Luxury Hoteliers Magazine 3rd Quarter 2017 | Page 56

In this exclusive summary prepared for Luxury Hoteliers, we highlight the most interesting topics and findings, and share perspectives gathered from the survey’s participants. Few developments spark the imagination and entertain potential applications like artificial intelligence. The computer science field dedicated to developing computers that simulate human intelligence has accelerated lately with the advent of big data. AI’s ability to identify patterns and glean insights from data – now available faster and in greater quantity and variety – yields advantages to almost any industry. For hoteliers, that opens the door to mining unimaginable volumes of consumer feedback to expeditiously create and deliver guest solutions. According to Marketing Week, luxury-hotel chain Dorchester Collection used an AI platform to conduct a brand study that contained 7,454 guest reviews from 28 different hotels and 10 major hotel brands across 18 cities and regions. On the guest- facing side of the equation, Hilton, at a property in McClean, Va., is experimenting with an AI robot concierge that “talks” with guests, providing information about the hotel and surrounding area. What’s next? 72% of hotel operators said providing targeted dining recommendations using AI would be mainstream by 2025. Meanwhile, 47% of consumers said AI-based promotions based on past purchases would improve their experience, and 26% reported they would visit more often if hotels offered such a service. Indeed, AI is a foundational technology that’s leading to an array of hotel innovations, including voice activation. Without the need to use 56 ILHA switches, dials and buttons, voice activation affords simple, hands-free capability, freeing users to perform other tasks. Considering that a typical hotel guest spends at least 12 to 15 minutes trying to figure out how to operate or adjust the thermostat, lights, TV controls and