Automation is becoming increasingly important in the hotel industry and now affects both guest-facing services and internal operations. It includes artificial intelligence, chatbots, self-service check-in systems, service robots and automated back-office processes. Hotels can apply these technologies throughout the customer journey, from reservations and arrival to personalised services and post-stay communication, as well as in administration, inventory management, pricing and demand forecasting.
However, technological sophistication does not automatically improve hotel performance or the guest experience. Hospitality combines operational efficiency with personal interaction, so the value of automation depends on the activity in which it is used and on how guests and employees experience it. Automated systems can increase speed, consistency and personalisation, but they may also reduce guests’ sense of control, generate frustration when failures occur and create concerns about privacy or fairness. For hotels, automation can lower costs and reduce repetitive work, but its benefits must be weighed against investment requirements, system integration, maintenance, employee resistance and the continuing need for human judgement.
Our study therefore examines automation from two connected perspectives. The client perspective considers how chatbots, service robots, AI-based personalisation and automated review management influence convenience, trust, control and satisfaction. It also evaluates the importance of combining digital options with accessible human assistance. The supplier perspective identifies the activities that AI and robots perform effectively, particularly repetitive, predictable and data-intensive tasks, and those that continue to require empathy, flexibility and contextual judgement. It also examines value creation, return on investment and the organisational effects on employees and managers. The central question is therefore how hotels can use automation to improve efficiency and customer experience without weakening the human and relational qualities that remain fundamental to hospitality.
Client perception
Automated systems and AI can improve the overall consumer’s experience in the hotel industry, if they provide a service that goes beyond providing simple information. Morosan and Dursun-Cengizci (2024) describe this as “technology agency”. The main barrier behind AI adoption is in the consumers’ perception of fairness and their trust toward it.
Automation is not necessarily perceived as better simply because it is more advanced. Even when both systems function successfully, guests may prefer a more familiar and controllable self-service system to an AI chatbot.
The study suggests that consumer acceptance depends less on technical sophistication alone than on retaining control over the service experience. The article underlines how a service failure, regardless of the technology used, leads to high dissatisfaction and bad reviews.
The implementation of AI tools can prevent and solve problems quicker and more efficiently than before.
Chatbots
Using an AI powered Chatbot is a way to answer immediately at client’s doubts and requests. This type of self-service systems allow guests to make requests, access information and manage parts of their stay independently.
Service robots
Physical robots can make the stay more memorable: an analysis of online reviews of four robot-equipped hotels shows that some guests actively seek interaction with them (Tung & Au, 2018). However, novelty alone is not enough. The Japanese Henn-na Hotel removed more than half of its 243 robots in 2019 after they failed at basic tasks, such as answering simple questions or handling passports at check-in. When a robot fails, guests perceive it as a service failure, so a human employee must always be available.
AI for personalisation
AI should create visible value for guests by adapting the stay to their preferences, including room temperature, lighting, pillow type, dietary requirements, preferred check-in times, room location.
This is one of the strongest opportunities because it reduces effort for the guest. It is particularly useful and appreciable by loyal guests; a returning guest should not have to repeat the same needs every time.
The past experiences of a repeating client can be traced and memorized, to be used in the future stays, avoiding past issues and increasing their overall satisfaction. However, the hotel should explain that preferences are being used and allow the guest to change or delete them. Personalisation without consent can feel intrusive rather than helpful.
Guest profile and choices
Hotel guests are not a single type of consumer. Some guests value speed, independence and innovative digital tools; others prefer familiar systems and direct human interaction. Hotels should therefore offer different service channels: chatbot, self service interface, phone and staff assistance.
The purpose of AI should be to expand the guest’s choices, not to force every guest through the same automated process. A hybrid service model allows guests that prefer digital to use AI efficiently while preserving human support for guests who need reassurance or have a complex request.
Online reviews and reputational management
Guest experiences with automation are shared publicly through online reviews, so failing technology becomes a reputational risk. AI is also increasingly used to write responses to these reviews. A study of 32,129 hotel reviews found that creative, personalized responses were perceived as more helpful, while rigid, template-like answers had negative effects (Zhang, Xiang & Zach, 2025). AI can therefore prepare a draft, but the manager should adapt it, especially for negative reviews.
Supplier’s point of view
According to BCG, AI is transforming the hotel industry and leaders should consider this technology in order to remain competitive. The 41% of hotels in Europe in 2025 (April) is using AI and an additional 16% is planning to adopt it in the near future. Relevant factors that allow the adoption of AI are the people in the organisation and integrated data on customers and operations.
Activities performed well by robots and AI
Robots and AI perform best when an activity is: repetitive, predictable, standardized, high-volume and data-intensive. Robots and humans will work together and managers should properly manage their collaboration in a dynamic environment (Khoa et al., 2023):
So, from an operator’s perspective, the most attractive targets are:
- Administration: reservations and back office administration costs reduced by 28% on average. Robotic Process Automation also reduces processing errors by 45% for routine activities such as billing, inventory management and check-in or check-out processes.
- Routine information: AI chatbot, concierge works because they’re repetitive and multilingual. This enables the employees to focus on complicated and valuable experiences for customers, leading to the differentiation of the brand.
- Repetitive transportation: room service and amenity delivery. A documented hotel-restaurant deployment had a delivery robot performing approximately 100 round trips per day, replacing around 3.3 hours of staff transportation work every day.
- Standardized cleaning: large and public areas that are predictable environments, also pools.
- Revenue management: process demand, occupancy and pricing data. One boutique hotel using automated revenue-management technology reported saving more than 20 hours per month previously spent on manual reporting, alongside double-digit RevPAR growth and rate increases of more than 20% on peak weekends.
Activities robots perform less well
The limitations of robots become much clearer when the activity involves exceptions, social intelligence or unpredictable situations. Typical weak areas include complaint handling and service recovery, unusual and unexpected requests, complex decision making and negotiation are emotionally sensitive situations and they require contextual judgement and highly personalized service.
Main advantages for hotels
AI is having a relevant impact on the ROI in some activities while other ones are still in an initial implementation phase. In the first category we have:
- Marketing and planning: AI assistants are creating tailored offerings for customers, including trip itinerary and budget.
- Optimization of the price: changing prices are capturing consumers’ preferences, leading to a 15% increase in revenue per available room.
- Arrival and everyday requests: especially multi-lingual chatbots are working as concierge to manage activities such as WI-FI requests or late check-outs.
- Automation and workforce: difficulties to find staff people and increasing costs are implying the use of AI for automated tasks and to help the employees. The work of technology and humans is leading to cost savings by reducing employees’ workload, allowing them to focus on innovative and customized services, differentiating activities and to enhance creativity. This leads to being more competitive.
- Optimising resources and costs: Artificial intelligence carries out the coordination between the stocks and the demand, reducing waste and costs.
Loyalty & engagement (customised offers) within marketing activities, on-property experience & services, predictive maintenance and performance on the property are examples of activities that still need to be more implemented. Safety and investments are areas to be improved as well.
In addition, improved customer experiences are a consequence of AI adoption.
For back-office automation, research reports around 28% average cost savings in back-office operations and 15% lower overall operating expenses in the studied implementation.
For physical robots, the economics depend heavily on utilization, and a robot is not automatically cheaper than a human. Its ROI depends on whether the hotel has enough repetitive work to keep the robot productively utilized. The same robot can be unprofitable in a small hotel and highly profitable in a large, high-volume property.
Economically, the goal is to automate the tasks where the cost of the machine per completed task is lower than the fully loaded cost of human labor, while keeping humans where flexibility, judgement and problem-solving create more value.
Main disadvantages for the supplier
The main supplier-side disadvantages are therefore economical and organizational:
- High initial investment for robots, maintenance and modifications, that for 35% of hotels in Europe is the biggest challenge.
- Downtime: when a robot fails, it can actually create additional employee work rather than eliminate it.
- Integration and technical complexity: AI must communicate correctly with PMS, CRM, payment and other systems.
- Employee resistance and reskilling: employees need to learn how to work with automation, and some may perceive it as a threat to their jobs. In addition, a paper (Zhang & Jin, 2023) underlines how a negative perception of the STAARA (smart technology, artificial intelligence, automation, robotics and algorithms) could lead to higher job insecurity and mobility. Indeed, employees think that they could be substituted by it, since for them STAARA has a higher performance in terms of precision, competence and energy. The solution implies the transmission of the positive values of introducing the technology (for example more efficiency and convenience), and the minimisation of adverse reactions (supporting the employee when threatened by STAARA). This effect is smaller in situations with high-level career progression.
- Loss of managerial control: fully automated decision making introduces questions about accountability. If an algorithm makes poor pricing, staffing or operational decision, management still bears the consequences.
Written by Chiara Benini, Irene Bogoni, Elia Cortassa, Daniele Garatti, Ján Mlynár, Valeria Gussi
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