We are moving, to quote Enzo Lucibello, towards «digital hospitality» or, with Federico Haas of the Hotel Delfino in Lugano, «in the direction of a hybridization between hic tech and hic touch»: we are talking about hotels and artificial intelligence.
To put this into context, it's first helpful to understand the roles artificial intelligence can play in the hotel industry. The fields of application are many: "There are applications that can set prices, based on market trends and hotel occupancy levels, others that help decide where to allocate each guest based on the current situation and the coming days. Furthermore, automated responses to reviews will be possible, as well as customer guidance, with chatboxes that can guide them through booking and searching for services, as well as digital check-in and check-out. AI, thanks to interactions with automation systems, will be able to intelligently adjust room conditions, from the temperature to the blinds, based on the guest's presence or preferences. The goal is to improve the customer experience, leading to increasingly personalized offers and proposals," explains Lucibello, CEO of a digital hospitality consulting firm. Sonja Frey, President of Hotelleriesuisse, adds to the list "the use of translations, which are always of better quality, or questions on ChatGPT, which can provide useful information or input in the shortest possible time."
How many of these functions have been implemented in Ticino hotels at the moment? For Frey, «there are companies that are already using the aspects mentioned, while many are thinking about how to effectively integrate AI into their activities», and according to Lucibello many are already quite advanced.
"In recent years, with a collaboration between Lugano Region and Hotelleriesuisse, Lugano hotels have teamed up using HBenchmark, a data intelligence platform that uses artificial intelligence to predict market trends in advance, enhancing the regional tourism offering," underlines as a virtuous example Thomas Brugnatelli, new director of the Hotel Splendide Royal in Lugano.
Instead, Villa Principe Leopoldo has introduced "a WhatsApp chat that uses advanced concierge systems during your stay," as explained by Cristina Cavazza, CEO of the Ticino Hotels group, who sees significant future developments in "optimized booking management, the ability to always have 24-hour service, and advanced and personalized data analysis."
Linda Mazzoleni, director of Hotel Serpiano, is currently testing chatboxes for automatic response to reviews. Hotel Delfino has also been moving in the same direction for about three months, and Haas believes that in less than a year, it will be possible to achieve a "customization that allows you to personalize offers, through AI that will communicate with the platform currently used by hotels."
As for his luxury hotel, Brugnatelli emphasizes that "there is a lot of potential and also some grey areas on this issue, and that is why we intend to move in this direction, but working on it step by step, without rushing things. Of course, we already have our vision of how we will use AI: a use that will allow us to simplify work processes, especially repetitive ones, without taking anything away from the human and personal experience that a guest expects from a 5-star facility like ours."
"Will three and four stars move towards general automation, eventually becoming unstaffed, and will five stars continue to rely on the human touch? This division is not specific enough, you can't make the same argument for a five star right on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich or for one in the mountains," says Haas. The Hotel Serpiano, for example, makes its peripheral location and view its strong and weak points, and by tradition, its director would never see a hotel completely unstaffed. "The issue is not the number of stars, which means everything and nothing, but the intrinsic characteristics of the hotel," Lucibello sums up.
Finding the right balance between innovation and a sector strongly linked to the human factor will be, as mentioned, the greatest challenge. For Jacopo Soldini, director of the Higher Specialized School of Hotel and Tourism in Bellinzona, "the key will be to find a balance, using artificial intelligence to improve efficiency without compromising the human touch that is essential for quality hospitality." As in every sector, one might say. For Frey, "a good mix must be applied, simplifying processes where necessary and reasonable, which does not mean that physical people will be replaced but that they will be able to take care of jobs or customers where there was no time before."
The next steps planned by the interviewed directors seem to be going in this direction, whose attention is mainly focused on the automation of check-in and check-out. "Those who travel for business do not want human contact, they are happy to access their room independently, with their code", explains Haas, "while those who travel for vacation still appreciate being welcomed and entertained by an employee". For Mazzoleni, a difference can also be given by the age of the visitors. None of them, however, sees a complete replacement of the staff, because the ability to welcome and make the guest feel welcome, which can never be guaranteed by machines, is an essential characteristic of Ticino tourism. "It could serve to save costs and optimize time", comments Mazzoleni. "We as three-star hotels have a problem with staff costs, which are increasingly high, so tools that help to rationalize are welcome, keeping in mind that the human factor is essential. In fact, our hotel, which makes its peripheral location and view its strong and weak points and for what is tradition, could not be what it is without staff".
Haas also touches on another topic: a reduction in reception opening hours could lead to a different work organization, which, in addition to freeing up resources for activities that could be automated, would meet the increasingly felt needs of work life balance, with reduced percentages. Lucibello, regarding the changes brought by artificial intelligence on employees, sees the need for a new mentality, more focused on welcoming and less on tasks such as reservations or invoicing, which leads to the need for a new way of training students who are orienting themselves in tourism. In this regard, the SSSAT "maintains a constant dialogue with operators in the tourism sector to understand the dynamics, anticipate new needs and ensure that training is always in step with the times", says Soldini. In particular, "this year a completely renewed training plan has been introduced, with an interdisciplinary approach, even more attentive to transversal skills, the soft skills, which are now essential for starting a career in the tourism-hotel sector". In addition, "our school can benefit, thanks to interactions with the Higher Specialized School of Economics (SSSE), from the know-how of professionals in the economics sector and management information technology."
Hotelleriesuisse is also on the side of hoteliers, with information disseminated through its website and, for example, with "the Next Generation Hospitality Manager training where the topic is addressed with professional speakers. The topic of the round table during our general assembly was: artificial intelligence as an ally in the hotel world", explains its president.
Symptom, in short, of a topic that interests, fascinates and also, understandably, scares. "It's a new reality, but if you know it, it's no longer scary, even if at the moment I see a bit of general fear," admits the director of Serpiano. On the general climate, Frey agrees that "even if we are on the right track, I think that in Ticino we prefer to wait a bit longer before acting while in the rest of Switzerland we get there before we apply."
"I believe that, in a vast and surprising panorama of possibilities, the important thing is to understand what the market offers and what can be implemented in your own structure", reasons Mazzoleni. Because everyone is aware that, if the applications are potentially infinite, not all are suitable for every reality and that it will be necessary to find, case by case, the formula that best responds to the particularities of each hotel and the requests of its clientele.
The costs of innovation are also holding back Ticino hoteliers. "In Ticino, the average number of rooms per facility is low and while the big ones have already introduced many innovations, the small ones are waiting. They will then be able to benefit from the scale effect by recovering the costs," notes Haas, according to whom many are waiting to see what will happen.
While other sectors, such as banking, insurance or business, also fear the risks associated with artificial intelligence, our hotelier interlocutors do not seem to see any specific ones. Soldini disagrees, according to whom «the implementation of AI presents several risks, which must be carefully considered and managed, including excessive dependence on technology, privacy protection, data security».
Cristina Cavazza also emphasizes, in addition to the possibilities, the " significant challenges such as the protection of personal data, unauthorized access, the necessary staff training and significant investments to have cutting-edge tools ."
