What is hotel automation?
Hotel automation is the use of technology to perform routine tasks and manage operations in a hotel with minimal human intervention. This includes automating guest check-ins, housekeeping schedules, inventory management, and communication with guests through automated messaging platforms. Automation helps hotels operate more smoothly and allows staff to focus on high-value tasks, improving both operational efficiency and the guest experience.
How is hotel automation changing the industry?
Hotel automation is making an impact on the industry; particularly on day-to-day operations, by providing practical solutions for improving efficiency and guest satisfaction. Here are a few concrete examples on how automation is transforming the hotel industry:
- Automated check-in and mobile key access: Implementing self-service kiosks or mobile check-in systems allows guests to skip long wait times at the front desk. With mobile key access, guests can unlock their rooms using their smartphones, adding a layer of convenience while freeing up staff to focus on more personalised service.
- Housekeeping automation: Using automated systems to schedule and track housekeeping tasks ensures that rooms are cleaned and ready for new guests without delays. These systems can also alert staff when rooms are vacant, ensuring efficient room turnovers. With real-time updates, housekeeping can adjust their schedules based on occupancy, reducing downtime and improving service quality.
- Dynamic pricing adjustments: Automation can analyse real-time data on occupancy, market demand, and competitor rates, allowing your hotel to adjust pricing dynamically. This ensures that your property remains competitive, optimising revenue without manual intervention.
- Guest messaging platforms: Automated messaging systems allow hotels to communicate with guests in real time. For example, sending welcome messages, room upgrade offers, or notifications about hotel services through SMS or email can be automated, ensuring a seamless guest experience while reducing the need for direct staff involvement.
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Why is hotel automation the next big thing in hospitality?
Hotel automation gives guests faster, on-demand service, reduces manual work for your team, and turns your data into better decisions. It streamlines check-in and check-out, service requests, housekeeping and maintenance so staff can focus on personal touches. Connected to your PMS, it reveals behaviour and demand trends so you can adjust pricing, occupancy and offers at the right time.
Guests: In today’s world, guests expect seamless, on-demand service that enhances their overall experience. Automation allows hotels to meet these expectations by streamlining processes such as check-in/check-out, room service, and communication through digital platforms. This not only improves the guest experience but also frees up staff to focus on more meaningful, personalised interactions.
Staff: From an operational standpoint, hotel automation helps reduce costs by minimising manual tasks, eliminating errors, and optimising resource allocation. For example, automating room availability updates, housekeeping schedules, and maintenance requests ensures efficiency, leading to better staff management and faster service. Hotels that leverage automation can also scale more easily and adjust to fluctuating demand, making them more adaptable to market trends.
Management: Beyond efficiency, automation empowers hotels with data-driven insights, allowing owners to make smarter decisions on pricing, occupancy, and guest preferences. By integrating automated systems with property management software (PMS), hotels can track guest behaviour, personalise offers, and ultimately increase revenue by targeting the right services at the right time.
The bottom line is automation makes life easier for everyone involved, from the staff providing the experience and the guest having that experience.
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What are the benefits of hotel automation?
Automation is all about efficiency, ease, and providing the best experience – but it’s also about boosting revenue, supporting long-term growth, and gaining/retaining competitive advantage. Here’s how:
Hotel automation solutions improve revenue and upselling opportunities
Automation provides hotels with tools to boost revenue through intelligent upselling and pricing strategies. Automated systems can suggest upgrades, additional services, or package deals to guests at the right moments during their stay. For instance, offering a room upgrade during check-in or promoting spa services through automated messaging increases guest spending without the need for extra staff.
Hotel automation software supports long-term growth and sustainability for hotels
Automation helps hotels optimise operations while keeping costs under control, contributing to sustainable growth. Automated property management systems (PMS) centralise operations, making it easier to manage resources and reduce waste. Long-term, this leads to better resource allocation, cost savings, and scalability as the hotel business expands.
Hotel automation technology helps medium-sized hotels compete with larger chains
Medium-sized hotels can leverage automation technology to level the playing field against larger hotel chains. By using advanced booking engines, automated guest communications, and dynamic pricing tools, smaller hotels can offer the same level of convenience, speed, and personalisation as larger brands, enhancing their competitive edge in the market.
Hotel automation technology can help you:
- Lift revenue with automated upsells and dynamic pricing. Start with pre-arrival upgrade offers and in-stay messages for spa, dining, late checkout, or parking.
- Build sustainable growth by centralising operations in your PMS. Automate housekeeping schedules, room status, maintenance tickets, and inventory sync to cut errors and cost.
- Compete with chains by matching digital speed and personalisation. Add an advanced booking engine, automated guest messaging, and rules-based pricing so your team delivers fast, consistent service without extra headcount.
What areas of hotel operations should you automate first?
So you’re sold on automation for your hotel. How do you make it happen? Automation makes things faster, but getting started can feel slow. Here are a few key areas to focus on first.
Sales and revenue management
Automated revenue management systems use real-time data to adjust room rates based on demand, market trends, and competitor pricing. This dynamic pricing model ensures that your hotel maximises revenue potential without manually updating rates. Implementing automated upselling during booking or check-in can further increase your average revenue per guest.
Hotel operations and management
Property management systems (PMS) that integrate hotel automation streamline daily operations such as housekeeping, maintenance, and staff scheduling. By automating these tasks, hotels can ensure rooms are ready for new guests faster, and any maintenance issues are addressed promptly, improving overall operational efficiency.
Reception and front desk administration
Self-service kiosks, mobile check-in options, and automated key distribution are becoming popular tools in automating front desk operations. By implementing these systems, hotels can reduce check-in times, increase guest satisfaction, and alleviate the workload on front desk staff.
Tini Diekmann,
Sales and Revenue Manager
Hotel Oderberger Berlin
What are key factors to consider when implementing hotel automation strategies?
The key factors to consider when taking your first (or next) steps in hotel automation are to audit where automation will move the needle, choose tools that fit your size and roadmap, and plan integration and training so people and systems work in sync. Get clear on pain points, pick a platform that plays nicely with your PMS, and equip your team to use it confidently.
Why this matters now:
- Automation already pays off: 93% of hoteliers report operational efficiency gains, so quantify time saved per task and use it to prioritise your rollout.
- Guests love automation: 58% appreciate AI-enabled booking, making guest messaging, mobile check-in and smart upgrades low-friction wins.
- Savings go beyond labour: smart building and preventive maintenance can cut energy costs up to 30% and maintenance up to 40%, so include building systems and maintenance workflows in scope.
Step 1: Assess your current operational needs
Before implementing any automation tools, evaluate which areas of your hotel would benefit the most from automation. Identify pain points in daily operations, such as front desk bottlenecks, labour-intensive housekeeping tasks, or inefficiencies in guest communication.
Pro-tip: automation is rarely a one-and-done deal. Repeat this step during yearly planning to see what the next step for your automation journey could be.
Step 2: Choose the right automation tools
Select automation tools that align with your hotel’s size, budget, and operational needs. For instance, small to medium-sized hotels might prioritise automating front desk operations and booking management, while larger properties may look at revenue management systems and dynamic pricing software.
Pro-tip: Plan for the future before you pick! While you may have a specific idea in mind for automating your hotel and only feel like you need a single solution, remember that automation must integrate with your wider operations – and having lots of different tools stuck together can create problems rather than solve them. Work with a platform that can solve multiple automation issues and/or integrate with third party tools as well.
Step 3: Plan for integration and training
Ensure that your chosen automation tools can seamlessly integrate with your existing hotel management systems. Provide comprehensive training for staff to ensure they are comfortable with the new technology and can manage any guest interactions with ease.
Pro-tip: Training is paramount. No matter how advanced your hotel automation, humans will nearly always be involved at some point – and that means the chance for human error. Train staff – and retrain them regularly on new features – to keep the gears turning smoothly.
What are the top Hotel Automation Solutions in 2025?
Here’s a practical shortlist you can act on today. In 2025, the quickest wins come from automating arrivals, access, and task-heavy admin. Each tool below is available via SiteMinder’s Hotel App Store, so you can plug it into your existing workflow with minimal lift.
- Automate Accommodation: Remote front desk and keyless access in one place. Use it to run core arrivals tasks in minutes, cut lobby queues, and keep the experience contactless for guests.
- Vikey: Self check-in plus smart access control. Open doors remotely, digitise registration, and add a simple digital concierge layer for upgrades and information.
- AiHOMS: Hotel-focused digital assistant to automate routine comms and operational tasks. Ideal when you want consistent pre-arrival messaging and smoother in-stay requests without adding headcount.
- Centurion: Robust access management for doors, gates, and electronic locks. Centralise how keys and entries are issued, monitored, and updated for staff, contractors, and guests.
