Virtual Assistants

Virtual Assistants

AI-powered virtual assistants are able to interact with customers 24/7 in several ways without any wait time—for bookings, feedback, instant responses about facilities, check-in/checkout details, nearby tourist attractions and customer requests. These chatbots offer convenience to customers, particularly the modern young travellers who prefer to be serviced and get personalised attention without human intervention, especially in the aftermath of Covid. Some hotels have been using Siri or Alexa in their hotel rooms to welcome guests and help them with voice-activated support service to customise their preferences.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics is being used in several areas related to hospitality. Hotel occupancy, design of loyalty programmes, planning of special events and discounts, staff turnover, inventory management and energy consumption optimisation are a few examples of areas that are benefiting the most from the analysis of purchase behaviour, competition trends and buyer preferences through predictive analytics.

Predictive analytics and machine learning would continue to play key roles in decision-making, for which data collection, organisation and cleaning up of the data would be essential to build robust models that have to be regularly trained to come up with relevant recommendations.

Dynamic Pricing Models

In earlier times, the hotel industry and customers were used to seasonal or weekend pricing. Digital service providers born on the internet and intermediaries have set the new trend of dynamic pricing, which has become the accepted norm for the industry. Dynamic pricing not only allows customers the advantage of booking as convenient but also enables the hotels to maximise revenues by allowing the algorithms to periodically determine the prices dynamically based on the factors driving the supply-and-demand status, including competitor data and the historic data of increase or decrease in tariffs. Decision making on tariffs also becomes much easier with the forecasting of revenues the models could provide at different price points for different scenarios.

AI-led Resource Management

Hotels consume large amounts of water, electricity and gas. AI could be helpful in managing such resources based on past usage and could specifically create patterns that allow the management to efficiently conserve use of such resources, thus reducing costs. Wastage also occurs in consumption and inventory of food items, laundry and housekeeping, and the spend in such cases could also be optimised.

Robotics for Routine Tasks

As human costs keep increasing and costs of technology dropping, it is inevitable that AI-powered robots would become more affordable for carrying out routine tasks in the days to come. Some hotels are already deploying robots to clean rooms or for basic customer service. This trend is likely to intensify for deployment in seemingly routine or mundane tasks in maintenance, gardening or inventory management, thus cutting down the guest waiting time and enhancing satisfaction. Some hotels in Japan have introduced robots to welcome and interact with the guests.7 In India, several restaurants are using robots to deliver food to the table and enhance the dining experience. Examples include Moti Mahal, Robot Biriyani and Buhari (Chennai), Yesss Barbecue (Coimbatore), Chitti in Town (Visakhapatnam) and Indian Grill Room (Gurugram).8

Facial Recognition for Security and Guest Service

At times, we are pleasantly surprised to hear the gardener or the housekeeping staff call out our names in hotels that have hundreds of guests and which we may or may not frequent. While this may have been more of an exception than routine in some of the properties of the Taj Hotel where the recall is through personal interest or memory and planned human interventions for select customers, personalising guest experiences for a large customer base has become more feasible with analytics. Apart from name and face recall through face recognition techniques, based on the data models built around guest preferences and past interactions, it is possible to offer personalised options for stay or sightseeing or dining, thus maximising customer delight and revenue generation.

Facial recognition for enhanced security and avoidance of human errors is being utilised in several airports. This technology could be used in hotels as part of the check-in/checkout processes, which would not only minimise the time involved but also ensure security and safety for the hotel guests. This would also mean convenience for the customers at various points of interaction at the hotel premises.

AR and VR for Immersive Experiences

AR and VR technologies would help customers to have interactive experiences with the hotel facilities well before they decide to make their bookings. Such immersive experiences are enabling hotels to differentiate themselves from competitors by being transparent and enabling customers to make informed decisions about the hotel and the surroundings. It would be possible to glean data about their preferences from these interactions, and the hotel staff could be well prepared to customise their in-person experiences when they arrive on their premises.

AI-led Operations Management

Integrating AI applications in the core operations of hotels or resorts would help in enhancing operations efficiency. This could include interventions in several areas such as housekeeping needs based on real-time updates and forecast of room occupancy trends, scheduling of maintenance based on predictive analytics, unique experiences for guests based on their profiles through CRM systems, better inventory control based on trends of consumption and bookings made to help optimise inventory, creation of a seamless supply chain to ensure no stock run-outs and optimised staffing plans to meet with the projected occupancy rates.