Mitel Hospitality Investment Guide for the US

Labor shortages, rising costs, and guest expectations that have outpaced most properties' digital service: US hospitality operators are clear-eyed about all three. Frost & Sullivan research commissioned by Mitel finds US operators carrying the highest rate of outdated communications infrastructure of any market studied, 53%, fifteen points above average. The challenges aren't the mystery. The sequencing is.

This guide sets out five investment decisions, in the order US operators should make them, moving from infrastructure through automation, compliance, AI, and partner selection.

Why This Guide Matters:

• Infrastructure first, always: See why 53% of US operators cite outdated systems as a significant challenge, and why AI and automation projects underdeliver when built on top of it.
• Where automation shows up to guests: Understand why 49% of operators report automation gaps tied to workflow events, and which manual handoffs cost the most in guest-visible latency.
• Federal compliance as a platform requirement: Learn what Kari's Law and Ray Baum's Act require, and why remediating after platform selection typically costs more than evaluating for it upfront.
• AI as staff enablement: See why only 14% of US operators, the lowest rate studied, expect AI to cut costs, and how to build a business case around service quality instead.

What You'll Learn:

1. Modernize infrastructure before building on it. Why every new tool inherits the reliability and integration limits of the platform underneath it.
2. Automate the workflows guests notice. Where manual coordination adds the most latency, and how to target automation at that specific gap.
3. Build Kari's Law and Ray Baum's Act compliance into platform selection. Why this needs to be an architecture-level commitment, not a post-deployment task.
4. Frame AI as staff enablement. Why positioning AI purely as a cost cutter underperforms in US procurement conversations, and what resonates instead.
5. Lead with reliability and deployment flexibility. Why both are must-haves for most US operators, at rates higher than any other market in the study.

Ready to map this to your properties?

Mitel works with hospitality IT teams across the US to assess communications infrastructure gaps, map federal compliance requirements, and build a communications modernization plan that maintains operational continuity throughout.

Visit mitel.com/solutions/industry/hospitality to speak with a Mitel hospitality specialist.

Data source: Frost & Sullivan proprietary survey, 2026. US n=65. Survey conducted across France, Germany, the UK, and the United States. Commissioned by Mitel.

Want the full global view? Download the complete guide today.

The full four-market comparison is available here: Frost & Sullivan Connected Hospitality vBook