for its guest-led voice assistants, which use conversational AI to understand and respond to common guest requests. The TechOvation award recognizes significant recent innovations in hospitality technology. Judges and members of The Hospitality Show audience picked this year’s winner from ten semifinalists who presented their products to The Hospitality Show attendees.
AHLA and HTNG also named the following winners of the inaugural Technology Acceleration Award:
- Actabl
- Agilysys
- Belmond
- BOUNTE, INC.
- BluIP
- Clairvoyix
- Directful
- Hapi
- Instio Expericences, Pvt Ltd
- iOpen Innovations
- Logistics
- Phonesuite
- TigerTMS
- TipQwik
- Visual Matrix
Each year, the AHLA Technology Acceleration Award will recognize companies that have taken steps to advance innovation in hospitality. This year, the award showed companies that have adopted HTNG Express, a solution that shortens the process for post-booking hotel property management system integrations from months to days.
“These esteemed winners represent some of hospitality’s brightest stars and most innovative companies,” said AHLA President and CEO Chip Rogers. “The Hospitality Show provides an ideal forum in which to recognize the individuals and organizations who embody excellence in hospitality service and ingenuity. We look forward to recognizing America’s top hotel GMs and technology innovators again next year at The Hospitality Show 2024 in San Antonio.”
Next year, AHLA’s General Manager of the Year, TechOvation, and Technology Acceleration Award winners will be announced at The Hospitality Show 2024, which will be held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio Monday, October 28, 2024, through Wednesday, October 30, 2024.
