RBS, a hospitality software company based in St. Louis, Missouri, announced on April 27, 2026 that it had acquired Zeko, an AI guest engagement platform for hotels headquartered in New Delhi. Terms were not disclosed.
RBS said Zeko's features would be built into its own platform and connected to its systems for hotels, resorts, food and beverage operations and retail. The company plans to roll the product out to thousands of properties. RBS said the deal strengthened its guest experience tools as it builds a single platform meant to simplify operations and drive revenue across hospitality businesses.
The announcement did not say what role Zeko's founder and chief executive, Manit Deep Prashar, would take after the deal.
What Zeko built
Zeko automates a hotel's contact with guests from before arrival until checkout. Its tools include AI-driven upselling, WhatsApp automation, digital check-in and a real-time concierge. It runs alongside a hotel's existing property management system rather than replacing it.
The company serves hotels, resorts and vacation properties. RBS said hotels using Zeko had reported revenue increases of up to 20% from guest engagement and ancillary sales, a figure the companies did not break down.
Prashar said Zeko was built to close the gap between guests' rising expectations and the operational complexity of running a hotel, and that the combined company would help operators automate routine work and find new sources of revenue. Umesh Sharma was Zeko's vice president of growth.
RBS described Zeko as a single layer that is easy to deploy, built by people who had worked in hotel operations. Its website is zeko.tech.
“Joining forces with RBS enables us to scale our guest engagement platform across thousands of properties globally.”
Why RBS is buying
RBS, short for Romeo Bravo Software, sells software to more than 4,800 properties in over 35 countries, including hotels, resorts, ranches, lodges, outfitters, restaurants and retail businesses. Its products include YellowStone, a system for ranches, lodges and outfitters; WinCloud, a cloud-based hotel management system; and Hashmato, a platform for restaurants, foodservice and retail.
Chief executive Glenn Turner said the guest experience is where hospitality businesses win or lose, and that Zeko gives operators a layer that engages guests from the moment they book to the moment they check out. RBS said it treats AI as a core capability across its products rather than a standalone feature, and expects the deal to raise ancillary revenue, reduce staff workload and personalise guest experiences across its property types.
RBS said its products are meant to replace patchworks of separate systems with one AI-enabled platform. With Zeko, it expects to offer guest-facing tools not only to hotels and resorts but also to the ranches, lodges, outfitters, restaurants and retail businesses that already use its software. Turner said adding the capability was a meaningful step for the operators RBS serves.
The second AI deal for RBS this year
Zeko was not RBS's first AI purchase of 2026. On February 24 the company announced it had acquired Retvens, a hospitality revenue management firm that uses AI for pricing, forecasting and distribution and runs a platform called KnowMyHotel. Those terms were not disclosed either.
Guest messaging tools have attracted buyers before. In 2019 the customer experience company Medallia bought Zingle, a hotel guest engagement company, for $42 million.
Retvens added pricing and revenue management to the RBS product line, and Zeko adds messaging with guests before and during their stay. Venture Intelligence and Hotel Management Network reported the Zeko deal the following day, April 28, also without a price.
The founders and the funding
Zeko was founded in 2023, according to Inc42's company database, which lists it as a seed-stage travel tech startup offering an end-to-end guest interaction platform. Inc42 gives Chandigarh as its base, while Venture Intelligence reported the company as headquartered in New Delhi.
No funding amount or named investors were reported for Zeko, and RBS did not disclose the price it paid.
