Beyond the Booth: HITEC 2025 with RealTime Reservation’s Shawn Tarter

The dojo.live show / Interviews with Visionaries Shaping Travel Tech

How can hotels unlock the full potential of ancillary revenue through smarter guest journey orchestration?

In this episode of dojo.live, we welcome Shawn Tarter, Founder and CEO of RealTime Reservation, for a practical conversation on optimizing the guest journey through unified ancillary service management. As travelers demand more personalized, seamless experiences—from spa and cabana bookings to parking and dining—Shawn shares key trends emerging from real booking data and how hospitality tech must evolve to meet rising expectations.

We explore how RealTime Reservation is helping hotels connect the dots across departments, channels, and touchpoints, and why booking behavior (mobile, kiosk, in-room, pre-arrival) is shaping the future of guest experience design. Shawn also highlights new partnerships launching at HITEC and where he sees the next wave of innovation for driving ancillary revenue and loyalty in a competitive market.

About Shawn Tarter

Shawn Tarter is the Founder and CEO of RealTime Reservation, a leading provider of real-time ancillary revenue software for the hospitality and travel industry. Based in New York, RealTime Reservation streamlines hotel operations while enhancing the guest experience, creating efficiencies that drive client satisfaction, loyalty, and additional revenue streams. The company serves all major global hotel brands, such as The Ritz Carlton, St. Regis, Four Seasons, and Baha Mar among others.

Shawn’s journey into hospitality technology began with a personal experience as a hotel guest. With a background in finance software and a passion for automation, he set out to develop a seamless, user-friendly solution for hotels. Under his leadership, RealTime Reservation continues to revolutionize the hospitality industry, helping hotels increase revenue, and optimize their operations, all while delivering an exceptional guest experience.