As artificial intelligence (AI) takes a tighter grip of our daily lives, its impact may be felt the most in places where it’s the least visible.
While influencers on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, and marketing professionals, will find smarter and faster ways to create content or propel sales, the end result will feel not unlike what it feels like right now. The same could be said for entertainment providers such as Hollywood studios – despite the brief emergence of AI actress Tilly Norwood.
Instead, the real change hastened by AI may be in large businesses, and in fact entire sectors of business, where greater efficiency and deeper analytics are deeply coveted. Whether it’s to vastly increase the speed of coding, diagnostic imaging, legal documentation, lesson planning, ad drafting or customer service responses, time is being warped by AI capabilities. Businesses can save time and reduce effort by using tools that can collect and analyse data with such speed and accuracy that they produce meaningful outputs faster than any human is capable of.
IT and software professionals, healthcare workers, lawyers, teachers, engineers, bankers, sales teams and more are all finding ways to integrate AI into their workflow – without necessarily feeling the threat of being superseded. There are certainly risks, for some, when it comes to job security but those who remain level-headed will see AI as a welcome assistant rather than a hostile disruption. It should exist to release their energy on creative and strategic pursuits, after years of their freedom being impinged by repetitive tasks.
So, what about the hospitality industry?
Traditionally lagging behind other sectors in new technology adoption, our industry is an interesting case study. How aware are hoteliers of AI’s potential? How are they using it? Do they know how travellers are incorporating AI into their research and booking processes? Are they planning for the future?
These are questions that must be considered, since accommodation providers are not immune to the growing presence of large language models (LLMs), AI chatbots, and AI-driven data tools. Travellers are already engaging with AI during their journeys on a large scale, regardless of whether hoteliers are prepared – so now is the perfect time for accommodation businesses to examine how they can make the most of this potential turning point.
In this three-part series, SiteMinder will explore these questions and more to discover the current state of play and AI-readiness of hoteliers around the world. We interviewed a range of customers and partners across global markets to capture an accurate snapshot of how AI is making its mark in a trillion dollar industry.
Welcome to part one, where we learn how hoteliers feel about the increasing prevalence of AI and how they are using it to help manage the day-to-day operations of their property.
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Hoteliers are navigating a balance of excitement and caution
“All of this is in flux right now, moving from keywords to prompt research,” mentions Christine Malfair of Malfair Marketing.
“From a marketing perspective, one of the most challenging elements that I’m finding is the question of ‘How do we get AI ready?’ which clients have been asking. There’s varying degrees of understanding from hoteliers and there’s education that’s needed.”
This position perhaps sums up the whole equation currently. Many hoteliers are still at the entrance of the AI rabbit hole, traversing an educational research stage while trying to run an always-on business at the same time. There’s an alarmingly broad spectrum across the industry when it comes to technology uptake, and AI is the newest entity to find its place.
As Thibault Catala, Founder and CEO of Catala Consulting mentions, “Some are talking a lot about AI and using it extensively. But everyday I’m also still facing hotels which ask me ‘What’s a PMS?’ And ‘we are using Google Calendar as a PMS’.”
While you often see hotels that still don’t have an optimised website – if they have one at all – you also see properties that are all too eager to adopt the latest and greatest software solution if it provides the potential to optimise their operations. When it comes to AI though, SiteMinder’s research shows that they are ready to embrace it, with 92% open to AI-generated insights and recommendations.
Those that are lagging are loyal to old habits or believe they don’t have the time and money to explore something new which seems complex to learn – even if it would ultimately prove beneficial. Those that are leading the charge recognise the underlying value of speeding up processes, automating customer service, enriching data analytics, and optimising pricing.
Regardless of where they stand, most hoteliers are taken aback by how fast AI is progressing, even those operating the most standout properties you can find.
“I’d describe its development as frighteningly quick, especially in the past 12 months or so,” mentions Leon Pink, General Manager at VOMO Island Fiji.
“I feel like it’s developing faster than we can keep up with, but all the education I’ve done has been mind-blowing in terms of how much detail it can cover. Though I think the challenge now is ensuring its output is accurate enough for us to have more confidence in embracing it fully.”
This confidence is a sticking point for many. After all, how can you trust something you can’t touch? Something that has been proven to make mistakes? Something that does not always understand the nuances of human communication?
“To put your comprehensive idea into a system and it spits something out in literally under 10 minutes that supposedly works perfectly, you tend to say, ‘Hang on a minute. Is this actually doing what I want it to do?’ So no, I didn’t have the initial trust,” mentions Mike Godfrey, Revenue Manager at Amora Hotel Brisbane.
It certainly may be prudent to ask these questions, since tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, and others already have a documented history on the internet where the validity of their responses have been questioned. Perhaps, it is because these solutions are not ‘true’ artificial intelligence.
“I don’t like the label of AI. It isn’t AI. It’s large language models that are using algorithmic determination. Even with the most advanced ones we have, it’s still that,” says Matthew Camp, Revenue and Distribution Manager at Oscars Group.
“As a hotelier it concerns me because if somebody was looking for ‘good Sydney hotels near the airport’ where one of my hotels is, I would hope it gives them a list of actual hotels. But I’ve seen cases where it makes up properties that don’t exist because, at the end of the day, it’s a language generator, not a hotel aggregator.”
This potential for error and lack of clear understanding is a concern, according to Benjamin Verot, Founder and Managing Director of HotelMinder and Lobby, a newly launched hospitality expert network.
“There are tools that have delivered dynamic pricing for years. In that context, what is ‘AI’? How is it different from a smart algorithm? Even for me, it’s confusing, and I know what’s going on. It must be extremely confusing for hoteliers.”
So, caution is advised – but for those who are experimenting, where and how is AI being utilised to enhance property management, revenue management, and the guest experience?
Mastering AI literacy: Hoteliers are taking small steps rather than giant leaps
The first thing to consider is not what to use AI tools for, but how. Knowing how to get the most out of AI bots and assistants is a crucial initial step – as is understanding how to be cited when travellers themselves are inputting prompts and queries.
“We know that there’s a wide range of media and internet literacy,” says Matthew.
“Googling is actually a skill. You can be bad at it or you can be good at it by knowing how to tailor your searches to actually bring you what you’re looking for. So there’s going to be a wide range of AI bot literacy too,” he continues.
“As we’re going to have a wide variety of skilled users, there will be ways to either get your product in front of skilled users or in front of unskilled users. There’s different ways to get in front of media literate and media illiterate people now. You have to tailor it to your audience.”
For hoteliers who are early adopters and put the work into refining their content and marketing strategies through AI, they would expect the reward to be a significant competitive advantage. However, will this put hotels ahead of their peers when it comes to guest acquisition, or will the benefits be greater internally, in areas such as efficiency, cost effectiveness, and profit optimisation.
According to Matthew, any headstart will be short-lived and follow an historical pattern.
“We’ve already fought this battle with each other on several other platforms – it’ll just be another platform that we compete on. Maybe someone will have an advantage for a few months or a year but eventually everyone will be on the same page.”
While this way of thinking positions AI bots and LLM as a new set of tools, rather than a revolutionary movement, only time will tell the full story.
We do know that hoteliers are dipping their toes in the water, mostly to speed up admin and data analysis, and to improve customer service.
“I can tell you straight up that we are using it for our website chatbot”, says Leon. “So, we’re teaching it at the moment to be able to answer, absolutely and succinctly, any question that’s thrown at it. However, we want to make sure it’s extremely accurate before we release it, otherwise it is a pointless exercise.”
This use case is also advocated by expert consultant Tamie Matthews, CEO & Founder at RevenYou, with a caveat.
“It still has to sound like you. Because if a customer you’ve worked with for six months suddenly receives an email from you and that email really doesn’t sound like you, they’re going to pick up on that lack of authenticity immediately.”
“To this end, I think you have to sign up for a premium account. You need to upload your marketing strategy, your brand statement, your documents. You need to train it. The better your input, the better your output. But you have to also protect this intellectual property, which a paid account will allow you to do.”
This is particularly crucial for well-known and luxury brands, which have established personalities and identities with reputations built on exceptional customer experiences and personalisation.
VOMO Island Fiji is just one example, with Leon well aware of the balance that needs to be struck.
“We always want to maintain that personalised, heartfelt, luxury – the human touch and connection with our guests. It’s going to very much help us behind the scenes to have AI manage processes more efficiently but guest-facing interactions still need to be very much human,” he says.
“The fact that we’re renowned for our authentic and genuine hospitality – I feel that’s what people come to enjoy. Otherwise, you could be anywhere. And Fiji is everything the world isn’t anymore. Everybody’s trying to escape the world to have lovely experiences here that feel real and meaningful.”
Thibault echoes this sentiment, saying that “the most important thing is to never forget that we are still humans talking to humans. We are all in this business of H2H, so it’s important to communicate like you speak naturally.”
Writing emails and correspondence, crafting room descriptions and website content, answering customer queries, gathering feedback, and advising on communication strategies are all things that AI can and is doing very well for hoteliers right now.
However, it’s only a fraction of what it can do. The most potential, and biggest benefits, for hoteliers lies in predictive analytics – such as using AI to analyse large and diverse data sets to help hoteliers meet guests on exactly the same page to deliver services that are more satisfying but also more profitable for the business.
We’ll talk more about this in part three of our series. Next up though is a dive into what hoteliers are seeing and experiencing on the side of travellers using AI to inform their research and bookings. Stay tuned for part two!
