How Hotels Can Use AI to Drive ROI: Harmonizing Automation, Augmentation, and Analysis By Are Morch

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chatbots in hospitality industry

At the Leadership Summit, Sanjeev Shetty presents how robotics, AI, and video analytics can redefine the future of hospitality, especially in the senior living sector. Since the COVID-19 pandemic greatly disrupted traditional on-premise dining, online orders and mobile pick-ups have become a norm and will only grow faster in the coming years. According to the NPD group, full-service restaurant digital orders jump by 237% in 2021 and the majority of digital orders come from mobile apps. Read on to discover the concrete ways AI is shaping the future of hospitality—starting now. In this article, we’ll dive into 10 key examples backed by hard data, illustrating how AI is driving real-world success in the hospitality industry. IATA’s 2017 Global Passenger Survey indicated that roughly 64% of respondents supported the use of biometrics in airports to reduce check-in times, and U.S. airports began implementing the technology back in 2018 as part of the Simplified Arrival program.

chatbots in hospitality industry

Long-standing challenges such as overworked staff, outdated systems, and resistance to change have left many establishments struggling to keep pace with the dynamic hospitality landscape. In an era of rapid technological advancement and evolving consumer expectations, the hotel industry stands at a crossroads. Marriott’s Renaissance Hotels brand plans to expand its RENAI concierge service more widely in 2024, the company said, including to more than 20 properties globally by March. This will ChatGPT mean that there shouldn’t be a massive difference between your experience in a five-star hotel and a two-star hotel. There will be a reliable consistency that will allow you to get the most out of your stay, whatever your reason for being there. Before the internet, when you needed new sneakers, you would have stirred yourself from the couch, driven to the shops, gone from shop to shop trying on shoes, maybe having a snack, before driving back home with your purchase several hours later.

Focusing on the future of hospitality technology and digital transformation, our speakers, Sanjeev Shetty, President of SDS Ventures, and Daniel Iannucci, SHA’12, a Mid-Market Sales Leader at Toast, give us two examples of the impact of technology. In addition to mobile ordering, Point of Sale (POS) systems are also one of the top technologies to leverage in hospitality. Whether it’s dining in, curbside pick-up, or online orders, POS enables seamless, fast, and safe transactions that customers seek nowadays.

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Leveraging these cost reductions without compromising service quality, we’re forecasting more hotels and more vacation rentals in currently lesser-known locales. Robotics has been pivotal to the hospitality industry and it will continue to play a critical role in shaping the future. Service robots such as robot greeters, housekeeping robots, and cooking robots have become more and more common in restaurants and hotels. But hotels must also be keenly aware of the risks of AI technology on the guest experience.

One note is to use these AI assistants with care – as always, honest descriptions and imagery are necessary to create trust in your brand. As AI takes over more routine tasks, hotels are faced with the challenge of redefining roles for their human staff. The most successful properties will be those that find the right balance between AI efficiency and the irreplaceable human touch in hospitality. A luxury hotel that introduced AI voice assistants in its rooms reported a 30% reduction in routine service calls to the front desk, freeing up staff for more complex guest interactions. Additionally, guest satisfaction scores for room features and overall experience increased by 20%.

This technology enhances the security of guests and staff by enabling faster responses to potential threats. It is one of the most vital use cases of AI in hospitality that also adds a layer of proactive monitoring that can help prevent incidents before they escalate, thereby maintaining a safe and secure environment. Software powered by Artificial intelligence for hospitality can help adjust room environments like the climate, lighting, and multimedia settings to individual guest preferences, which are learned from past stays or specified during booking. This personalization helps activate preferred settings automatically upon check-in, ensuring that guests are welcomed into a room tailored exactly to their liking, thereby enhancing the overall guest experience and satisfaction.

AI – from buzz to practical implementations in hospitality

While many hotel managers pride their staff’s personal service, to the best of my knowledge, nobody books a particular hotel because of a great and personal check-in experience. Interestingly, most hotel managers think that, during this check-in experience, their front desk staff is selling the arriving guest a room upgrade at a cost. Typically a third will be restaurant bookings and the vast majority (90%+) do not require the concierge’s magic touch to get that table with the view. These are classic examples that should be automated, particularly with the wide level of adoption for Table Management Systems. At TRAVHOTECH we track over 150 business functions that deliver the hospitality experience.

chatbots in hospitality industry

The company is currently examining various options for a public market event, including an initial public offering or the establishment of a real estate investment trust (REIT), CEO of Red Sea Global, John Pagano, stated in an interview with Bloomberg. Even as he did not provide specifics on advisers, banks, or valuation, Pagano said the company is currently holding preliminary discussions with banks and stakeholders. He said the company plans to go public by 2026 or 2027, after the hotels have been in operation for around two years, with a proven record of occupancy, cash flow, and profitability. Data is the lifeblood of modern business, and AI’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data is one of its greatest strengths. Hotels collect enormous amounts of data, ranging from guest preferences to seasonal demand patterns.

A Generative AI strategy should encompass a plan not just for implementation but also for ongoing monitoring and optimization. This involves consistently reviewing the data and insights generated by the technology and making adjustments as needed. In merely 5 days last November, the Generative AI application ChatGPT reached one million users, a feat that took Facebook 10 months and Netflix 3.5 years to accomplish.

Let’s start first with the back-of-house operations, which are invisible to the guests, but make a huge contribution to service quality, efficiency and profitability. Many tasks in accounting, revenue management, inventory management, and marketing are automatable with intelligent automation software. Robotic vacuum cleaners, robots for cleaning windows and swimming pools, and robotic housekeeping carts could improve the efficiency of housekeepers. Conversational AI chatbots are transforming customer service by providing instant assistance to customers, enhancing customer satisfaction, and reducing operational costs for businesses. The tools are powered by advanced machine learning algorithms that enable them to handle a wide range of customer queries and offer personalized solutions, thus improving the overall customer experience. As more and more businesses adopt conversational AI chatbots, they are likely to become a key driver of customer engagement and loyalty in the future.

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HelloGBye claims that users can type, or vocally describe, complex travel requests involving one or more people into its messenger app and receive a chatbot response with a detailed flight and hotel itinerary in under 30 seconds. SnapTravel is a bot and hotel booking service that can be accessed to users through Facebook Messenger or SMS with no app download requirements. The bot is marketed to users looking to book cheap hotel deals, which the company receives from its roster of hotel partners, according to its FAQ. In the short to medium term, mobile automation gives hotels a way to get the most out of smaller teams. At its most basic level, automation can eliminate a lot of the repetitive busywork plaguing hotel employees and keeping them distracted from their guests. A mobile PMS can even automate housekeeping task management according to employee workload, ensuring work is done efficiently (without employee burnout).

  • The capability of artificial intelligence to do traditionally mortal tasks at any time of the day means that it’s getting more and more significant in the operation of the hostel assiduity.
  • BU School of Hospitality Administration’s alumnus, Daniel Iannucci, who is now a Mid-Market Sales Leader at Toast, shares how restaurants can leverage digital ordering systems with an example of The Melting Pot.
  • For starters, the messaging platform translates 100-plus languages in real time, allowing for response times reportedly averaging 90 seconds or less.
  • Your customers feel like you understand them, enhancing trust and loyalty and making them more likely to return to your hotel and recommend it to others.
  • This not only improved their profit margins but also enhanced their appeal to environmentally conscious travelers.

When users open the Mezi app, they are directed to a chat interface where they can send Mezi a message explaining where they are going and when. Mezi responds quickly, asking preference questions about hotel ratings, budget, and amenities. Mezi also claims to be an online concierge that users can chat with for trip recommendations, flight information, and hotel availability. As businesses weigh the potential benefits of implementing AI systems, hybrid AI examples demonstrate the technology’s practical value for businesses.

Enhanced customer engagement

This article explores the multifaceted impact of AI on hotels, emphasizing the need for new skills within the industry and illustrating how AI, coupled with Blue Ocean Strategies, can help hotels stand out in an increasingly competitive market. In this article, we’ll explore how AI is driving return on investment (ROI) for hotels by focusing on the three A’s—Automate, Augment, and Analyze. We will also conduct an assumption-implication analysis covering risk-return assessments, target customers, and business scope. At times, the computer program would become stuck due to the lack of suitable words fitting the pattern. In the meantime, interest in chatbots began to rise as a result of technological advancement in chatbot design that passed in 2016.

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With e-commerce you could stay on the sofa, go online, choose your shoes and have them delivered. After you express interest in one of the suggested jeans, the chatbot takes the opportunity to cross-sell by recommending a matching belt or a pair of shoes that would complement the jeans. The chatbot may also offer an upsell chatbots in hospitality industry by suggesting a premium version of the jeans with additional features or a higher-end brand. With AI handling sensitive guest information, ensuring robust data privacy and security is crucial to maintaining trust. According to Crunchbase, the company has received $9.2 million in Seed Round and Series A funding.

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To put the information you have in hand to use on your hotel’s behalf, you must sort, organize, cleanse, parse, and then transform it into something usable by human beings. In other words, you must find a way to eliminate inaccurate or duplicated data, organize it so that it all makes sense, and then put ChatGPT App it into a format that human beings can digest, such as charts and graphs. For context, let’s go back in time two decades to the rise of the OTAs such as Booking, Expedia, Priceline, and Agoda. In the pre-dotcom era, travel guides, magazines and TAs significantly shaped any consumer’s destination choices.

chatbots in hospitality industry

The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technology will enable a network of devices to communicate and operate together, making hotel rooms smarter. For example, IoT can adjust room lighting, temperature, and even window shades automatically based on guest preferences that have been learned with the help of AI. The amalgamation of IoT and artificial intelligence in the hospitality industry will help in enhancing the overall comfort without guest intervention. Advanced language models can enhance multilingual support, improving communication for a diverse range of clients. In addition to this, Generative AI in the hospitality industry will also be beneficial in creating personalized travel content and guides, enhancing the guest experience by making every aspect of their stay uniquely tailored.

This AI integration delivers information efficiently and modernizes guest interaction, making it more engaging and responsive to individual needs. AI software can help hotels manage their inventory more effectively by predicting future demand based on historical data, seasonal trends, and upcoming bookings. This reduces waste and ensures that resources like food and beverages, linens, and toiletries are available exactly when and where they are needed, improving operational efficiency and reducing unnecessary expenditures. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Marriott International utilizes AI chatbots on platforms like Facebook Messenger and Slack to offer instant responses to guest inquiries. These bots streamline the booking process and provide local travel tips, ensuring guests have a smooth and enjoyable experience from booking to stay.

The collaboration aims to simplify the data analysis process for hotel industry professionals, offering them an efficient tool to make informed, data-driven decisions. The Amadeus Advisor chatbot builds on the strategic partnership formed in 2021 between Amadeus and Microsoft to foster innovation across the travel sector. For example, by tracking hotel booking patterns and guest preferences, AI has the power to optimize room assignments and tailor services to individual needs, making each stay a personalized experience. In conclusion, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the hospitality sector represents a paradigm shift, not just in operational efficiencies and guest services, but also in shaping future industry standards. By systematically addressing these stages, hotels not only enhance their current operations but also lay a solid foundation for future advancements. This proactive approach ensures that hotels remain competitive in a rapidly evolving industry, continually improving their service offerings and operational efficiencies through the strategic use of AI.