Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in hospitality management, primarily because of its ability to carry out traditionally human functions at any time of the day. This potentially means that hotel owners can save significant money, eliminate human error and deliver superior service.
Use of Artificial Intelligence Within the Hospitality Industry
Hotel operations have been radically changed by the advent of artificial intelligence. You only need to look at the incredible number of tasks that front desk staff are expected to juggle to realize that, without artificial intelligence, the situation would be very different. At any given moment, many things occur simultaneously at the front desk:
- The phone is ringing.
- Guests wait to be checked in.
- Guests are submitting online queries.
- Guests are asking questions in person.
In addition to juggling all of these tasks, employees are expected to be courteous, kind, to verify guest documents thoroughly, provide their undivided attention, and answer questions promptly. Since human beings are not actually able to multitask, how do you ensure that all of these things happen simultaneously and correctly? The answer is, with artificial intelligence.
An AI-powered phone system can intelligently route calls. Chatbots can answer basic questions online. AI-connected remote check-in systems can allow guests to check into their rooms remotely via a smartphone app and never need to stop at the front desk to begin with.
Without AI, it would be impossible for your team to deliver the level and quality of service that you expect and your guests deserve. It would also be impossible to live up to today’s guest expectations, such as less human interaction and more automation (both of which are important for health and safety protocols).
Artificial Intelligence can also be used for in-person customer service. We are already seeing the development of robots with artificial intelligence and the potential for this technology to grow is enormous. Already, it is able to deal with basic customer-facing situations.
The best example of this so far has been an AI robot called ‘Connie’, adopted by Hilton. The robot is able to provide tourist information to customers who interact with it. Most impressively, it is able to learn from human speech and adapt to individuals. Ultimately, this means the more customers speak to it, the better it will get.
Another way in which AI is being utilized within the hotel industry away from pure customer service is in data analysis. In this capacity, the technology can be used to quickly sort through large amounts of data and draw important conclusions about customers, or potential customers.
An example of this has been seen with the Dorchester Collection hotel chain, which has made use of the Metis AI platform. By using this technology, the company has been able to sort through data collected via surveys, online reviews etc. and the AI has been able to then analyse this to draw conclusions about overall performance.
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