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It’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) offers the hotel industry competitive advantages.
Hospitality-focused AI tools can transform every aspect of the hotel experience, from improved guest services to streamlined hotel operations.
If you’re considering hopping on the AI bandwagon, we commend your commitment to innovation. Industry Arch estimates the travel and hospitality AI market will surpass $1.2 billion by 2026.
As AI capabilities grow, new technology enables hotels to make informed decisions about every aspect of the hotel experience. Below, we’ll show you how you can incorporate AI tools to boost revenue and improve operations.
But first, the basics.
While many use the term “AI” as a catchall for any and all manner of technologies, technologists divide it into two primary categories: Predictive AI and generative AI.
Hotel brands like Hilton, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts are just a few of the recognizable brands implementing many of these AI examples in hospitality.
With the right hotel-centric AI tools, you can streamline guest and staff communication, help with staff shortages, and make informed decisions about building maintenance. Here are a few ways you can incorporate AI technology into your hotel operations.
While chatbots aren’t a new concept, their quality and breadth have expanded greatly thanks to ChatGPT and similar tools. Now, hospitality-specific AI technology allows hotels to leverage concierge bots and digital assistants to handle many guest requests, freeing up hotel staff to focus on more important human tasks.
By leveraging AI, today’s chatbots can answer frequently asked questions guests have about check-in times, WiFi access and local recommendations for area attractions
Some technology, like Canary AI, can prioritize guest requests by urgency and escalate them to a human as needed. Plus, it’s all done with your consistent brand voice and grammatically correct messages.
A McKinsey study shows 71% of consumers want more personalized guest experiences — and 76% are frustrated if they don’t get it. Hospitality-focused tools like AI-powered chatbots and digital concierges improve the guest experience by offering personalization at scale.
Hotel managers understand the value of upselling, but it requires training and nuance to do it well. Predictive AI can help. For example, AI upsell tools can offer families with young children tickets to a local amusement park and, at the same time, offer a couple a bottle of wine or a room upgrade.
Such upsells can increase ancillary revenue by more than 200% and boost guest satisfaction.
Guests prefer a seamless digital experience when they travel, which can include contactless check-in and prompt responses to messages. For example, Skift’s Hospitality Trends for 2025 reports that 53.6% of guests want contactless check-in and checkout, and another 39.3% want mobile guest services.
AI tools can handle these tasks so hotel staff can focus on the guests.
Staff can also utilize AI to analyze data and help them make informed decisions about guest room allocation, occupancy rates and building maintenance, among other things.
Online reviews offer insight into your guests’ preferences — if you’ve got time to study them continually. Not only can AI help you get more reviews, it can also help you scour them for patterns in the feedback and deliver their responses in an easy-to-read format. Now, you can spot areas for improvement in minutes vs. hours of manually building a spreadsheet.
Plus, strong online reviews improve your hotel’s online visibility. Your AI tool can prompt guests to leave a review, and when it’s positive, the AI tool asks if they want to leave the review on Booking.com or TripAdvisor. There’s no awkwardness from your front desk staff in asking for reviews.
Skift’s Hospitality Industry Trends report found travelers want convenience, control and comfort. More specifically, 43.2% of travelers want voice-controlled speakers and smart lighting.
AI’s ability to analyze real-time data of smart technology and optimize energy efficiency means energy savings that pad your bottom line. Guests will be happy, too, as customers are increasingly searching for brands that prioritize sustainability.
At a high level, revenue management is your business’ pricing strategy determined by market demand and your competition.
Every hotel manager knows they’re sitting on perishable inventory — if you don’t sell the room today, that opportunity is gone. Predictive AI scours historical data to make future predictions on occupancy, customer satisfaction, competitive analysis and distribution channels.
For example, a hospitality-specific AI solution can pull data based on occupancy rate, average daily rate (ADR), revenue available per room (RevPar), segmentation, distribution channel and other key performance indicators. The more informed your team, the better you can maximize revenue.
Predictive analytics can reduce maintenance issues in key equipment and lower utility usage. AI sensors monitor real-time data on hotel equipment to alert your maintenance team of potential issues.
Besides avoiding big-ticket problems, predictive analytics can lower day-to-day energy costs by turning off lights and air conditioning in unoccupied rooms.
The hospitality industry is rife with data breaches and fraud, which can eat into your bottom line as much as 5% to 6%, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
AI tools with built-in fraud detection reduce fraud and chargebacks and protect your customer’s data.
As you can see from these AI examples in hospitality, AI tools help hotel staff make informed decisions about everything from room rates to how to scale personalized service. Today’s digitally-savvy travelers expect the convenience of a seamless digital experience. AI tools built for the hospitality industry can help you surpass guest expectations.
Want to learn more about building an AI program for your hotel? Explore AI fundamentals, use cases, implementation and risks with The Ultimate Guide to AI in Hospitality.
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