How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Hospitality

If you have any knowledge of the hospitality industry, then you are probably aware that great hospitality experiences can lead to guest loyalty, which in turn results in recommendations and revenues. Large businesses in the industry obviously possess more performance and customer data that they can use to their advantage, but small operations usually find it a challenge to maximize revenue, reputation and their customer experience. All of this is changing, thanks to artificial intelligence. This technology has also shown its ability to provide valuable insights, streamline processes and optimize different experiences.

Therefore, it is not surprising that artificial intelligence has had its impact on the hospitality industry and is leading to guest-centric and responsive hospitality. How is it doing so? Let’s take a look:

• Personalization

Offering personalized experiences is key to boosting loyalty and revenue and hospitality has been working on doing so for a long time. They tailor their offerings with thoughtful touches, such as providing them with their favorite toiletries, newspaper or adding the extra-plush towels they like. Artificial intelligence can be handy in this area because it can help in identify the personal touches that can attract people and help hotels in offering a personalized experience to every guest. In fact, artificial intelligence can also be used for personalizing the rewards program.

• Booking and staff interaction

One of the biggest challenges for hotels is booking. Lots of people use aggregator sites to book and many leave without booking if they land on an individual hotel page. Even if someone wants to book, the process can be complex and time-consuming and they have limited opportunities to communicate with the staff. However, hotels now have the opportunity to integrate AI-powered chatbots in websites and even social media platforms and this can help in reducing the challenges and offering a more personalized and seamless booking experience.

• Reputation management

Anyone who is part of the hospitality industry is aware that this industry is driven by reputation. What people think and say about a hotel can make a big difference. The ability of artificial intelligence to go through social media posts and reviews quickly can offer insight into what people are saying about a hospitality business. This can help you in responding quickly. You can also amplify positive feedback and share it, while it is the perfect opportunity to deal with negative feedback as quickly as possible. Moreover, artificial intelligence can also help you in averting potential public-relations disasters and enable you to draft an appropriate response promptly.

• Updates and maintenance

Every hotel wants to deliver the best possible guest experience, but they also want to channel their resources strategically to get the highest return on their investment. This is where artificial intelligence can help you make the most efficient use of your resources. It uses guest feedback, occupancy data as well as self-reported guest data for gauging which repairs and updates have to be implemented first and the improvements that can help in getting maximum returns. In fact, the technology can also use pattern recognition and identify any potential issues before they occur, thereby ensuring seamless maintenance workflows.

• Informing competitive intelligence

Artificial intelligence can also help a hospitality business plot out its future direction due to its ability of analyzing multiple databases for providing valuable insights. For instance, it can help identify areas where there may be higher demand than availability and this information can be used for the purpose of expanding a business. Local review data as well as demographics can also be used for deciding the kind of hotel that may be needed and the facilities and amenities to be offered.

If you keep up with the technology news, then you will know that artificial intelligence does have the potential to transform every aspect of a hospitality business and can help in delivering better experiences, processes and returns. With it becoming more accessible, it means that more businesses can take advantage of it.