Three companies making an impact

Three hospitality companies discuss how they are using AI, the value it creates, and the possibilities it holds for their industry.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming nearly every industry, and the hospitality industry is set to benefit from several use cases, including improved customer communication, smoother computer systems, and better inventory management.

According to GlobalData AI in Travel and Tourism According to the report, the AI ​​market is expected to reach a value of $909 billion in 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 35.2% between 2022 and 2030. Forerunners in this field are predicted to emerge as industry leaders and shape the future of hospitality management.

Hotel Management Network We spoke to three companies that are already making an impact, all of whom recently attended the International Hotel Technology Forum (IHTF) to speak about their products for hotels and hoteliers.

Canary Technologies

Canary Technologies, the hotel industry's largest guest management system platform, offers a range of AI-powered solutions including mobile check-in, guest check-out, guest messaging, payments, dynamic upselling and more.

Satjot Sawhney, co-founder and president of Canary Technologies, explains: “In the web era, we had Facebook. In the mobile era, we had things like WhatsApp and Instagram. We see Canary as providing a solution in this AI era.”

Canary Technologies offers operations management software across a range of touchpoints in hospitality services, but Sawhney specifically points to the use of AI to support staff and give them the ability to interact personally with guests.

He gives the example of the night shift, an unpopular shift that often runs short on staff, suggesting that AI could answer the phones and handle guest inquiries, allowing available staff to check in guests who arrive late or provide needed amenities elsewhere.

“When you enter a hotel, an AI large language model (LLM) can't shake your hand. It can't hand you the keys,” he says. “It's about getting humans to do higher-level, more interesting, more emotive things and redirect them away from some of the more mechanical, mundane things.”

“This is not a replacement for humans. This is a human superpower. This is not a replacement for hospitality. This is a hospitality superpower. This is not a replacement for human relationships. This is a human relationship superpower. We are not a company that says AI and humans are no longer needed, we are a company that says we are humans with AI.”

While the early adoption of AI has been met with skepticism from concerned customers and hoteliers alike, Sawhney is convinced that AI is here to stay, suggesting that Canary Technologies' solutions could help hotels run more smoothly and even alleviate the hotel industry's talent shortage by creating a more attractive working environment.

“When the elevator was first invented, people were pretty skeptical, but then people realized that when you press the number 5, it goes straight up to number 5, so you don't have to walk five flights of stairs to get to the fifth floor. It's about the value cycle, like calling a hotel at 2am and someone coming out to help you.”

Thinking about the future, he points to a quote from the Harvard Business Review: “AI will not replace humans. But humans with AI will replace humans without AI.”

Gaubendy

In another use of AI in the hospitality industry, Germany-based GauVendi offers an AI-powered sales solution that manages dynamic inventory to provide personalized bookings, revenue management, and automated asset allocation.

Managing Director Markus Müller explains:: “We changed the way we managed inventory and created new data structures and a new language for categorizing real estate assets. We realized that real estate assets have different layouts, different views, different bathroom configurations, and so we created all of those data points.”

These data points enable GauVendi to provide a dynamic inventory and revenue management system, pricing hotel rooms on their own merits and allowing hoteliers to monetize each room's unique location, view, space and amenities.

Mueller also noted that pricing “can be tailored to customer demand or on a per-customer basis. Some people pay a lower minimum, some people pay a higher minimum. Upselling is not necessarily about minimum prices, it's about personalization.”

GauVendi's AI services also offer another use case for automation in the hospitality industry. Optimizing occupancy based on guest needs and price is difficult, and plans change every time a new room is sold. This creates obstacles to selling at 100% occupancy, but Mueller promises that the AI ​​can act “like a Tetris player optimizing for either revenue or occupancy,” moving metaphorical blocks until all guests are well served.

Müller says that with GauVendi's solution, 70% of bookings are now made through automation rather than direct enquiries, phone calls or emails, and many of these bookings are now made directly with hoteliers.

“Operators can sell personalized rooms directly on their website, as well as categorized rooms on booking.com,” he says. “This doesn't mean we don't sell categorized rooms on our website for comparison purposes, but we offer a lot of additional products that OTAs can't offer.”

Everguest

Budapest-based Everguest offers an integrated AI solution that learns and analyzes both hotel and guest characteristics and provides business consulting, including providing actionable insights to save time, improve guest experience, increase booking rates and ADR, and make more informed investment and operational decisions.

Miklós Belán, founder and CEO of Everguest, explains: “Firstly, it removes the need to sift through countless guest reviews and data, providing clear, actionable insights that help hoteliers truly understand what their guests want – which means happier guests and more repeat visitors.”

“Second, it streamlines operations by automating routine tasks, allowing staff to focus on creating an unforgettable experience for their guests. And here's the cool thing: Everguest's AI predicts what guests will need before they even arrive.”

Beran believes the company's AI services “will set a new standard in guest service.” But it's not the technology itself that's exciting. Rather, it's the potential for AI in the hospitality industry to quietly work in the background to help understand guests' needs. “It's like having a dedicated team of analysts available at all times,” Beran says.

He concludes: “AI is not just an extension of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is a revolution in our lifetime. There is no other technological change that can compare to what is happening now, and our mission is to support hoteliers through this groundbreaking change.”

“Guests choose hotels not because of AI itself, but because of the incredible benefits it brings. Hotels that leverage AI can provide superior, personalized service that guests love. AI helps hoteliers understand and anticipate guests' needs, resulting in an unforgettable experience.”