The Future of Hospitality Industry: Integrating AI into Hotels and Restaurants

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been transforming the hotel industry. Contrary to popular belief, there’s more to AI than just using robots as concierge. In fact, the true power of the technology lies in the improvement of backend hotel processes.

In this article, we’ll look at how hotels are using AI technology to provide better guest experience.

What is AI for hotels?

AI helps hotel companies to provide more efficient guest management procedures. Instead of dedicating all their energies to mundane and repetitive tasks, hotel managers can now focus on other tasks to provide exceptional guest experience.

Aside from this, AI also offers an opportunity to personalize their accommodations according to their profiles. This way, they’ll get the experience they specifically need. AI-powered chatbots, virtual assistants, and CRM allow staff to connect with guests in real-time to provide personalized recommendations and assistance. Some hotels even use smart room technologies powered by AI that allow guests to take full control of their rooms–from their entertainment set, air conditioning units, lighting, and other room amenities.

Hotels also use Machine Learning (ML) technologies to set automated workflows for staff. This includes monitoring maintenance procedures, pricing optimization, inventory management, and other hotel operational procedures. AI hotel management tools address the growing trend of employee burnout in the hospitality industry, as managers can now create an efficient work schedule that considers the employees’ needs without sacrificing the team’s efficiency and productivity.

To learn more about this, read our full article: What does AI mean for hotels?

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How is AI changing the hotel industry?

A handful of hotels are now using robot concierges to aid their check-in processes. Leading the pack is Hilton’s Connie, a robot hotelier powered by IBM’s Watson supercomputer. Aside from this, Aloft Hotels have ALO, Yotel Hotels have Yobot, and Hotel EMC2 has twin robots named Cleo and Leo.

While these robots are deployed mostly to attract customers, there’s no denying that hotels are now fully embracing the potential of AI in making efficient working strategies. A recent study from Duetto reveals almost 78% of hotel managers and property owners are now investing in hotel tech to improve their business management procedures. Furthermore, the International Data Collection predicts that 70% of travel agencies and 60% of hotels will be using AI technology in the following years. For some, it might still seem impossible, but a Gartner survey suggested that the world’s use of AI had grown to a whopping 270% this 2023.

Surprised? Click here to learn more about How AI is transforming the hospitality industry?

What is the use of AI in hotels?

While guests don’t usually face hotel robot concierge, most bookings are now streamlined through AI technology.

A significant number of hotels now use AI in online customer service, such as chatbots, automated social media messaging, and push notifications. These alerts allow hoteliers to answer inquiries almost 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, which is almost impossible with human-to-human interaction. Furthermore, hoteliers use AI and ML data management to personalize their guests’ travel experiences. Based on their customer data, each guest may now receive customized travel guides, in-house hotel experiences, and curated food menus, all based on their purchasing behavior.

Aside from this, hotels also utilize AI for revenue management. This includes adjusting prices, automating booking procedures, creating market analysis and segmentation, KPI tracking, competitor analysis, and other sales strategies to remain competitive. Furthermore, hotels also use AI for general data analysis, such as inventory management, customer behavior analysis, demand forecasting, market prediction, and other operational tasks to ensure excellent guest experience.

Ultimately, some hotels focus more on marketing, specifically building a strong online reputation management system to attract more guests. Recent studies suggest 81% of travelers read reviews before booking hotels, making it a crucial business area.

Interested in other use cases of AIs in the hospitality industry? Read our complete article Take Hotel Management to the Next Level with AI: Essential Tools Every Hotelier Needs.

What are the benefits of AI in the hotel industry?

Experts predict that the market size of Global AI in the hospitality market will grow with a compounded annual growth rate of 11.26% until 2030. Thanks to its numerous benefits.

Research released by Colliers International shows that hotels using AI get a profit increase of 10% and reduce operational costs by more than 15%, enabling businesses to reach significant revenue growth. These figures are mostly attributed to the fact that AI can help hotels maximize their occupancy rates, especially during peak seasons.

AI and ML also enable hotels to go over and beyond in customer service to build customer loyalty. Chatbots and automated messaging allow managers to connect with customers even before their check-in period. The data collected from their inquiries can also be used for personalization, enabling hoteliers to serve customers based on their specific needs.

On the other hand, task automation increases the productivity of hotel staff. Instead of repetitive tasks, they can focus on other operational processes such as anticipating guest needs, mitigating risk through accurate problem-solving, and predicting consumer patterns.

Most importantly, AI helps brands to build a strong online reputation to generate more conversions. One of our articles finds that 52% of people would pass on good accommodation deals from hotels without reviews, while 94% of consumers will not purchase products and services from businesses with negative online reputations.

Interested in using technology to scale your hotel brand? Click here: What are the advantages of AI in the hotel industry?

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What are the downsides of using AI in the hotel industry?

The effectiveness and efficiency of AI systems depend on their users. If hotel managers don’t know how to use these tools and technologies appropriately, they could be expensive, ineffective, and even result in customer dissatisfaction. Furthermore, it’s also highly recommended to remind your staff that no AI technology can replace their ability to connect with their guests genuinely; these tools are just there to help them boost their performance. Foster the idea that AI can’t beat them, but a brand using AI can definitely do so.

Get an AI solution that will close a specific gap in your management process to prevent this. You can achieve this by looking at your AI software vendors’ use cases. Let’s assume that the primary weakness in your marketing strategy is your inability to respond and maximize your customer feedback. For this, it’s best to prioritize an AI review reply assistant to help you write optimized and engaging review responses to boost customer engagement.

To learn more about the possible gaps in using AI for hotels, read What are the disadvantages of AI in the hotel industry?

What do hoteliers think of AI in hospitality?

Hoteliers overwhelmingly recognize the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the hospitality industry, with 55% believing it will revolutionize hotel operations. This sentiment reflects a growing acknowledgment of AI's ability to streamline processes and enhance guest experiences. Despite initial concerns, 3 out of 5 hotels express openness to technological innovations, with many already incorporating AI into their operations. Looking ahead, half of all hoteliers plan to integrate AI by 2024, emphasizing its increasing importance. AI's impact on hotel operations is expected to improve efficiency and customer service significantly. While challenges such as cost and technical expertise persist, the growing accessibility of AI solutions indicates a shift towards wider adoption.

Overall, hoteliers recognize the potential of AI to drive cost savings, enhance online reviews, and meet evolving guest expectations, marking a pivotal moment in the industry's technological evolution. To delve deeper into hoteliers' perceptions of AI solutions, read our article AI Statisticss in Hospitality: A Glimpse into the Future.

Top 10 AI tools for hotels

The internet is now brimming with AI tools and software claiming to help hotels to boost their revenue. Choosing among them can be challenging, especially for hotel managers who have just started exploring the technology.

To help you with this, we’ve come up with a list of AI tools used by top hotel brands to offer the best guest experience:

1. MARA - Enables hotels and businesses to respond quickly to online reviews. This way, you can boost your online credibility without sacrificing your time.
2. DialogShift - Provides automated messaging tools and chatbots for answering queries. The software also helps streamline direct booking procedures.
3. Allora - Allows hotels to manage their data to create personalized guest offers and other customer retention activities.
4. Voiceplug - Offers a quick, individualized food ordering process.
5. JoshAI - Promotes voice and touch technology for homes and hotels for a more comfortable guest experience.
6. Mobotix - AI parking technology for hotels and other businesses to maximize parking space.
7. Hotelier AI- All-in-one platform for marketing, CRM, and guest surveys.
8. Viqal – Offers autonomous guest data management and predictive AI technology to boost staff-to-guest engagement.
9. Winnow Vision - AI technology that allows hotels and other businesses to reduce food waste.
10. Meteum - Provides a weather forecasting system to predict possible marketing opportunities.

Want to know more about the features of these AI tools? Read 10 AI tools every hotelier should know.

What is the most common AI technology among hotels?

Thanks to the rise of ChatGPT, the most common AI technology among businesses is Generative AI. To understand how these technologies are used, let’s go through them individually.

Generative AI

Generative AI is an AI technology that produces new information from previously collected ones. The algorithm functions by finding patterns and trends in existing data, which are then synthesized to answer prompts. Generative AI can be used to create original music, graphics, and other kinds of content.

GPT-3

GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3) is a Generative AI technology created by OpenAI. It is a language-processing model that can produce text that resembles human speech based on input. GPT-3 is a potent tool that can assist with activities like summarizing text, finishing phrases, and coming up with responses to queries that sound genuine. Additionally, it can be applied to tasks like question-answering, machine translation, and language processing.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT uses GPT-3 algorithm to converse with people and answer prompts. Natural language processing (NLP) is used to comprehend inquiries, provide answers, and generate ideas based on the instruction placed on the tool.

To learn more about the differences between Generative AI, GPT-3, and ChatGPT, read What is ChatGPT? Everything a hotelier needs to know.

How is ChatGPT used in the hotel industry?

ChatGPT is now widely utilized in numerous business industries, including hospitality and tourism. Here’s how hotels make the most out of ChatGPT to improve their business operations:

Customer service

The employment of chatbots is the most common use of Generative AI and ChatGPT in the hospitality sector. At its most basic, a chatbot is a computer program that mimics and interprets human interaction (spoken or typed), enabling users to converse with AI tools as if they were speaking to real people. Through chatbots, hotels can now automate typical customer service channels, like their website, social media accounts, and even phone operations.

Data processing

Like other organizations, hotels are always faced with the daunting task of data management. The language model of GPT-3 can help hoteliers use data from browsing behavior, reservations, and purchases to create a personalized offer. Most importantly, all of these can be done efficiently as there will be no manual work.

Marketing

Generative AI tools allow hotel staff to develop effective marketing strategies. With ChatGPT, hoteliers can write blog posts, social media copy, emails, and video scripts to build a strong online presence. Most importantly, there are AI review response generators that allow brands to boost their online bookings by increasing their customer engagement.

Strategy Creation

ChatGPT helps hotel managers in optimizing various areas of business operations. For instance, you can ask the chatbot to generate marketing ideas that resonate with your target market.

There are other ways how ChatGPT can help businesses hit their revenue goals. To learn more about them, read our article Get the Most Out of ChatGPT: How Hotels Can Leverage the Technology.

Top GPT-3 AI tools for hotels

Numerous hotel SaaS providers are now using Generative AI. To help you identify which ones can truly help you scale your business, here are the top 3 Generative AI tools used by hotels:

MARA AI Review Reply Assistant

MARA creates highly optimized responses to online reviews based on key metrics of the hospitality industry. While ChatGPT makes generic responses, MARA writes replies that can boost a hotel brand’s online credibility and attract potential guests.

DialogShift

More than a mere chatbot tool, DialogShift is a versatile customer service solution. It delivers simple and effective guest communication procedures that may be linked to your brand’s website, social media accounts, and other booking apps. Managers can use DialogShift to maximize self-service automation and relieve their employees of tedious and repetitive work.

VOICEplug

While VOICEPlug is mostly used by restaurants, it may also be connected to the phone system and online ordering CRM of hotels. The tool lets personnel take guest orders using real-language commands and natural voice interactions.

Want to learn more about these Generative AI tools? Read 3 tools that utilize GPT-3 to assist hoteliers.

What is a Review Reply Generator?

An AI review response generator helps hotel managers deliver individualized responses in seconds. This way, they can use their time to work on hotel tasks without sacrificing their online reputation. It’s very simple to use, just copy the reviews into the tool, and a personalized response will be generated within seconds.

With the stroke of a button, AI review response tools like MARA can let you quickly respond to a large number of reviews. In fact, a study shows that the average amount of time needed to prepare a single answer can be reduced from 6 to 2 minutes.

Clients should feel valued and appreciated. For this reason, the MARA AI review reply generator ensures that each answer is unique and exudes a sense of personalization. Instead of utilizing templates or canned responses, the AI tool creates personalized responses demonstrating your concern for your client’s queries and issues. It maintains a genuine and human-like diction to provide a great customer service experience.

To learn more about AI review response generators, read What is a review response generator?

What are the common misconceptions about Review Response Generators?

A review response generator is different from a generic text generator like ChatGPT when it comes to reputation management. It specializes in producing high-quality, personal review responses to any online review that adapt to the style of a user and can consume information about a business. For instance, Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT tend to include untrue facts (e.g. a pool is closed due to maintenance) in management responses to guest reviews. In high-quality AI review reply assistants, on the other hand, you can “teach” the AI how to respond to specific review topics with (e.g. with “Smart Snippets” used in MARAs AI Review Reply Generator).

Read more about the difference between ChatGPT and MARAs AI Review Reply Assistant here.

While review response generators are certainly powerful, it’s essential to realize that relying on them for reputation management may be insufficient. It’s highly recommended that hoteliers still use personalization on the replies generated by the tools. They save time and energy, but you would still need to add a human touch to truly connect with your customers.

Most importantly, review response generators aren’t the same as online reputation management. However, they can be synched together to streamline an effective and efficient online reputation process.

There are plenty of other misconceptions about review response generators in hotels. To learn more about them, read What is a Review Response Generator not?

What are the benefits of AI Review Reply Assistants?

As mentioned a while ago, you can integrate your AI review response generator into an online reputation management tool. Despite this, AI review reply assistants can already give you numerous benefits to improve the productivity of your team.

Here are some of the advantages of using an AI review response generator:

• Save time and money
• Add a personal touch to your templates
• Boost response rates
• Boost online reputation
• Increase ratings on the booking platform
• Save the brain power of staff
• Provide an intuitive algorithm from the start
• Write well-crafted and reliable replies

The ease of use of a review response generator makes it an excellent marketing tool among business owners. Before, you had to hire copywriters, customer service specialists, and other marketing professionals just to boost your search engine visibility and online reputation. Now, hoteliers can respond to reviews during their free time without the risk of sacrificing the time and energy that may be allotted to more pertinent tasks.

To learn more about how you can improve your business with an AI review response generator, read our complete article: Review Response Generator: What Is It and What Is It Not?

How to use Review Response Generators?

MARA AI review assistant offers a quick and easy way to create customized responses to every type of client feedback. You may rapidly build tailored replies without any technical expertise or understanding.

Hotel owners using MARA now enjoy a 100% response rate, increased online reputation, higher customer engagement, and better search engine visibility. They can now boost their online listings on Google, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Hotels.com, and Agoda with their fully-optimized review responses,

Here’s how you can use your MARA AI review reply assistant:

1. Open your ORM tool or booking platform
2. Personalize your settings
3. Copy and paste the guest reviews into MARA
4. Click “Generate a Reply.”
5. Edit and publish

The integration of MARA into your ORM may vary. Furthermore, there are also other features that you can use for optimizing various kinds of reviews and online content. To learn more about using your AI review response generator, read How do you respond to an online review with AI?

Try MARA today. Click here to register for a FREE account.

How to maximize the power of AI Review Response Generators?

The ultimate distinguishing characteristic of a hotel worker is being available to guests, listening to them, and attending to their issues. If this were different from a customer's perspective, we would have more fully staffed self-service hotels. With every touchpoint and every interaction, you learn about their wants and how to give guests the best possible stay at your hotel.

Responding to visitor comments is the same. Delivering a personal experience even after a guest has checked out should be about more than just your internet reputation. Additionally, spending the time to interact with and respond to your visitors' feedback is a really effective approach to keeping in touch with them, understanding their needs, and improving your services.

To make the most out of an AI review reply assistant, users need to double-check the solutions our system suggests. Despite the fact that the tool gives each individual guest review a unique, hyper-individualized response, hoteliers can't always publish the responses in their entirety. They should take time to personalize and add the brand's voice to every response.

To learn more about personalizing review responses, read our complete article: No Contradiction: Personalization and AI-generated review replies

How do you choose the perfect AI-powered review management tool?

Choosing the perfect AI-powered review management tool is essential for enhancing customer engagement and online reputation. These tools use AI to streamline the process of responding to customer reviews, but it's crucial to select the right one. When evaluating such tools, consider the following features:

• Good Quality Responses: Choose a tool designed for generating responses to guest reviews, like MARA, which offers professional, positive responses and avoids negative language. Generic AI tools may harm your online reputation.
• Personalization and Brand Voice: Look for a tool that allows customization to maintain your brand's tone and style. Your team should be able to add signatures, change the tone, and personalize responses.
• Inclusion of Business Information: Ensure the AI tool can be trained with information about your business, including how to respond to specific topics in reviews. Smart snippets can help streamline the response process.

Pitfalls to avoid include over-automation, hallucination (where AI generates false information), relying solely on simple GPT technology without customization, and choosing a tool with a complex setup.

To learn more about this, read Choosing the Right AI-Powered Review Management Tool

The ultimate AI tool for online reputation management–MARA

Responding to online reviews can be a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be with our AI Review Assistant of MARA. This intuitive tool is designed to ease your Online Reputation Management process, making it more efficient, personalized, and time-saving. It offers the best and most personalized AI for responding to and analyzing your guest reviews.

AI-Powered Review Inbox

One of the key features of this tool is the Review Inbox. Your review inbox makes responding to reviews as simple as hitting "Generate reply" and clicking "Send". The Review Inbox connects to multiple review sources, including Google, Booking.com, and Tripadvisor, giving you a panoramic view of all your reviews. And you can even configure review response automation: Why not allow MARA to automatically respond to simple reviews, like 5-star Google reviews with no text, ensuring you never miss a review? Daily notifications about new reviews keep you updated and in control.

User-friendly Review Analytics Dashboard

To help you understand and analyze the multitude of reviews, the Review Assistant also incorporates Review Analytics. This provides actionable, easy-to-understand insights that are tailored exclusively to your business. With MARA, you can quickly get the gist of all your reviews without needing to read each one. The analysis is so detailed that you can find out about specific issues like "water in the pool is too cold" or "lack of vegan breakfast option”. These insights help optimize guest experience without requiring you to be a data expert.

The most personal response AI

MARA's AI isn't just about efficiency; it's about personalization too. The Brand Voice feature allows the AI to adapt to your tone, making sure your responses sound authentically you. Plus, with Smart Snippets, you can "teach" the AI how to respond to recurring praises or complaints. Your AI then incorporates this information into its responses, but always with different words, providing more personalized, relevant replies.

This review response assistant has quickly become a game-changer for over 2000 customers. Its promising capacity to elevate your overall rating, amplify response rates, glean insights from customer feedback, and economize both time and money, is the reason behind its growing popularity.

What are the top hotel technology trends in 2024?

In 2024, the hotel industry is witnessing a technological revolution. Automated text messages have a 98% open rate, enhancing guest communication. Specialized AI solutions, exemplified by MARA AI, leverage technologies like ChatGPT for personalized responses and streamline review management. Keyless entry systems, preferred by 46% of travelers, provide secure, mobile-based room access. Energy-positive hotels, generating more energy than consumed, gain popularity, aligning with the growing demand for sustainability. Contactless payments, crucial for health safety, become a necessity. Chatbots improve customer support, while mobile check-ins and hotel robots redefine convenience and service. Virtual reality tours, voice searches, hotel revenue management software, smart hotels, and service automation reflect a tech-driven future. Digital guest books, WiFi 6, flexible Property Management Systems (PMS), and streaming service integrations shape the evolving landscape, ensuring hotels remain competitive in the ever-changing hospitality industry.

Read our full analysis of each trend in the article Hotel Technology Trends in 2024: What's Next in Hospitality?

How is AI used in restaurants?

There are numerous ways in which AIs can be used in restaurants. When people hear about AI in restaurants, they immediately think robots are creating their meals, while, in fact, most AI technologies are used in backend operations.

Restaurants use AI assistants to deliver exceptional customer service. This includes efficient ways of booking tables, adding guests to waitlists, ordering meals, and answering basic queries. Aside from this, they also use AI voice solutions on drive-thrus and self-service kiosks as they reduce order errors by 90%. This significantly increases operations efficiency, resulting in higher customer retention and conversion rates.

AI also aids in inventory management, especially regarding waste management. Restaurant owners can monitor and manage their supply by incorporating AI inventory solutions into their point-of-sale (POS) systems. This includes managing inventory purchases, reducing waste, and controlling food budgets. Furthermore, AI also generates accurate data-based insights. Based on consumer history and market trends, AI helps restaurants predict what, when, and how to sell their items. This technology makes a restaurant competitive while reducing unnecessary inventory and staffing costs.

Most importantly, AI helps restaurants with online review management. Customers noted that well-written responses encourage them to try a restaurant despite their bad reviews. Furthermore, 58% of consumers say they would pay more to support a company with good reviews, making AI review reply generators one of the most valuable AI tools for restaurants.

Interested in learning more about how AI technologies are used in restaurants? Read our complete article Automate Your Restaurant with AI: Essential Tools You Need

How is AI changing the restaurant industry?

Here are a few benefits restaurants enjoy because of using AI:

Cut expenses

Automating normal and easy operations with AI technologies enables restaurant owners to cut labor expenditures. Additionally, the demand-predicting technology included in ML systems enables restaurants to effectively manage their supply, preventing food waste, logistical expenditures, and other arbitrary expenses.

Minimize errors

Human error is common in restaurants. In a busy dining area, a server may mishear the orders, causing the chef to prepare the incorrect meal. Although it may seem unimportant, the persistent occurrence of this error can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. With AI, restaurant managers can minimize these errors.

Customize menus

According to a recent Technomic survey, 72% of buyers want personalization with every order. An AI customization tool generates dynamic menus based on a customer’s previous orders and purchase patterns. This increases dining satisfaction while allowing businesses to upsell their products.

Improve customer service

While there is currently no AI technology that can replicate the human touch in a dining experience, relieving your team of simple and repetitive chores frees them up to work on more important responsibilities. They can pay close attention to each visitor’s needs and deliver first-rate customer service.

Attract new customers

Recent studies indicate that 74% of customers prefer to place their food orders online, making your website the most crucial marketing tool you have. Fortunately, there are technologies for managing reviews powered by AI that could assist you in building solid online trust through customer reviews.

To learn more about the benefits of using AI in your restaurant, read How AI is impacting the restaurant industry.

Top 12 AI tools for restaurants

Top restaurants are now using AI technologies to offer better dining experiences. Here are the top AI tools every restaurant manager should know:

1. MARA AI - Review reply generator for reputation management.
2. VoiceplugAI - Interactive and conversational ordering system for restaurants.
3. Winnow Vision - AI Technology for managing food waste in hotels and restaurants.
4. Greet- Virtual receptionist run by AI that makes use of natural language.
5. Flippy 2 and FlippyLite - Deploys robotic fryers in the kitchen powered by AI and ML.
6. CookRight - Coffee-brewing camera system powered by AI.
7. Cecilia - The first interactive AI bartender.
8. Wobot AI - Video Intelligence Solutions (VMS) provider that combines operational information and video data to monitor restaurant operations.
9. IngestAI - Real-time data integration for restaurants.
10. Zira AI - Workforce management platform that generates personnel schedules using AI.
11. UEAT - Creates dynamic menu by using customer data.
12. Tidio - Chatbot and live chat solutions for restaurants.

To learn more about each of these powerful AI tools, read 12 AI tools every restaurant manager should know.

Final Thought
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Leading hotels and restaurants are embracing AI technologies to enhance customer service and alleviate employee burnout by automating repetitive tasks. While adopting such tools ensures future readiness for businesses, it's crucial to recognize that genuine human interaction remains unparalleled in the hospitality and food industry. Thus, mastering the utilization of AI tools holds greater significance than merely selecting the right one. With the appropriate software, managing online reviews becomes a streamlined process that allows for personalized responses and valuable insights derivation.

So, why hesitate to give our AI Review Assistant, MARA, a try? It's completely free for testing, doesn't require a credit card, and can be fully operational in less than five minutes.

This post is part of our hero content series on “The Future of Hospitality Industry: Integrating AI into Hotels and Restaurants".