Inntelo AI, a pioneering hospitality AI startup, has announced that renowned industry leader Tariq Valani has joined its founding team as Co-Founder & Chief Product Innovation Officer.
With more than 25 years of experience in hospitality technology, Valani (pictured) brings deep expertise in developing products that enhance guest experience and operational efficiency. His leadership will support Inntelo AI’s mission to help hospitality and real estate brands make better use of artificial intelligence.
Headquartered in London, Inntelo AI is building the first AI-native platform designed to unify guest experience, streamline operations, and deliver real-time personalisation at scale. It has combined four core systems into one powerful AI solution:
- AI Guest Experience – conversational and agentic AI to streamline communication between guests and hotel teams via WhatsApp, phone, voice and chat.
- AI Operations and Planning – automates housekeeping, maintenance and service tasks with predictive workflows.
- AI Personalisation & Upselling – generates new revenue with tailored offers and in-stay personalisation.
- AI Customer Data Platform – centralises guest profiles, first-party data, and loyalty insights.
The appointment of Tariq Valani, who joined Inntelo AI’s advisory board earlier this year, is a major development for a company only founded in 2024. He will be supporting the company’s release of its full platform as it comes out of stealth mode.
Valani most recently held a senior leadership role at Accor, where he consolidated their global technical support services and oversaw technology operations for more than 5,500 hotels across 43 brands and 117 countries. He has also held senior technology positions at Fairmont, Mövenpick, and Jumeirah, in addition to serving as a board member of HFTP, the organisers of HITEC, and being recognised as a leading voice in industry innovation.
Inntelo AI completed a pre-seed funding round earlier this year, backed by leading venture capital investors including Antler, Haatch, Look AI Ventures, and the British Business Bank. Its tech is now live across Europe and the Middle East, powering operations for hotels from boutique independents to multinational groups.
Asif Alidina (pictured above), Co-Founder and CEO of Inntelo AI, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Tariq as a co-founder. His arrival is a powerful validation of the product we’ve built and our vision. At Inntelo AI, we’re not adding another layer of tech; we’re re-engineering how hotels operate. Tariq’s experience in scaling enterprise systems is already accelerating our mission to deliver the next generation of intelligent, AI-native platforms that empower teams, transform operations, and redefine the guest experience.”
Valani added: “AI is set to completely transform hospitality technology as we know it. Legacy platforms that weren’t built with AI at their core won’t be able to keep pace with the demands of tomorrow’s operators and guests. The industry needs a unified, AI-native approach to replace the patchwork of fragmented tools that exist today.
“What excites me about Inntelo AI is not only the vision, but the tangible results they’ve already achieved, with over a year of live deployments delivering real-world impact and learnings. The pace of innovation here is extraordinary, and I’m thrilled to help accelerate the adoption of AI across hospitality and real estate. Together, we have the opportunity to set a new standard for the industry.”
As well as its pre-seed round, Inntelo AI successful 2025 has included launching the UK’s first agentic and conversational AI concierge in live hotel operations. The company has also been invited to join the prestigious Innovation Hubs at world-leading hospitality schools, including EHL in Switzerland and Hotelschool The Hague. In May 2025, Inntelo AI was awarded the Future Hospitality Summit Startup Award in Riyadh, further cementing its position as a global leader in AI innovation for hospitality.
