AI is transforming almost every industry, and hospitality looks set to benefit from several use cases, including improved customer communication, smoother computer systems and better-managed inventories.
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According to GlobalData’s AI in Travel and Tourism report, the AI market will be worth $909bn in 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of 35.2% between 2022 and 2030. It posits that companies that stay ahead of the curve will emerge as industry leaders and will shape the future of hospitality management.
Hotel Management Network spoke to three companies already making an impact, all of which recently attended the International Hotel Technology Forum (IHTF) to speak about their offerings for hotels and hoteliers.
Canary Technologies
The largest guest management system platform in the hotel industry, Canary Technologies offers a range of AI-powered solutions, including mobile check-in, guest checkout, guest messaging, payments and dynamic upsells.
Co-founder and president at Canary Technologies Satjot Sawhney explains: “For the web era, there was Facebook; for the mobile era, things like WhatsApp, and Instagram were born. I would think about Canary as providing the solutions in this AI era.”
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By GlobalDataCanary Technologies offers operations management software across various touchpoints of hospitality services; however, Sawhney specifically points to the use of AI to support staff and provide them with the capacity to engage personally with guests.
He points to the example of a night shift, an unpopular shift which tends to be understaffed. He suggests that AI could answer phones and manage guest queries, whilst available staff check in late arrivals, or deliver needed facilities elsewhere.
“When you walk into a hotel, an AI large language model (LLM) cannot shake your hand. It cannot hand you a key,” he says. “It’s about letting the humans do the higher level, more interesting and emotive things, and redirecting from some of the mechanical, mundane things.”
“It is not a human replacement. It is a human superpower. It is not a hospitality replacement. It is a hospitality superpower. It is not a relationship replacement. It’s a relationship superpower. We’re not a company that’s here to say AI and no more humans, we’re here to say, humans with AI.”
Despite some scepticism around the initial introduction of AI – both from concerned customers and hoteliers – Sawhney is confident that AI is here to stay, suggesting that Canary Technologies’ solutions will aid hotels’ smooth operations, perhaps even easing the sector’s talent gap by making it a more appealing place to work.
“Folks were quite sceptical of the elevator when it first got invented, but people realised you press five and it goes straight up to five, you don’t have to walk five flights of stairs. It’s about the value cycle; it’s about when I call the hotel at 2am, and someone picks up and helps me navigate.”
Considering its future, he points to a quote from the Harvard Business Review: “AI Won’t Replace Humans – But Humans With AI Will Replace Humans Without AI.”
GauVendi
In an alternative use for AI in the hospitality sector, Germany-based GauVendi offers an AI-powered sales solution, which manages a dynamic inventory to offer personalised reservations, revenue management and automated asset distribution.
Managing director Markus Mueller explains: “We have changed the way inventory is managed and created a new data structure and new language for real estate assets in terms of clustering them into categories – we note that they have different layouts, different views, different bathroom setups, and so on, and we created all these data points.”
These data points enable GauVendi to offer property and revenue management systems for dynamic inventory, pricing hotel rooms according to their specific advantages, and allowing hoteliers to monetise each individual room’s unique location, view, space and facilities.
Mueller also points out that the pricing can be adjusted “depending on the customer demand, or even by customer. Some people will pay for a low floor, and some for a high floor. The upsell is not necessarily the floor, but the personalisation.”
GauVendi’s AI offering provides hospitality with another use too: automation. Optimising occupancy based on guest needs and prices is difficult, and every new room sale shifts plans. It’s an obstacle to selling 100% occupancy, but Mueller promises that AI can work “as a Tetris player to optimize either by revenue or by occupancy,” shifting the metaphorical blocks until every guest is adequately provided for.
Mueller says that GauVendi’s solutions have resulted in 70% of reservations being made through automation, rather than through direct enquiries, phone calls and emails, and that more of these bookings have been made directly with hoteliers.
“The operator can sell personalized rooms directly on the website, and can sell categorized rooms on booking.com,” he says. “That doesn’t mean that they don’t sell categories for comparison purposes on their website too, but they offer a lot more additional products than an OTA can’t offer.”
Everguest
Offering insight on both sides of the coin, Budapest-based Everguest offers an integrated AI solution which learns and analyses the characteristics of both hotels and their guests to deliver business consultancy. This includes providing actionable insights, in order to save time, enhance guest experiences, boost booking rates and ADR, and make more informed investment and managerial decisions.
Everguest’s founder and CEO Miklós Belán explains: “First, it takes the headache out of sifting through endless guest reviews and data, delivering clear, actionable insights so hoteliers can truly understand what their guests want. This means happier guests and more repeat visits.
“Second, it streamlines operations by automating routine tasks, freeing up staff to focus on creating unforgettable guest experiences. And here’s the fascinating part: Everguest’s AI will predict what guests need before they arrive.”
Belán believes the company’s AI offering “sets a new standard for guest service,” but it’s not the technology itself that appeals. Instead, it’s the potential to use AI in hospitality to support an understanding of guest needs, silently from the background. “It’s like having a team of dedicated analysts at your disposal,” says Belán.
He concludes: “AI isn’t just an extension of the fourth industrial revolution, it’s the revolution of our lifetime. There’s no technological shift comparable to what’s happening today, and our mission is to support hoteliers through this monumental change.
“Guests won’t choose hotels for the AI itself, but for the incredible benefits it brings. Hotels that harness AI can offer superior, personalized services that guests love. AI helps hoteliers understand and anticipate guest needs, leading to unforgettable experiences.”
