Recently, leaders from the hospitality and tech industries gathered for a webinar to discuss AI – one of the hottest topics in the industry right now. Discussions focused on AI and its impact on hotels and casinos today and in the future.
Larry Fretz, Senior Managing Partner of Gaming & Hospitality Infotech.
Rohith Korid, SVP Product Strategy at Agilysys.
Tim Kennedy, Senior Sales Director, Duetto.
Fretz started by discussing how hotels could use AI to “rev up” their revenue.
When data and AI are combined with property management and revenue management, the result is not only a smart property but a financial genius, he added.
He said that “gaming and hospitality leaders view AI as promising.” Gaming and hospitality companies are recognizing the potential of AI, even though it isn’t new. AI-mature companies in the hospitality industry have seen eye-opening results. They have achieved 50% higher revenue growth and a 35% greater likelihood of 30% AI-influenced revenues.
Fretz believes that the use cases of GenAI in the industry will be the most disruptive over the next few months. These include conversational booking, dynamic pricing, and attribute-based sales.
What Source Data Means for AI in Hotels
Kori said that it’s important to know the date on which your AI model will be trained. “General purpose ChatGPT was trained using open data. But if you think 12-24 months in advance, when your guest can book an amenity by conversation, it is important that the ChatGPT be trained with your data and not that of your operator. “Having systems that give a comprehensive overview of data and then training your AI models on that data should be the foundational underpinning for your AI strategy,” he said.
Kennedy stated: “From the revenue management perspective, data accuracy is crucial if AI is going to deliver on its promise in hospitality. Modern RMSs will need to ingest data faster, assess its predictive power quickly, and use this data when appropriate to improve forecast accuracy and make better pricing suggestions.
Additional Steps that Hoteliers Can Take to Make AI Usable and Actionable
Kori said, “It is about having a comprehensive look at the solutions you are trying and selecting partners who will do it holistically.” Then, it comes down to choosing the best AI models. “There are many AI models available today, but choosing the one that is most relevant to the hospitality industry is crucial,” he said.
Kennedy said: “It is important for hoteliers to capture, own, and analyze all of their guests’ data, at every stage, from pre-planning to departure. This data should be kept in-house, synthesized, and used to make better choices about the specific guest. The lack of a formal method to measure total guest spending or value was one of the obstacles to loyalty pricing. One of the building blocks is to consider how to standardize and collect as much data as possible about your guests.
Working Together
Kennedy explained how RMS and PMS can work together in order to maximize data AI, value, and market value for hotels. “A team of people using a spreadsheet will never be able keep up with a system or platform that is backed by sophisticated data analysis and algorithms, where the heavy lifting has already been done before the director of revenue even gets to approve pricing decisions.”
Kori continued: “As the labor pool becomes more constrained, employees must focus their efforts on activities that add value. Duetto or Agilysys tools can automate and simplify non-value-generating tasks so that employees can focus on enhancing the guest experience. “All the stuff you do in the back-office, while important and necessary, does not really affect the guest experience. If you can automate this using tools, then it is worth considering.”
