The NYU School of Professional Studies (NYU SPS) Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality and its Hospitality Innovation Hub (HI Hub), in collaboration with RateGain Travel Technologies Limited, and HEDNA released the second edition of its industry benchmark report, The State of Distribution 2025.
The report, based on insights from over 700 hotel brands and 21,000+ properties across 310 cities, the 2025 report presents one of the most comprehensive views into how commercial teams across the hospitality industry are navigating transformation.
The first edition of the report, launched last year, focused on understanding where distribution teams were headed. However, as most commercial teams have begun integrating revenue management, marketing, and distribution to drive greater efficiency and outcomes, the 2025 edition reflects this shift. Recognizing that distribution is no longer a standalone function but part of a broader commercial transformation, this year’s report explores how these functions are evolving. Furthermore, it captures how this growing collaboration is reshaping team priorities, core capabilities, and the technologies hotels depend on to compete.
The report highlights a widening gap between technological potential and operational readiness. While AI is increasingly shaping the guest journey across platforms, many hotel teams are still in the early stages of activating its full value. Technology itself is widely available, but consistent training, streamlined systems, and integrated workflows remain works in progress. Distribution teams are evolving, often with limited resources, and varying levels of investment in talent development and process automation.
As traveller expectations continue to rise, the ability to align people, processes, and platforms is emerging as a key driver of performance.
Key findings from The State of Distribution 2025 include:
- AI adoption remains early-stage: While interest in AI is growing, it currently ranks lower on investment priorities due to gaps in training, talent, and integration readiness. Surprisingly, technology spend is focusing on consolidation, not AI: large chains are attempting to cut tech spend by unifying systems. Investing in AI tools is at the bottom of priority for all hotels as fixing parity and ARI management continue to pose significant challenges, requiring manual efforts.
- Commercial strategies vary by scale: Independent hotels are expanding teams and actively testing new technologies, while larger chains are focusing on system consolidation and operational streamlining.
- Distribution functions are becoming leaner: Even as the complexity of managing parity, APIs, and content grows, distribution team structures continue to shift as it becomes more integrated.
- Reporting practices are still maturing: 80% of hotels spend up to two days a week on manual reporting, highlighting ongoing opportunities for better tools tailored to distribution analytics.
- System integration remains a focus area: Many hotels, regardless of size, are working to improve data connectivity and break down silos to enable more effective cross-functional collaboration.
Christopher Murdock, HEDNA President and Director of Distribution System Support and Strategy at Accor said: “When we launched the inaugural State of Distribution report, our goal was to close a critical blind spot with the absence of a central benchmarking report for the industry. The response to last year’s report validated the need and enabled us to double down on the effort. The findings should provide a clear business case for expertise and technology investments in distribution.”
Vanja Bogicevic, PhD, Clinical Associate Professor & Director, HI Hub Experiential Learning Lab, NYU SPS Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, said: “This year’s report reaffirms what we see every day: hotels are investing in technology, but without investing in people, progress stalls. The State of Distribution 2025 gives hoteliers and educators alike the data to act—spotlighting where training is falling short, where team structures are evolving, and which commercial skills matter most. It’s not just a benchmark for the industry; it’s a blueprint for developing the next generation of hospitality leaders.”
Ankit Chaturvedi, Vice President of Marketing at RateGain, said: “When we launched the survey, we did not expect such an overwhelming response to The State of Distribution. And with over 700 brands sharing their insights, it’s clear that the hospitality industry sees this report as a benchmark for making better commercial decisions.
As every hotel looks to adopt AI across different commercial functions, they first need a unified view of how marketing, revenue management, and distribution are evolving. That’s what this year’s edition aims to provide. Only when commercial leaders understand where each function stands—and how they’re converging—can they make decisions that drive alignment, efficiency, and impact across the entire guest journey.”
Fritz Müller, Senior Vicepresident of Revenue & Head of Europe at RateGain: “I’m genuinely thrilled about the launch of our State of Distribution 2025 report, because nothing beats unfiltered data to give us real insights into the industry’s challenges, differences and misconceptions. One finding stopped me cold: four in five hotels still spend days hand-building reports while AI sits dead last on their tech-spend wish-list—a statistic that looks backward at first glance. But think about it: until we fix the plumbing and plug the data leaks, even the flashiest algorithm, or AI, is just another shiny object that can’t move the revenue needle.”
The State of Distribution 2025 underscores that technology is essential but without investment in readiness, its potential remains underutilized. For hotels looking to scale, simplify, and stay ahead, success will depend on more than adoption. It will require integration, alignment, and action.
