For years , the relationship has been pretty much static : owners buy or develop hotels ; they , if not running it on their own , tap a third-party management company to run it , and may elect to flag it with one of the myriad brands at the ready ; meanwhile , OTAs and metasearch are monoliths within the hotel industry and AI will have a profound impact on their capabilities to drive bookings , likely at the sake of hotel owners .
The CBRE study listed eight key takeaways that are explored further below with commentary :
➊ “ Introducing AI-enabled machines to perform operational tasks will achieve efficiencies and realize productivity gains among knowledge workers . AI will also substantially increase leisure time available for travel . For these reasons , the number of leisure-oriented hotels will need to grow .”
TRANSLATION : AI , especially at selectservice hotels that already don ’ t need as much staffing to run , will reduce the number of necessary jobs at hotels because there will be tasks that AI can now accomplish absent a human . The hotel industry likes to say that AI and technology “ free up ” staff to perform more guest-facing functions . This may be true , but the investment in AI will come with cost-savings in labor . At the same time , if CBRE ’ s prediction holds true that AI will allow people to travel for leisure more often , then that is a major societal shift that impacts not only travel but life and work . If it holds true , imagine more “ urban / city resorts ” that offer a wide array of activities and F & B options in downtown locations .
➋ “ AI and technological enhancements will lead to further industry consolidation and increasing benefits of scale .”
TRANSLATION : We are already seeing a shift . Consolidation is nothing new and whether or not AI drives more of it is either in the offing or remains to be seen . There has been a palpable uptick in partnerships , either between hotel brands and companies or adjacent industries . Why ? Because data and loyalty programs reign supreme . Taking these touchpoints and applying AI could drive more revenue and also , as CBRE predicts , drive more monopolistic schemes .
➌ “ Hotel brand families are likely to grow their portfolio of strategic partnerships to improve their access to data at scale . The financial and talent resources required will leave many smaller companies at a disadvantage .”
TRANSLATION : ( Author note : The translation to point 2 was written before a reading of CBRE ’ s third takeaway .) As CBRE further writes : “ We are now beginning to see partnerships across a broader range of industries . Choice , for example , has partnered with Grubhub , which could make on-site restaurants less of a competitive advantage for some hotels . Hilton and Extended Stay America have recently unveiled partnerships with Target , Restaurants . com and DoorDash to make their points more immediately redeemable for discounts and other merchandise . It will be highly challenging for an independent hotel to compete with these types of relationships that benefit from scale and access to data .”
➍ “ Access to large-scale data will enable hotels to move from offering rooms for a fixed price to making pricing offers based on the total revenue potential of each guest .”
TRANSLATION : There was a time when hotels were lucky to break even on food and beverage . Now , at some hotels , F & B can be a bigger revenue generator than
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