The hospitality industry is at a technological crossroads. The vendor landscape is crowded with thousands of vendors, each solving a single piece of the operational puzzle. But if we step back, the fundamentals remain: at one end, a traveler seeking an experience; at the other, providers offering places to stay and things to do. Everything in between—the mechanisms, the intermediaries, the systems—are up for grabs.
AI is putting the whole industry on the cusp of a profound transformational shift.
The building blocks of the new AI era :
To help our properties thrive in this new world, we need three things:
- Rich guest data: Understanding guests deeply as individuals, not as a group set —how often they stay, their preferences, their special moments, like birthdays or anniversaries, their feedback, even what they take from the minibar—enables us to personalize every interaction. Imagine knowing a guest loves a particular coffee and having it ready on arrival, or stocking their favorite snack before they even ask.
- Comprehensive property data: It’s not enough to know what rooms are available. We need to capture every detail: view from the room, bed set up, pet policies, parking options, nearby golf courses, pool towels, and more. The more dimensions we add, the more tailored the experience we can offer.
- APIs for AI agents: Data is useless if it can’t be accessed quickly and flexibly. High-performance APIs are the language of the future, enabling AI agents to answer complex queries—like finding a romantic, high-rise hotel in Singapore with late checkout—without grinding systems to a halt.
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Tech foundations for an AI future
Who will win the race?
The companies best positioned for this future are those who already have the data and the infrastructure. Online travel agents (OTAs) and meta-search platforms have spent years building connections, aggregating content, and investing in high-speed caches. They’re ready for AI-powered search and booking, while independent providers are still playing catch-up.
But there’s a unique opportunity for property management systems (PMS) like RMS. By making our data accessible and actionable, we can help properties participate in this new AI-driven universe—whether that’s through our own solutions or by integrating with third-party agents.
The guest experience: Frictionless and highly personal
Imagine a booking engine where, instead of ticking boxes and scrolling through lists, a guest simply types: “Show me what you’ve got this weekend for my family of four and our dog, under $300.” The AI does the rest—filtering, summarizing reviews, assembling a cart, and even remembering past preferences. It’s like having a reservation manager who never sleeps, constantly learning and optimizing to boost conversion rates and revenue.
After booking, the guest portal becomes a digital concierge. Need a late checkout? Want an invoice? Thinking of extending your stay? The AI handles it all, freeing up staff and making every interaction seamless.
This is the realization of the promise of hyper-personalization that the industry has been touting for years. We’ve been talking about guest personalization for what feels like a decade and yet most of us would go to a hotel that we’ve been to before and be asked: Is this the first time you’re staying with us? This is deeply frustrating for both the guests and the operator who aims to deliver a better experience.
Special wedding anniversaries could be booked directly from an AI-powered booking engine
Empowering operators: The AI-driven back office
The revolution isn’t just guest-facing. For operators, AI can transform the way properties are run. Imagine asking, “Show me all guests arriving Friday who’ve stayed before and had complaints,” or “How many housekeepers do I need for Easter weekend?” AI can pull insights, optimize schedules, and even suggest personalized welcome gifts—like the real-world example of a property using AI to identify guests celebrating anniversaries and automatically preparing cards and gifts.
AI will help operators with daily tasks such as preparing the daily arrivals list, with loyalty program,
special requests, and past-stay feedback.
A deliberate, strategic approach
We’re not aiming to build the next ChatGPT, but to connect our customers to the best of what AI can offer—integrated within our platform, enhancing both guest experience and operational efficiency. Our strategy starts with the guest layer, driving conversion and revenue, and expands to empower operators with analytics and automation.
Just as the car solved the manure problem by changing the paradigm, AI will reshape hospitality by making the complex simple and the impersonal personal. The winners will be those who see beyond today’s challenges and invest in the building blocks of tomorrow.
The journey is just beginning, but the direction is clear. Our ambition is to put all property operators in the driving seat, with the technology, the guidance , and the partnerships to be armed for this technology and distribution revolution.
