AI-driven commercial services empower hotel operations.
By Romal (RJ) Jayswal
The hospitality industry grapples with one of the highest labor turnover rates, trapping hotel owners in an endless cycle of hiring and training. They are left overwhelmed and forced to step into operations when needed, stretching themselves too thin. The focus must shift to reimagining how hotels run their commercial operations – not by replacing people, but by removing the chaos and instability that makes the job unsustainable.
In the current hospitality landscape, hotel teams are often expected to master five or more disconnected systems: Property management systems (PMS), revenue management systems (RMS), online travel agency (OTA) portals, commission reconciliation, and marketing channels at the very least – and the list goes on.
Each login, each new interface, and each data entry point adds micro-delays that accumulate throughout the day for every team member, creating inefficiencies and wasting precious staff time. Moreover, information must often be manually entered into multiple systems, leading to duplicate efforts and a greater risk of errors. And, of course, training new employees is a significant investment as they learn the intricacies of each system.
The solution lies in automating these workflows through artificial intelligence and software-led services. The capabilities now exist for building AI agents that don’t just assist – they own and optimize the task.
These agents don’t quit. They don’t need to be trained. They just execute consistently and at scale. For hotel owners, this means no more stressing over whether someone updated rates, responded to a bad review, or optimized a distribution channel. With this approach, hoteliers can feel confident that the commercial side of their hotel is handled.
It’s not about replacing people but making their daily tasks more manageable. When hotel staff are not burdened with boring, redundant tasks, they are free to focus on what matters most – ensuring guests have great experiences. And without having to constantly put out fires, owners can focus more on business growth and strategy.
AI’s Undeniable Benefits
From a hotel owner’s perspective, the way our industry has evolved has created a fragmented tech stack. Every core function – pricing, reservations, reputation, distribution – has its own system. Although hotels increasingly seek ways to move beyond the limitations of disconnected technology, having painstakingly mastered them all, some hoteliers may be reluctant to the idea of change. However, the leap in efficiency offered by AI adoption is undeniable.
Take something as fundamental as pricing. Today, this function requires someone to bounce between multiple systems just to make a single pricing decision. To see competitor rates, you need to log into a revenue management tool. To check occupancy, you dive into the PMS. Then you jump into OTA extranets – Expedia, Booking.com, and more – to understand your market presence and performance. Only after pulling together all these data points can someone begin to make a strategic pricing move.
But doing this well demands three things: System fluency, data analysis skills, and deep hospitality experience. Finding someone who checks all three boxes and retaining them is expensive and often impossible.
The Evolution of Revenue Management Technology
The first generation of hotel technology, including early RMS, was built primarily to inform the manager. While these systems marked a significant step beyond manual spreadsheets by automating data collection and enabling rule-based pricing, they largely relied on historical booking data and pre-set rules. They offered basic forecasting and reports but had limited ability to integrate external data, often requiring astute human intervention.
Modern AI-powered RMS, in contrast, represents a transformative leap. Today’s tools leverage machine learning and advanced algorithms to process vast, real-time datasets from countless sources, including social media sentiment, flight search trends, and local event buzz, going far beyond just historical bookings.
AI-driven RMS can not only predict demand with far greater accuracy but also learn and adapt over time, continuously optimizing pricing and inventory across channels. This shift frees revenue managers from tedious tactical adjustments, allowing them to focus on higher-level strategic planning and total revenue optimization across all hotel services.
The Next Generation of Software and AI Agents
This new era moves beyond mere automation, deploying AI agents that proactively manage the entire commercial ecosystem of a hotel. Rather than simply responding to commands, these agents continuously analyze real-time market dynamics, competitor pricing, and guest sentiment, executing intricate tasks across all channels. A relentless, data-driven approach ensures optimal pricing and booking as well as reputation management. As a result, hotel owners are relieved of constant oversight.
Innovative new AI-powered services companies are building AI agents specifically for the hotel industry – they analyze data and execute tasks like a seasoned manager, only faster and cheaper. Features like dynamic pricing automatically adjust room rates based on real-time market conditions, while OTA optimization manages presence and performance on OTAs in real time. By combining and automating multiple hotelier tasks in one place, these solutions simplify workloads in ways that couldn’t be imagined a few years ago.
Already, 79 percent of hoteliers report a positive business impact from AI. Research has shown that it can significantly boost worker productivity. For example, a study by MIT and Stanford University found that customer service agents using AI tools have handled 13.8 percent more customer inquiries per hour. Another Harvard study found consultants completed tasks 25 percent faster with AI – proof that AI bridges critical skill gaps, improving operations and efficiency.
Adoption of AI is not merely an “upgrade” but a vital evolution happening across industries, with businesses increasingly recognizing the necessity of implementing affordable AI solutions to maintain a competitive edge.
What Matters Most
AI is transforming the way businesses operate across every industry. It turns data into decisions, automates repetitive tasks, and reduces human error. Whether it’s in retail, finance, healthcare, or hospitality, AI helps companies run faster, leaner, and more profitably. It cuts costs, boosts efficiency, improves customer satisfaction, and frees up management to focus on what truly matters – growth and strategy.
For hotel owners, the impact is especially powerful. Complex back-office tasks like pricing, OTA reconciliation, and reputation monitoring can all be handled by intelligent agents that work 24/7, eliminating the need to juggle multiple systems or depend on inconsistent staffing.
Operations become smoother, more accurate, and scalable. Margins improve. Revenue grows. And owners finally get their time back to focus on guests and growth. In short, AI isn’t just helping businesses work harder – it’s helping them work smarter.
Romal (RJ) Jayswal is a visionary co- founder and CEO at StayNow, a next- generation AI-powered social travel platform revolutionizing how travelers connect with independent hoteliers. Drawing on years of experience in hospitality revenue optimization, RJ is passionate about empowering hoteliers to thrive by controlling their businesses and delivering exceptional, personalized guest experiences. Prior to StayNow, RJ founded Predictive Minds, an advanced revenue management system for the hotel industry, providing him with invaluable insights into the technological and economic pressures faced by hoteliers.
Image: Andril Yalanskyi/stock.adobe.com
Leave a Reply