AI in hospitality - The Virtual Concierge
Many hotels now use AI-powered chatbots as virtual concierges across websites and review platforms. These tools can enhance responsiveness and coverage, but they must reinforce—never dilute—your brand’s service standards.
A hotel stay is a curated experience. Any AI touchpoint should extend that experience with the same care, consistency, and attention guests expect from your team. Perceptions of canned or impersonal responses at moments of need can erode trust and impact conversion and loyalty.
If you deploy a virtual concierge as a partial or full substitute for human interaction, ensure it delivers service parity: guests should be able to ask the same questions and receive accurate, timely, and contextually appropriate answers.
How to assess fit and readiness
Coverage: Can it handle a broad range of intents—property information, directions and transport, local recommendations, weather, policies, amenities, and common requests?
Performance: Does it respond within two seconds and maintain high availability? Longer delays feel laborious and reduce satisfaction.
Guided experience: Does it set expectations up front (what it can answer), surface common prompts, and offer clear alternatives such as call, live chat, or email?
Learning and governance: Does it provide staff visibility into queries, capture gaps, and support ongoing knowledge updates and training? Treat it as you would any frontline team member.
Error handling and transparency: Does it acknowledge when it does not know, offer helpful next steps, and escalate cleanly to a human when required?
Virtual concierges are valuable during peak periods and out-of-hours, supporting front-of-house teams and improving consistency. However, do not force automation where it cannot deliver. When appropriate, route guests quickly to email, phone, or a live agent to protect the overall experience and uphold brand standards.
About the author
Glyn Spencer Hopkins is the owner of Internet Affected and has been working exclusively with hotels and luxury brands for over a decade.
Internet Affected provides digital revenue services tailored to the individual characters of hotels; a complete range of services designed to help them take back ownership of their hotel brand from the OTAs. Specialized marketing solutions to increase guest loyalty, food & beverage bookings, events and wedding inquiries, clearly reported in straightforward language.
