PHOENIX — Labor woes across the hotel industry have motivated hoteliers to increase their reliance on technology such as automation and artificial intelligence to retain and improve efficiency.
Neal Patel, immediate past chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and managing partner of Blue Chip Hotels, said during the “Tech Talk: Real-World Solutions for Your Hotels” panel at The Lodging Conference that the two biggest challenges facing the hotel industry are labor and a lack of implementation and adoption of technology.
Patel said one of his hotels started using kiosks that connect to a live person in an international country to serve as a replacement for front-desk employees. He added this is how technology can play a role in closing the labor gap.
“Is it perfect? I don’t think it is right now, but for us, where we had no other options, this has been a huge resource for us in our entire portfolio,” he said.
Jacob Messina, CEO of Stayntouch, a hotel property management system provider, said the industry has had to get creative in filling jobs. Some hoteliers have turned to employees from other sectors such as retail and food and beverage.
To entice these employees to work in the hotel industry and not overwhelm them with a complicated system, Messina said his company made sure its property management system is simple to use but has complex functionality at its core.
“Someone can come from another industry and really pick up the platform within an hour to a day,” he said. “That makes it very easy to unlock those other sectors and expand labor markets.”
Especially with younger generations, there’s an expectation that the technology in place will be easy to use and will get tasks done quickly, said Tanya Pratt, vice president of strategy and product management for Oracle Hospitality. With the rise in cross-training in the industry, the platforms also need to be able to switch fluidly between one functional area to the next.
“What we need to continue to do from a technology perspective is support easy onboarding of new team members … and then continue to enhance and support new business models that help generate revenue, that help operational efficiencies [and] that help deliver a better guest service,” Pratt said.
Brian Kirkland, chief information officer for Choice Hotels International, said revenue-management systems are an example of modern technology and automation already in place that aids the day-to-day business.
“These systems do it on a scale that no human could do and do it more times per day than anybody can do, and your accuracy, your effectiveness goes up, which just gives back time to the [general manager], gives back time to the hotel owner to be profitable in their business,” he said.
Messina said the adoption of automation is more important and more pressing to the industry today than artificial intelligence.
“If we can service information and take people out of busy work … so that they can have honest and genuine conversations with guests instead of typing away at keyboards … that helps us have a more hospitable experience,” he said.
Artificial Intelligence
Kirkland said artificial intelligence has actually been around for a while now, adding that ChatGPT was formed in 2015. What has changed, though, is an increase in accessibility and relevance.
Companies and businesses are excited to get in on the current AI trend, but there should be a clear goal and purpose in mind when rolling out new technology, Pratt said.
“I found that the best way to give yourself a reality check is to clearly define the business problem that needs to be solved, and then it’s like, ‘OK, this is how technology helps to solve it,’” she said.
Ankur Agrawal, founder and CEO of Inhabitr, said artificial intelligence isn’t designed to take jobs away, but rather serve as an aid to an existing position. For example, designers can ask artificial intelligence to show the optimal layout for a room based on the dimensions of the furniture.
“AI is not here to replace what we do,” he said. “AI is there to enable things that take longer or sometimes are impossible to do it without the right [tools]. AI is basically enabling the humans to do things better [and] faster.”
Other hoteliers have taken the same stance as Agrawal, but Pratt said despite these assurances, some employees are worried about AI eventually replacing their jobs. Questions surrounding the technology should be addressed thoroughly before officially using it, she said.
“There are still some fears. Whatever it is … whatever the intentions are, getting to the bottom of [the concerns], understanding it and making everybody feel comfortable — there’s definitely potential around it, but it’s going to mean different things to different people,” she said.