What ALIS Revealed About the Future of Women in Hospitality Leadership

At ALIS 2026, the “Meet the Future” session paired Wyndham Hotels & Resorts President and CEO Geoff Ballotti with Mehr Consultancy CEO Harmeet Mann for a conversation that became something rarer than most conference programming: an honest look at what it actually takes to build space for women in hospitality leadership.

What unfolded was a blueprint for how women are building new pathways in the industry.

Harmeet on stage with Geoff Ballotti

The Pipeline Problem, and What's Working

Ballotti opened with numbers from Wyndham's Women Own the Room program: 60 hotels now operating under women's ownership, with 120 more under executed franchise agreements. Three of those 60 are managed by Mehr Consultancy, a woman-led management firm.

But Harmeet immediately pushed past the metrics to address the structural issue underneath. “Women are great operators,” she said, “but they may not always have the same opportunities, the same connections, the same networking muscle development that their male colleagues have.”

This isn't about capability. Research consistently shows companies with better gender balance in leadership outperform those without. The gap is access—to capital, to networks, to the rooms where development deals get made.

Programs and platforms like Women Own the Room, Women in Hospitality Leadership Alliance, Female Founders in Hospitality, and AAHOA HerOwnership address that gap directly. “When we support women in business, everybody wins,” Harmeet said. “Not just women. Everyone.”

Building a Company That Looks Different

When Ballotti asked what sets Mehr Consultancy apart, Harmeet's answer revealed how women-led firms often operate from different assumptions.

She described supporting general managers this way: “More than motivating them, I think we do a really good job of supporting our general managers.”

It's a subtle reframe that signals something bigger. Mehr Consultancy uses technology and standardization to handle procurement, hiring support, and QA preparation—freeing GMs to focus on building relationships with teams and guests.

Her approach to accountability reflects this philosophy: “We don't grill our general manager and say, where did you go wrong? Because if they went wrong, it's actually because we went wrong.”

It's support as a strategy, with accountability flowing from leadership rather than blame flowing down.

The Nuance Brands Are Missing

Sitting at the intersection of ownership and operations, Harmeet didn't pull punches when discussing what brands could do differently. Her message: get more nuanced.

Not every market needs the same experiential elements. Flexibility on PIPs and brand standards in markets where they don't move the needle lets owners reinvest in what actually improves guest experience.

“At the end of the day, ownership priority is profitability,” she said. “Nobody is doing this because it's so fun. It is fun—but not enough to willingly do it at a loss.”

The Partnership That Makes it Possible

The session closed with Ballotti asking about the partnership between Harmeet and her husband Manjot—he handles operations and numbers while she manages external relationships and business development.

Harmeet described how they structured their roles based on personality and strengths rather than default expectations. “He's more of an introvert, I'm more of an extrovert. He saw that, and said, ‘OK, this is where she's going to excel, and I'm going to excel in the operations and the numbers.’”

She added with a smile: “I got really lucky—and trained very well—to have a husband who takes care of the kids alongside me and is a supportive partner and a present parent.” The “trained very well” got laughs, but the point was genuine: successful partnerships require intention and negotiation about who does what.

She closed with a statement that resonated deeply: “Women need to be cherished. The more they are, the better for our society.”

What Leadership Actually Looks Like

The Meet the Future session worked because it wasn't aspirational. Harmeet Mann isn't the future of women's leadership in hospitality—she's the present. She's managing nearly 40 properties across multiple major brands. She's profitable even while charging lower fees. She's building a company culture that prioritizes support over motivation, accountability over blame, and accessibility over hierarchy.

And she's doing it while raising two kids with a partner who is competent at home so she can be on conference stages having these conversations.

That's what it looks like when women stop waiting for permission to lead and start building the companies, the partnerships, and the industry structures that reflect how they actually want to work.

Based on the reaction at ALIS 2026, the industry is hungry for this model.