Hotel Experts Say AI Will Make Room Pricing More Profitable
Photo Credit: Focused businesswoman showing information on laptop screen to focused male colleague in lobby of hotel, contemplating whether artificial intelligence will lead to layoffs among hundreds of hotel revenue managers worldwide. Adobe / BullRun
Skift Take
Most talk about generative AI is bombastic. Yes, today's tech has accuracy and security issues. But that will be resolved within a few years. The tech will then transform hotel revenue management.
Hotel companies hope artificial intelligence (AI) will improve their skill at pricing rooms. Known as revenue management, the field relies on forecasting and is ripe for disruption.
The changes won't happen overnight. Hotel revenue managers have worries about the security and reliability of today's generative AI. But within a few years, software makers will likely overcome the flaws and hotels will reap efficiency gains.
"A lot of proposed applications of generative AI feel like solutions in search of a problem, but revenue management is a perfect use case for it," said Jeff Edwards, a consultant and former IHG executive. "It's data-intensive, and it's too complex for humans to manage in real-time."
Instilling TrustA big win would be if AI gave hotel decision-makers more confidence in automated rate recommendations.
Today's revenue management software typically produces tables or spreadsheets, leaving it up to revenue managers to interpre
