SAN ANTONIO — The impact of artificial intelligence on the hotel industry has been up for debate for years now, and experts are ultimately still divided on what a fully AI-enabled and equipped travel industry looks like.
The topic kicked off Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals' annual HITEC event. Floor Bleeker, consultant at In2 Consulting — and previously chief technology officer at Accor — said AI will change everything, which will be to the customer's gain.
"Big brands, they depend on their distribution ability to get owners on board. One of the main reasons why a hotel signs up is because of distribution loyalty that they have," Bleeker said on the opening panel of HITEC. "If AI somehow replaces that distribution... then you don't need the brand anywhere in between. It democratizes distribution, so the brand loses one of its unique selling points."
Brands will have to think differently, and they'll have to offer more than just their loyalty programs, Bleeker said.
"They have to go inside the hotel again and provide amazing guest experiences and provide an amazing, efficient operations in order to win the contract from owners," he added.
Keryn McNamara, chief information officer of Aimbridge Hospitality, said loyalty programs aren't going anywhere, but they will have to evolve. She predicted the AI impact will be on the guest experience.
"When I think about how [AI is] going to affect a guest, I think of 'frictionless' and 'customized experience,'" she said. "We're taking out the middle man. We're putting our guests just closer to what they actually want."
Representing the brand side of the conversation, Scott Strickland, chief commercial officer of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said he's viewing AI as a new booking channel. For now, guests may be using generative AI to learn more about hotel options, but they move over to book directly if they are a loyalty member. In the future, however, that AI tool will already know its user's loyalty information.
One thing Strickland wants to prepare for is AI via voice technology. He said the industry is only six to 12 months away from early adopters having voice conversations with AI agents to book their trips.
"As a brand, we've been leaning into those apps, ... because we need to iterate quickly and understand where that conversation is going, so we can be part of it and try to shape it," he said.
Yet the hotel industry's business fundamentals remain the throughline as the world evolves with AI, said Lennert de Jong, CEO of Another Star, which spun out following Marriott International’s acquisition of the CitizenM brand.
"In the end, it's people. They need to stay in a hotel room — that's that's been there forever and not going to change," he said.
But the evolution of the guest experience is long overdue, de Jong said.
"I do think there will be a much bigger focus on the guest experience that has been neglected," he said. "One of the things that I'm not proud of is that in all these 25 years, we've barely been able to move the needle when it comes to guest experience, and especially [in the] last 10 years."
De Jong said that some technology should be able to help in this evolution, but the timing is up for debate. With a lot of AI technology in the mix for years now, why now for the real impact? To McNamara and Strickland, it's because the technology has come a long way and is now much more valuable to users.
"The speed of innovation is going to linearize because of AI and how quickly you can code some of this," Strickland said. "I think the other aspect is some of our legacy platforms are finally opening up."
Another factor is the current challenges the hotel industry is facing with rising costs.
"Margins have never been as low as they are today in many places in the world, so there's a huge, huge pressure on saving costs that may not have been there in the past, and I think that will drive a lot of innovation in the back office," Bleeker said.
Many hoteliers have the same technology tools, so the ones that advance to newer technology have more market share to gain, he added.
For Aimbridge, McNamara said that back-office innovation has the most potential for AI. Her company is using it to build labor productivity tools and enhance forecast accuracy.
"We aren't yet at that place where it's taking away full-time associates, but it's giving them hours back to use their days differently, and to use the information that we're providing to make better business decisions that we weren't able to previously do," she said.
Rarely does a conversation about AI technology implementation happen without addressing job displacement. Each of the experts acknowledged that the workforce is changing, due in large part because of technology, but it's still more of an evolution than job elimination.
What hotel companies need to do is tap into digital natives and empower their existing workforce to engage with AI tools — but with guardrails that ensure standards are being met.
"We're giving them the tools in a very defined sandbox," Strickland said. "Where we're struggling right now, and very candidly, is that sandbox needs to get larger because [different platforms are] not always a fit for everything that you're trying to solve."
People will always be a part of hospitality and a part of staying in hotels, McNamara said. Even as chatbots and self-check-in rises in popularity, the hotel industry's DNA is not going to change, but technology can help improve experiences.
"When people stay in our hotels, they're away from home, and they certainly act that way," McNamara said, "and I think it's our opportunity to get back to customer service in our industry."