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ToggleA Complete Guide to AI in the Hospitality Industry
Unless you’ve been off the grid for a while, you’ve probably noticed the massive buzz around artificial intelligence. From tools like ChatGPT to smart features built into everyday software, AI is already transforming how businesses operate. Hotels are right in the middle of this shift.
In fact, Hotel Tech Report recently surveyed 400 hotel guests for its 2025 State of Hotel Guest Technology Report. The findings gave a clear picture of how people feel about AI in hospitality industry:
- 70% of guests say chatbots are helpful for quick questions, but want a real person for anything more complicated
- The top reason people use chatbots at hotels is to get the Wi-Fi password. Also, for scheduling wake-up calls and checking when hotel facilities open or close
- 58% of guests believe AI makes booking and staying at hotels easier and more enjoyable
- 65% of travelers want hotel tech to be more advanced than what they have at home
Finding the right mix of automation and human support is now a key part of hotel service. In this article, we’ll show you how AI is already changing hospitality and what that could mean for your property.
What is AI in Hospitality?
AI in the hospitality industry means using artificial intelligence to improve how hotels operate and serve guests. It helps teams work faster, make better decisions, and offer more useful services to travelers.
Here’s what that can look like in action:
- Hotels use AI tools to automate repetitive front desk or back office tasks that take up staff time
- Pricing tools adjust room rates automatically based on demand, events, or booking patterns
- Guest preferences and past behavior help staff offer more relevant and timely recommendations
- Maintenance requests, cleaning schedules, and staff assignments get managed more quickly with fewer errors
By using AI well, hotels improve service, save time, and increase revenue without hiring extra staff.
Advantages of AI in Hospitality
Here’s a closer look at the impact of AI in the hospitality industry:
1. Faster and easier check-in and check-out
Hotels now use facial recognition tools and mobile apps to speed up check-in and check-out for guests. These tools remove the need to wait in lines or fill out forms by hand at the front desk. Guests arrive, verify their identity through a camera or app, and go straight to their room without delay. These systems also improve safety by verifying identities more accurately than manual processes.
Facial recognition and app-based check-in set a faster tone for the stay and reduce pressure on staff. Hotels that use this setup make check-ins smoother while saving time for both guests and teams.
2. Increased revenue
Hotels can use AI to automate pricing, predict demand, and analyze trends. AI tools like ampliphi RMS optimize rates in real-time based on demand shifts, competitor pricing, and market insights, ensuring your hotel maximizes RevPAR and ADR. By automating these pricing decisions, ampliphi saves time and reduces the risk of human error.
The Auto Pilot feature allows pricing adjustments without manual input, while still giving you full control to fine-tune or override strategies. Customizable rules align pricing with your specific goals, ultimately boosting hotel profitability by 15-20%.
3. Improved operational efficiency
More than half of hospitality companies say they believe AI will help them work more efficiently over the next year. Guest-facing teams like front office and guest relations are the top areas where hotels expect to see major gains. These tools are also making a difference in sales, marketing, and general management, where time and data matter.
One of the most impactful tools in this space is the AI-powered roommaster Concierge voice agent, a virtual assistant that answers guest calls, handles common questions, and routes requests without human intervention. By offloading repetitive call handling, hotels improve team response times, reduce call abandonment, and operate more efficiently around the clock.
Hotels that already use AI in these areas report faster team response times, better coordination, and fewer delays. These improvements free up time and help teams handle more tasks without needing more staff.
4. Better guest communication
Guests now send messages through email, text, WhatsApp, and hotel apps before they even arrive. Instead of handling different inboxes, hotels use a single tool to collect and respond to all messages in one place. AI tools help front desk teams reply to common questions automatically, even while staff are busy helping others.
Some hotels use generative AI to offer activity suggestions or upsell services before check-in. These replies feel timely and helpful to the guest, and they also open the door to more revenue through add-ons like tours, dining, or room upgrades.
5. Personalized experiences
Once a hotel collects enough data from past stays, AI uses that data to create offers that match what the guest wants. These tools use past purchases, preferences, and stay history to suggest services that feel more personal and relevant.
A recent study found that 61% of people say they are willing to spend more when a hotel offers a service or product tailored to them. Guests who rate the level of personalization they received as a 9 or 10 out of 10 also give much higher ratings to their stay overall. In contrast, guests who don’t feel like the service was personal tend to report lower satisfaction levels.
Use Cases of AI in Hospitality
AI is not just a smarter feature, but it works as a standalone tool that helps hotels serve guests in entirely new ways. Below are some of the most effective and practical uses of AI technology in the hospitality industry.
A. Housekeeping management
Hotels can use AI to assign cleaning staff in real time based on check-outs, occupancy, and shift schedules. For example, Hilton and Ritz-Carlton properties implemented AI systems to prioritize room cleaning based on check-outs, occupancy, and staff schedules.
These systems reduced task allocation time, boosted guest satisfaction, and improved room readiness workflows.
B. Customer service
AI-powered virtual assistants and chatbots in the hospitality industry handle a wide range of guest services, including booking help, tailored recommendations, and real-time responses to inquiries. These tools operate continuously without human intervention, providing consistent service at all hours.
With roommaster Concierge, hotels can offer a fully integrated AI voice and messaging assistant that answers guest calls, responds to FAQs, manages booking questions, and handles amenity requests, all directly within the PMS. It supports multilingual communication, reduces missed calls, and ensures guests receive fast, accurate responses day or night.
C. Smart hotel rooms
Integrating AI with the Internet of Things is leading to a novel generation of smart hotel rooms that adapt to guest demands and preferences, making their stays more convenient and comfortable. These rooms can automatically adjust lighting, temperature, and entertainment options based on guest behavior.
For example, Marriott’s IoT Guestroom Technology creates a personalized experience by using data on guest behavior to automatically adjust room settings like temperature, lighting, and entertainment. This way, guests can control these features with voice commands, making their stay more intuitive.
D. Personalized marketing
Hotels and travel platforms now use AI to study customer behavior and create targeted marketing messages. These messages reflect a guest’s past searches, bookings, and preferences to improve the chances of a sale.
Booking.com, for example, uses AI to recommend stays through the Smart Filter tool based on what people have looked for and booked before. This approach helps the platform increase bookings by showing travelers options that match what they usually choose.
E. Predictive Maintenance
Hotel equipment failures can disrupt guest stays and lead to high repair costs. To prevent this, many hotels now use AI to predict when systems like HVAC units, elevators, and appliances need maintenance. AI analyzes sensor data to spot signs of wear, allowing work to be scheduled during low-occupancy periods.
At Hyatt Place in Washington, DC, the Syyclops digital twin is being installed to monitor HVAC, lighting, and electrical systems in real time. The platform tracks asset performance, sends automated alerts, and helps the facilities team fix issues before they cause disruptions.
How to Get AI Value in the Hospitality Industry?
If hotels want to benefit from the use of AI in the hospitality industry, they must embed it into everyday business practices. That means building teams who understand AI capabilities and collaborating with all departments.
Here are key steps to make AI work for hotels:
Step 1. Rethink roles and workflows with AI
The first step is to appoint a person or team to lead the work around AI. That team must help staff understand what AI can do, beyond automating a few tasks.
Once they understand the full range of AI tools, they should start working with operations, marketing, guest services, and finance to identify how AI can improve each area. Whether it’s adjusting room prices, responding faster to guests, or improving loyalty programs, every department should play a part in reworking how things are done.
Step 2. Build a strong AI foundation
No AI system works well without the right structure in place. Hotels must first choose reliable platforms that can support training, testing, and using AI tools at scale.
Then, they need to collect useful data, whether it’s from past bookings, guest behavior, or operations, and clean it so it can be used accurately. With good data, teams can train AI models to make predictions and handle complex tasks.
Once these models are ready, hotels can use them to power tools that staff and guests use daily. These tools might help with booking, pricing, or managing tasks behind the scenes.
Step 3. Foster trust and transparency in AI use
Building trust in AI is just as important as building the tools themselves. Staff and guests need to understand what AI is doing and why. That means setting clear policies for how guest data is collected and used, making sure AI decisions are fair, and checking regularly for mistakes or gaps.
Hotels must also protect their systems with strong cybersecurity steps to avoid data leaks or service disruptions. When people trust the system, they use it more confidently, and that makes AI more useful to the hospitality business.
By following these steps, hotels can unlock real value through the applications of AI hotel marketing, operations, and guest engagement. The result will be smarter service, more revenue, and stronger guest loyalty.
Hotel Operations AI
AI is helping hotels solve real operational challenges by improving service, pricing, and customer satisfaction. Here’s how:
1. Smart concierge services
Hotels lose bookings every day when front desk staff miss calls during busy shifts, weekends, or overnight hours. Ongoing staff shortages and high turnover make it harder to keep response times consistent. At the same time, international guests often run into language problems when they try to call or message for help.
roommaster Concierge solves these challenges by acting as a 24/7 AI digital concierge that never misses a call or message. It handles guest questions in real time, speaks multiple languages, and converts interest into direct bookings automatically. Guests receive fast, clear answers at any hour, while your team can focus on guests on site.
Hotels that use roommaster Concierge often see a noticeable jump in booking conversions from phone calls, especially during peak hours when staff are busy.
2. Dynamic pricing strategies
Independent hotels lose money when they rely on static pricing that doesn’t adjust to market demand. Without revenue managers or high-cost enterprise tools, many smaller properties can’t match the flexible pricing strategies used by major hotel brands.
roommaster revenue optimization closes that gap by offering AI in revenue management that works around the clock. Its rule-based yield engine analyzes demand patterns, booking pace, and local events to make real-time price changes. Once hotels set their pricing rules, the system adjusts rates automatically without daily input.
In fact, most hotels using roommaster’s dynamic pricing report a 15 to 20% boost in RevPAR within the first year.
3. Guest feedback and quality control
Hotels rely on guest feedback and quality checks to keep service levels high and improve performance across locations. During the pandemic, Riley Hotel Group faced major disruptions like reduced staff, safety restrictions, and rapid shifts in guest needs.
Since 2006, roommaster has supported their growth with tools like the booking engine, which increased direct reservations and saved time by syncing inventory automatically.
The dashboard gave staff real-time property insights, while the responsive support proved essential during periods of rapid change.
“They take the feedback of their customers, and they work with their development team on it. They also offer insights and a clear view of what they can do for us.”
– Lisa Zifer, Vice President of Operations
On a technical level, AI improves QA by reviewing all guest communications, not just a small sample. It flags messages that show signs of confusion, dissatisfaction, or unmet expectations. From there, either a staff member or an AI assistant can take action quickly to fix the issue.
Managers also use these flagged cases for coaching, training, or updating workflows, which helps avoid repeat problems. This kind of feedback loop is what shows the real impact of AI in the hospitality industry.
Challenges and Strategic Adoption
AI offers many benefits in hospitality, but hotels still face several real problems when using it. Here are some of the most common challenges:
- Privacy and data security: AI systems rely on large datasets, which raises concerns about how guest information is handled. Companies must protect this data to maintain customer trust and comply with privacy laws.
- Impact on employment: As AI replaces some tasks, it may reduce the need for specific roles. Hotels must use technology while still keeping space for human interaction and offer staff ways to learn new skills.
- Bias and discrimination: AI tools can reflect bias from their training data, leading to unfair treatment. Businesses need to check their systems often and correct any patterns that harm specific groups.
- Authenticity of guest experiences: AI can speed up service, but it risks making experiences feel cold or impersonal. Hotels must maintain the human side of hospitality while leveraging AI to enhance support.
- Ethical guidelines and regulations: As AI grows more advanced, hotels need to follow clear rules that protect guest rights. Businesses must develop systems that promote fairness and prevent misuse.
Simplify Tasks and Uncover Business Insights With roommaster
As we saw earlier, managing guest data and preventing equipment failures can be challenging for hotels, while balancing automation with a personal touch remains essential. Technology alone can’t create great guest experiences without human insight guiding it. Combining smart AI tools with your team’s expertise creates the best results.
As an all-in-one hotel management system, roommaster brings this balance by automating routine tasks and delivering clear business insights, freeing your staff to focus on what matters most: guest satisfaction. It centralizes your hotel operations, making data easy to access and decisions quicker to make.
Ready to experience this mix in action? Book a demo today!
Key Takeaways
- Guests find AI chatbots helpful for quick answers, such as room service requests, but prefer human support for more complex customer interactions.
- AI speeds up check-ins, boosts revenue, and helps hotels improve customer service by automating tasks and optimizing pricing.
- Smart AI tools use natural language processing to enhance guest communication and deliver top-tier service with personalized experiences.
- Hotels use AI for predictive maintenance, avoiding costly equipment failures and scheduling repairs at low-traffic times.
- Implementing AI requires rethinking workflows, building solid data foundations, and maintaining transparency to build trust.
- roommaster offers AI-driven solutions that handle bookings, pricing, and guest service, freeing staff to focus on guests.
Chris Rios is a senior sales executive with over 15 years of experience, specializing in tailored solutions for the hospitality industry. A key player at roommaster, he’s contributed to transformative projects like the shift to roommaster Cloud, building strong client relationships along the way. Outside of work, Chris is a dedicated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor and an avid landscape painter. His passion and adaptability drive his success in helping hoteliers thrive.