How can hoteliers and restaurateurs benefit from AI?

Artificial intelligence has been making its way into all relevant industries and business functions for some time now, including the hotel and restaurant industry. Anyone who believes that there are no exciting use cases for AI here is mistaken. Hotel and restaurant businesses can create added value in various areas through the clever use of their data. Here are a few examples:

• Visitor forecasts: Based on historical data, trends and patterns can be calculated that can be used to predict visitor traffic in the future, e.g. depending on season, weather, etc.
• Dynamic pricing: Online booking portals in particular already use the possibility to display dynamic prices depending on user preferences. These are usually calculated on the basis of historical price and booking data and can be used to optimise turnover and margins.
• Personalisation of offers and services: With the help of AI, hoteliers and restaurateurs can analyse the behaviour and preferences of their guests and derive personalised offers and services, e.g. personalised recommendations for restaurants, excursion destinations or activities.
• Optimisation of operational processes: By automating processes such as ordering and payment systems or forecasting demand and inventory requirements, hoteliers and restaurateurs can save time and resources, which translates into higher margins.
• Effective guest relationship management: AI can help improve communication and interaction with guests, for example through chatbots or (hyper)personalised emails. The possibilities are endless, especially with ChatGPT and GPT-4.

TALK WITH SEBASTIAN HEINZ FROM FLOWIT

Genusspunkt: How can we imagine how FLOWIT works: Feedback from all employees in real time, how does this work?
Sebastian Heinz: The way FLOWIT works is based on the regular collection of feedback from all employees in real time via an app (web and mobile). FLOWIT provides so-called competence cards from which all employees select the ones they want to work on (we recommend two). Subsequently, all employees assess their current performance and their goals for the next weeks in freely selectable cycles. Supervisors can confirm or reject the competence cards and suggest other goals. The app also allows an overview of the existing competencies in the company, which is helpful when putting together teams and internal succession planning. Employees can ask for feedback at any time, which focuses on behaviour and competencies, not personality. The generative AI used for FLOWIT helps to provide better feedback and to analyse the open feedback with sentiment and thematic categorisations. AI-powered analysis of feedback data can proactively identify individual needs and challenges, leading to improved employee satisfaction and retention. The app also captures employees’ motivation, mood and view of the company and alerts the relevant team leaders via push messages when discrepancies are registered. FLOWIT’s technology thus helps improve employee development and motivation as well as communication and collaboration within the company.

For which company sizes is FLOWIT suitable?
FLOWIT is basically suitable for all companies that have established a professional HR or are planning to do so. From our previous customer relationships across various sectors, these are usually companies with 30 or more employees. This is where the first challenges in dealing with feedback, performance management and engagement become apparent due to the increasing complexity of the company. FLOWIT scales seamlessly for larger companies as well.

What are the goals of FLOWIT?
FLOWIT aims to make employees feel heard in their work environment and experience self-efficacy in relation to their own development. The classic appraisal system is increasingly being rejected by both companies and employees alike and is gradually being replaced by agile learning and feedback methods. FLOWIT supports companies on this path by providing a digital, contemporary platform that enables agile learning, feedback and feedforward in everyday work. All employees are supported and promoted in their personal skills in order to sustainably drive the success of the company. FLOWIT aims to enable employees to contribute their individual strengths and talents to the company in the best possible way. No matter where the company currently stands, FLOWIT accompanies them on this journey simply and efficiently with a digital coach. By promoting the individual skills and talents of employees, FLOWIT also addresses the skills shortage and helps to retain existing employees in the long term. At the same time, good internal personnel marketing also strengthens the external perception of the company. Employees who feel supported by FLOWIT are more satisfied and motivated, which ultimately also has a positive impact on the quality of services.

Can you give us an example of best practice from the hotel or catering industry?
Using value cards (similar to the aforementioned competence cards), goals are set both at team level and at individual level, which promotes dialogue between employees and managers at eye level. Employees thus regularly reflect on the values of the company and there is an active dialogue about them. Through the addition of pulse surveys, which are evaluated with various AI functions, a 30% reduction in turnover intention was achieved in the first year after the introduction of FLOWIT. This is an excellent result, especially in the hotel and restaurant industry, which is known to be at risk of churn.

FLOWIT thus shows how artificial intelligence can be used in the hotel and catering industry to improve communication, employee development and employee satisfaction and have a positive influence on operational processes and the quality of services.