How AI Chatbots for Hotels Are Revolutionizing Guest Engagement

When you’re behind the front desk, inquiries come from every direction. Juggling ringing phones, pinging emails and providing great in-person service is overwhelming. Especially because long lines at the front desk and slow response times can frustrate even the most patient traveler.

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If this is you, great news: AI chatbots are becoming a popular way to provide the digital experiences guests expect, and this is a great way to alleviate the workload on an overwhelmed staff. The 2025 State of Hotel Guest Tech Report says 58% of guests believe AI can improve their stay. For hotels facing an abundance of guest questions, AI chatbots for hotels serve as a perfect solution. These tools anticipate guest needs and provide personalized recommendations in seconds, creating a new standard in hospitality.

Key takeaways:

 
• Hotels using AI chatbots address the needs of guests more efficiently
 
• Travelers will pay more for personalized, tech-powered hotel experiences
 
• AI-powered chatbots deliver great guest service without adding work for staff
 
• The best hotel chatbots are easy to incorporate into your current tech stack  

The Growing Adoption of AI-Based Chatbots for Hospitality

Today’s guests expect more than a comfortable bed. A 2024 survey by Medallia found that 61% of consumers are willing to spend more for personalized experiences, but only 23% of hotel guests report receiving highly personalized guest service. Some examples of what this looks like include:

 
• A handwritten note in their room upon arrival
 
• Tailored suggestions for local activities based on their interests
 
• Hospitality chatbots offering upsells personalized for guest personas

To meet these traveler expectations, hotels are investing in AI tools for better service, and one of the most versatile tools on offer is the hotel AI chatbot.

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Hotel brands that use AI chatbots unlock more revenue and uplevel guest service. Here are a few ways AI tools built for hospitality brands reshape the way hotels do business.

1. Enhance the Entire Guest Journey

Personalizing the guest journey requires consistent and continual attention from your hospitality team. But when your staff is already too busy (or you’re understaffed, like 65% of hotels say they are), this is nearly impossible to do without help. This is where hotel chatbots come in to provide value at each stage of the guest journey. Here are some ideal use cases:

 
• Pre-arrival: Answer reservation questions as potential guests browse, present add-on offers during booking and modify reservations with an AI voice bot
 
• Check-in: Provide Mobile Check-In information, accommodate early arrival requests, answer inquiries and surface relevant upsell offers
 
• In-stay: Enable concierge services (e.g., tailored recommendations, event and activity updates, itinerary assistance) and provide fast responses to guest concerns.
 
• Post-stay: Offer Smart Checkout and automated review collection.  

2. Get Actionable Data Insights

Your ability to tailor experiences based on guest preferences can significantly increase the number of reservations you have on the books. But to do this, you have to know what guests want and personalize your approach accordingly.

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According to Medallia, the personalization guests want the most are:

 
• Rewards based on stay history or loyalty status
 
• Customizations for room types
 
• Exclusive benefits for repeat guests and loyalty members
 
• Multiple avenues to seek support when it’s needed

Chatbots, especially those powered by AI, automatically collect information on browsing behavior, guest preferences and booking history, allowing you to personalize your marketing and promotions.

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For example, hotels using Canary’s AI Webchat can opt to have the tool collect email addresses as it answers questions. These build your marketing database, which you can use to re-engage prospective guests with strategic upselling techniques or booking promotions.

3. Boost Revenue and Direct Bookings

A recent Skift report estimated that hotels spend roughly $47 billion on OTAs. While they do bring in business, they can also be expensive! To keep more profits in-house, use your chatbot to offer direct booking incentives such as rate discounts, additional loyalty points or a voucher for the on-site restaurant.

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These kinds of incentives will reduce your reliance on costly OTAs, encourage guests to book with you directly and lead to increased brand loyalty when guests associate a good stay with you instead of a generic booking site.

4. Lower Operations Cost

Inflation has substantially increased operational costs, making it harder for hoteliers to make a profit. The cost of essential hotel items—from food to linens—is steeply rising alongside labor expenses, leading property managers to leverage tech to help cut hotel costs and manage expenses.

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For example, hotel chatbots can digitize check-in experiences, allowing you to cut back on paper expenses and saving your team time. For example, sending guests a link to complete check-in before arrival eliminates the need for paper registration cards, and staff simply have to hand a guest their key upon arrival.

5. Reduce Staff Workload

By prioritizing your most urgent requests and tagging in a human only when needed, hotel chatbots lighten the workload for your team and give them more time to handle tasks that need a human touch.

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The 2025 Hotel Guest Tech Report found that 70% of guests find chatbots helpful for simple requests like sharing the Wi-Fi password and placing room service orders. Allowing technology to handle easy tasks frees up your staff for bigger problems, like helping a guest plan a special event.

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Read more: Benefits of Using a Hotel Chatbot

7 Ways Hotel AI Chatbots Improve Guest Engagement

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AI hotel chatbots are used for different scenarios, depending on the needs and preferences of guests. Most importantly, AI improves the way you engage guests at every touchpoint with the following benefits:

1. Reliable 24/7 Availability

Even on the slowest days, hotel staff aren’t always available to instantly handle every single request. Chatbots for hotels are always on, modifying reservations, promoting upsells and answering your most common guest questions.

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In addition to having this on your website, adding an AI-powered hotel voice bot to your tech stack—like Canary’s AI Voice platform—equips your staff to “answer” every call immediately and capitalize on every revenue opportunity without adding to staff workload.

2. Comprehensive Multilingual Support

With AI chatbots, your hotel automatically knows how to message guests in hundreds of languages. Chatbots offer 24/7 multilingual help, eliminating language mix-ups or delays and ensuring every guest feels valued.

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Not only does this improve the guest experience, but it also helps expand your potential for direct bookings. Whether you attract a global audience already or want to have the option to, you can be sure everyone can get the answers they need.

3. Enhanced Personalization

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Your chatbot for hotel bookings presents guests with exclusive deals that delight and cultivate loyalty. This can happen with welcome offers when they first browse your site and with re-engagement offers sent after they check out.

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Chatbots also remember guest preferences, like their favorite room type or if they need access to the business center. This insight lets you give each guest a special experience while they’re on property, as your staff will know how to anticipate their needs. Even better, you can strategically offer upsells to your guests based on their interests, boosting your bottom line with little effort.

4. Improved In-Stay Engagement

Part of delivering high-touch guest experiences is tailoring your interactions throughout each stay. Not only do AI chatbots respond to guest concerns immediately, but they also act as your best hotel ambassador. They automatically engage guests in conversations that showcase your premium services and amenities. For example, they:

 
• Offer upsells as part of the automated check-in process
 
• Provide concierge services like local recommendations and transportation
 
• Handle guest feedback and flag complaints to address promptly  

When you customize your conversations with guests and engage them throughout their stay, your revenue skyrockets. Case in point: The Holiday Inn Express & Suites at Orlando’s SeaWorld uses AI to help generate $1,700 in monthly upsells.

5. Proactive Notifications

AI chatbots keep tabs on every guest’s itinerary, delivering instant information, reminders and recommendations. Those activities and amenities you sold at check-in? Set your chatbot to follow up and send reminders to make sure every guest is prepared.

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Chatbots also provide additional suggestions to enhance a stay. For example, guests asking about local attractions might also be interested in a happy hour at your hotel bar, or a guest who requests a crib may benefit from a late checkout for some much-needed rest!

6. Quick Issue Resolution

Instead of relying on your team to always be available to respond to phone calls and messages, a hospitality chatbot responds right away. Need extra towels? Your guest-facing chatbot will automatically create a service ticket to send to housekeeping. Want the address to the closest 24-hour deli? AI can handle that, too..

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AI-fueled messaging tools automate responses to frequent guest inquiries and respond immediately, so guests can access valet information, check-in/checkout times and more with no delay. In fact, one hotel used Canary’s AI Guest Messaging solution to reduce its median response time from 10 minutes to less than one.

7. Streamlined Communication

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Chatbots make it easy for guests to connect with your hotel anytime. They can text, call, chat or use voice commands just like they would if a human were on the other end. This quick, modern communication keeps guests happy and coming back. It also lets staff focus on inquiries that need a human touch while the chatbot handles the rest.

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The Trapp Family Lodge and Resort saw great success with this method. They decreased response time to 30 seconds and reduced call volume by 30% after adopting Canary’s AI Webchat and AI Guest Messaging to streamline guest communication.

How to Implement a Hotel Chatbot

The adoption of AI-based chatbots for hospitality and tourism is fueled by a need for operators to find a better way to balance exceptional service with exceptional speed. Any guest-facing technology you use at your hotel should be easy to integrate and ready to use with minimal training. Here are a few tips for implementing a chatbot solution for hotels.

1. Choose the Right Platform

While every property will have specific needs, the best hotel chatbots have the following key features:

 
• Comprehensive integration: Seamlessly connecting your hotel’s systems helps your staff and guests access real-time information services. For example, your chatbot for hotel bookings should connect to your reservation and property management systems.  
 
• Ease of use: Opt for a bot that you can set up quickly and learn intuitively, so it works with your teams—not against them.  
 
• Holistic functionality: The best chatbot solutions for hotels will help you with multiple facets of your operations, such as driving bookings and providing in-stay communication  
 
• Robust security: Strong encryption and clear consent protocols build trust with your guests, showing them you care about keeping their info safe.
 
• Multiple language options: Operating in multiple languages lets you connect with guests from all over the world, making everyone feel welcome and understood.
 
• Versatile use cases: Hospitality chatbots don’t have to end with text-based chat, as many providers now offer AI voice bots as well

2. Test, Launch and Optimize

Identify where and how you want to use an AI bot before launching so you can prioritize the necessary features and capabilities. For example, you might use an AI booking bot on your website and your phone lines to book more direct reservations, while a messaging bot will communicate with guests throughout their stay.

Because any bot is responding on behalf of your hotel, it’s best to avoid the tendency to flip a switch and go live. Test your guest-facing bot(s) internally to begin with tosee how the bot responds. If necessary, you can then make changes to improve the bot's answers and flow before taking it live.

3. Train Hotel Staff

Seventy percent of all guests find chatbots helpful for simple inquiries, but prefer to work with a human for more complex requests. Teach your staff how to monitor the chatbot and make judgment calls on when to take over.

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For instance, a maintenance request can be handled by AI automatically creating a service ticket through an integration. However, if a guest is upset about a noisy room, a staff member can step in and offer a solution.

4. Monitor Performance

As your hotel chatbot communicates with guests, check for patterns in the data it collects and the answers it provides. If many guests ask the same question, update the chatbot to give an even better answer.

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For example, if a lot of guests ask about the breakfast menu, you can add pictures or more robust descriptions to the chatbot's response or your Digital Compendium. This helps you make sure your chatbot helps your guests (and your team) in the best way possible.

Transform Guest Experience with the Best Hotel Chatbot

Every guest interaction is your chance to build a reputation for outstanding service, so it’s time to make hospitality chatbots part of your tech stack and hotel operations. A robust AI chatbot makes it so you don’t have to choose between giving customers exceptional service or running a more efficient team.

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AI Webchat is Canary’s chatbot solution for hotels—your virtual guest services agent that connects with visitors while they browse your website. Request a demo today to learn how Canary can help your team keep conversations going and increase direct hotel bookings without overwhelming the front desk.