Artificial intelligence, and particularly generative AI platforms such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, were the most talked-about issue in hotel technology in 2023. Hoteliers are focused on both the untapped potential and looming risks of innovations in that space.
Among the most vocal proponents of the technology is Tata Crocombe, who owns three South Pacific resorts and spoke at the 2023 HITEC Conference on how he's deployed generative AI across his company.
"I gave everyone [on my team] a presentation [on generative AI]. Some people run with it, and some people don't," he said. "There's no requirement to use it, but I'll tell you one thing that's interesting is that the ones who are running with it, their performance is going through the roof," he said. "And the ones who aren't, their performance is static. We run a quarterly review process, and that's going to come through in the pay raises pretty quick."
At the same event, many hoteliers voiced the optimistic viewpoint that AI can help spur positive change across the industry. AAHOA Chairman Bharat Patel said hotels are in need of a "quantum leap" fueled by tech.
"I'm hoping hotel chains that are investing tens of millions of dollars, some hundreds of millions of dollars, have got to go and take a quantum leap into this century but at the next level and be sure that they do what's best for the guest and consumer but also what's best for the hotel owner," he said.
Because of the heavy attention on AI, some hoteliers are weary of tech providers looking to cash in on a trend. Charlestowne Hotels executives told HNN some companies are more interested in leveraging marketing buzzwords than innovating.
"It's hard not to look around here and see AI rubber-stamped on everything, for reasons I'm sure I don't have to explain," Charlestowne Hotels Director of Technology Max Spangler said of walking around the HITEC expo floor.
John Cook, senior director of data science and reporting at Marriott International, said his company has been thinking about best approaches to artificial intelligence for a while and there's a potential in both marketing and in more technical parts of Marriott's business.
“We have a model actually that I was just reviewing some documentation for earlier this week, and the colleague of mine who wrote it said that she wrote 80% of the code with ChatGPT. Just put in the Python code and they’re generating the Python code, and she validated that,” he said.
At The Lodging Conference in September, industry leaders said the impact of AI isn't something that is looming over the industry but something that is actively happening today, particularly due to a constrained labor environment.
“You have to supplement with either increased productivity, automation or immigration law,” said Sloan Dean, CEO of Remington Hospitality. “The solution is productivity sped up the last three to four years 8% to 10%. Everybody had huge productivity gains. How long is this sustainable? Well, automate — that’s actually part of the answer is automation, AI, etc. Job replacement: It’s coming, it’s now and it’s happening."
Other hoteliers agreed tech and AI are key to bridging gaps in the industry. Brian Kirkland, chief information officer for Choice Hotels International, said automation has been critical in revenue management.
“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.