BRAINS OF THE OPERATION

RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL HOTEL IS PREDICATED ON A LOT OF THINGS. THE PMS IS PIVOTAL.

By DAVID EISEN

There are humans in Stanley Kubrick’ s“ 2001: A Space Odyssey,” a film now 57 years old but still seems ahead if its time. The central character in the film is not of flesh and blood, but rather an AI, named HAL, derived from the rather longish“ Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer.” HAL turned out to be friend and foe, so lifelike that it talked and sounded like, well, an actual human, which is kind of the gist of artificial intelligence, right? In the movie, HAL had a very important job: It controlled the systems of the spacecraft and interacted with the astronaut crew, giving them instructions and, sometimes, fun banter. Never mind that( spoiler alert) in the end it turned on them; the cat was out of the bag: a machine can do the job of a human— sometimes better.

Hotels are not unlike spacecraft, having to navigate their way 24 / 7 through a

62 hotelsmag. com May / June 2025