Perhaps you’ve wondered how hoteliers are using AI to make their operation better; after all, the efficiency of a hotel property or venue trickles down to its guests in the form of a more positive experience.
In a recent white paper by AI-powered hospitality communication platform HiJiffy, “Where Is the Line?: Balancing the Human Touch and AI Tech in Hospitality,” hotel staff already using AI, industry experts, hospitality brands and nearly 16 million guest messages provide insight into the reception and effectiveness of AI in the hospitality industry and how they would like to see it perform in the future.
How Hotel Staff Are Using AI
Just a couple of years ago, the conversation around AI involved how industries across the world would be using it, if they would use it at all. Today, the conversation is different. Hotel staff are actively using AI to streamline operations. In the survey, 86% of hotel staff said AI has helped them save time by taking repetitive tasks off their plate.
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Diving deeper into those repetitive tasks, the top three situations in which respondents use AI are:
26.9%—Answering FAQs and providing general information
According to the survey, these common guest questions included questions about parking, check-in and check-out times, or amenities like restaurants and spas.
23.1%—Administrative and operational processes
Tasks such as processing check-ins, creating invoices and updating guest room records, referred to as “major time drains.”
19.2%—Post-booking guest communications
Referenced as “hard to scale manually,” respondents pointed to the difficulty of managing post-booking guest communications, such as answering follow-up questions, offering upsells and collecting feedback.
Understanding the FAQs
What are guests asking, and at what time of day? HiJiffy analyzed nearly 11 million pre-booking and 5.2 million in-stay enquiries to find out.
Understandably, the questions posed by guests before arrival are focused on logistics and planning. The top 10 categories of questions guests ask about before arriving are:
- Check-in
- Parking
- Contacts
- Breakfast
- Meal plans
- Transfers and shuttle/pick-up service
- Restaurants
- Check-out
- Discounts, offers and partnerships
- Spa and wellness
Once guests arrive, their priorities shift, from preparation-related questions to more immediate requests. Although many of the previous requests have remained in the top 10, their order of importance has changed:
- Check-in
- Contacts
- Parking
- Check-out
- Transfer and shuttle/pick-up service
- Restaurants
- Manage booking
- Book a table
- Breakfast
- Spa and wellness
What AI Shouldn’t Handle
Although the efficiency of AI has eased the burden of tedious tasks, efficiency isn’t all there is to creating an exceptional guest experience. In the survey, hospitality professionals were asked which tasks they believe require a personal touch. The top three are:
21.2%—Special requests and exceptions
17.3%—Contact at arrival or departure
13.5%—Personal interactions
The Future of AI
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We are at the beginning stage of AI implementation in hospitality. Staff members, from entry-level to corporate employees, are still trying to figure out the current iterations of this new tech. Using it now gives its users an understanding of ways it can improve, as well as their top priorities for future AI support. The top three ideas respondents envision for the future of AI use are:
23.1%—Admin and reporting
Already mentioned as one of the top uses of AI, it remains an area where a hotel or venue’s staff wants to see more assistance. According to the report, respondents emphasized the need for AI to “not just execute tasks, but help make sense of the data behind them.”
15.4%—Guest communications
Going beyond just time savings, hotel operators are looking forward to AI use in hospitality that is more personalized and can have emotionally intelligent communication with guests, moving away from generic to meaningful messages.
11.5%—Reservations and bookings
Respondents are looking to AI to create fair opportunities to secure direct bookings. The survey pointed to independent hotels that see AI as a helper in their competition with hotel chains and online travel agencies. As the survey reads, “As AI becomes more accessible, hotels of all sizes can use advanced tools—from real-time pricing to smart marketing automation—to compete more effectively and build direct relationships with guests.”
