Artificial Intelligence’s role in improving efficiencies, maximising profitability and enhancing the guest experience continues to evolve at speed.
It can automate an ever-increasing number of manual and repetitive tasks, analyse huge swathes of data, and provide plenty of insights, which can be used for revenue management, personalisation, plus marketing and sales support.
Hotels can’t ignore AI because guests expect it as part of the experience. Your challenge as a hospitality professional is to figure out where it can give your organisation a competitive edge and how it can improve your day-to-day role.
Many of the answers can be found in this report on AI for venue sales and marketing, written by Jur Munnik, Director Meetings & Events, Postillion Hotels on behalf of IACC.
Based on these insights, read on for eight suggestions on how to leverage AI, plus some top tips on getting the most out of generative AI tools like ChatGPT.
How AI can benefit your hospitality business
1. Analyse guest feedback
Processing large volumes of data is what AI does best. It can even help you draw out insights you may not have spotted. By analysing third-party reviews and feedback using AI, you can identify key themes and make more informed improvements.
Consider capturing guest feedback and preferences at both check-in and check-out. The AI will alert you to anything that can be actioned in real-time while also updating customer profiles so that repeat stays receive a more personalised experience.
2. Optimise inventory
AI and automation are key to managing room blocks, function space and meeting rooms. To maximise revenues, you don’t want premium inventory to go unused or undersold.
Data-driven insights can help you decide which event enquiries are likely to convert, where room upgrades should be offered, and how best to upsell and maximise meetings space.
Jur Munnik, Director Meetings & Events, Postillion Hotels says in his IACC report on AI for venue sales and marketing:
"AI will review forward bookings to intuitively present the guest with the opportunity to upgrade their room type. The tool will also adapt to the guest’s behaviour based on the type of the booking. For example, if children were included in the reservation, it would know not to suggest an adult suite as a potential upgrade.
At the front desk, the tool will also provide Front Office colleagues with an overview of the guest’s interaction with the platform, providing them the opportunity and confidence to attempt to upsell with a personal touch. Whilst in-house, guests will also be presented with additional add-ons, allowing for all revenue generating opportunities to be fully exploited on an automated basis."
An automated revenue management system meanwhile will optimally price rooms and function spaces based on supply and demand, local events, historical data and more.
3. Achieve greater reach
Guests and groups have access to more booking channels than ever. To keep pace with consumer demands and increase your market reach, use AI-driven distribution technology to connect your property management systems to booking engines, venue-sourcing platforms and other channels.
To maximise the opportunity within each channel, make sure that your property details are consistently updated with the latest information and visuals.
Event planners for example, will use AI-powered search on venue-sourcing websites to shortlist your hotel based on critical information. This may include average room rates, average daily meal costs, the total number of sleeping rooms, activities, environmental credentials, entertainment options, star ratings, promotions, and venue pictures.
4. Be more targeted
AI can help you understand customer insights and behaviour. For example, if certain guest profiles consistently browse spa packages on your property’s website, targeted offers featuring health and wellbeing can be tailored for those audiences.
AI-driven marketing across platforms like Google and Meta can also optimise your ad reach by targeting specific segments and creating look-alike models to attract similar potential groups.
AI has helped targeting advertising become smarter, faster, and more accessible for hotels of all sizes, not just those with large budgets.
5. Manage RFPs
Manually entering data from client enquiries into your CRM system is a time-consuming process, which as Jur Munnik points out, can go unrewarded when requests don’t convert into actual bookings.
AI tools will not only let you manage RFPs by automating the data-entry process, they will also allow you to standardise answers to the most frequently asked questions, ensuring that your response times quicken and you consistently provide the most up-to-date and accurate information.
6. Enhance customer support
AI-powered chatbots help you provide more personalised, efficient, and engaging interactions with planners, guests and group bookers.
Chatbots can answer anything from simple queries like: ‘When does the restaurant open for dinner?’ to more complex questions like: ‘What are your sustainability initiatives?’
7. Streamline marketing
Generative AI systems like ChatGPT can help you:
- Brainstorm creative ideas
- Craft email campaigns
- Build sales presentations
- Write social media copy
- Generate FAQ website pages
- Come up with relevant keywords for SEO
- Produce a first draft for collateral such as blogs and website copy
- Translate marketing copy into different languages
Remember though, the quality of the AI-powered output will depend on the quality of the human input. It’s important therefore to provide the AI with the right prompts and key information such as audience, tone of voice, word count and other details (read on for top tips on ChatGPT prompts).
8. Work more collaboratively with planners
AI can play a pivotal role in strengthening your relationships with meeting planners by allowing you to work more collaboratively.
For example, a 3D diagramming tool like Cvent Event Diagramming enables real-time sharing of room layouts and seating designs.
This tech-inspired collaboration on event design reduces the need for multiple site visits, saving you both time and resources.
Learn More: Artificial Intelligence for Conference & Meeting Hotels and Venues by Jur Munnik
Top tips for writing ChatGPT prompts
‘Prompts’ are well-structured and specific instructions that guide AI language models to generate accurate and relevant responses. The better prompts you write, the more you will be able to rely on systems such as ChatGPT as an assistant.
An effective Generative AI strategy curates a culture of experimentation. Venues have to be willing to take risks and try new approaches to harness the potential of AI - Jur Munnik, Director Meetings & Events, Postillion Hotels
Be clear and specific
Make sure your prompt is clear and concise. Use complete sentences and avoid ambiguous language. Specify the topic you want the AI to focus on.
Provide context
Provide background information to help the AI understand the context. For example, including the type of guest, their preferences and the industry sector you’re targeting will help give the AI a more complete picture to work with.
Experiment
If the initial response is not what you want, experiment with different phrasings or rephrase your prompt. Refine your prompts based on the AI's responses to obtain the information needed.
Break down complexity
Rather than ask a complex question, break it down into smaller, more digestible parts. This will help the AI focus on each component and provide more accurate answers.
Use examples and clarifications
Provide examples or clarify your request with additional information when necessary. This can help the AI better understand your intent.
Avoid yes/no questions
Stay clear of questions that can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ It’s better to ask open-ended questions that encourage detailed responses.
Guide the length of the output
Unless you specify the length of response you want, you’ll end up with either too much information or too little. It’s best to stipulate a word count or the number of sentences you require in your prompt.
Review and edit
After receiving a response, review it for accuracy, relevance, and alignment with your goals. You should never use what ChatGPT gives you verbatim. Make sure you always edit and put your spin on it, especially when creating content.
Risks of relying on AI
The speed at which AI is infiltrating all types of hospitality businesses means that you should keep a few things in mind when implementing and experimenting with tools and technology.
Data privacy
How you use and store customer data has long been a concern. Remember GDPR and the amount of work required by hospitality businesses to ensure compliance with the regulations?
Remember that any sensitive or personal data analysed or entered into an AI-powered tool can end up in the public domain and could result in serious data security issues.
Biases
AI can only draw from information which is already available. It can't necessarily identify between correct or fake information, nor can it influence any biases in the collected data.
Therefore, if programmes have been created with inadvertent, in-built bias, the results of any AI data analysis will contain the same in-built bias.
Lack of emotion and creativity
When using AI for content creation, you should always edit, review and add personality and house-style points to ensure the content resonates with your audience.
Remember, if you and your competitors are writing similar prompts, the content provided by AI will be very similar — and you’ll end up producing mediocre content.
Copyright and accuracy
Check everything produced by AI so that you don’t accidentally infringe on someone else’s copyright.
Generative AI has been known to ‘hallucinate’ information presented as fact so make sure you ask for sources and fact-check everything.
Ethics
AI should be deployed ethically and responsibly. Always be transparent with guests about the use of AI and its impact on their data and privacy.
For example, if your online customer service is a chatbot, rather than manned by a human, communicate this in the conversation and manage guest expectations.
4 AI tools to start experimenting with
1. Social Listening: AI-powered social listening tools like Sprinklr can monitor social media conversations and sentiments related to your hotel, its competitors, and the industry.
This information can guide your hotel’s social media strategy and customer engagement.
2. Video Captioning and Transcription: AI-powered tools like VEED can automatically generate captions and transcriptions for your videos, making them more accessible and improving SEO.
3. Email Marketing: AI algorithms can analyse historical email engagement data and customer behaviour to identify the best times to send emails.
A tool like Seventh Sense uses AI to determine the best time to send your email campaigns based on a variety of factors.
4. Keyword research: A tool like Semrush can analyse search trends and user behaviour to identify relevant keywords and search terms that can improve the hotel’s search engine rankings and increase organic traffic.
Are you ready for an AI-powered future?
Hoteliers and hospitality professionals are on a constant quest for improved efficiencies and more personalised guest experiences so AI is proving to be the ideal technology companion.
It can help you make more informed decisions, provide more exceptional service and drive greater profitability.
Staying ahead means experimenting with and embracing AI-driven tools and technologies. Only then can you truly future-proof your business, while understanding and leveraging AI’s capabilities both for today and the long term.
For more inspiration and great advice, read The Complete Guide to Digital Marketing for Hotels and Event Venues.
