ChatGPT vs hotel industry: “Do we really want the experience before we even get there?”

Will ChatGpt transform the hotel industry? Obviously it’s going to be a very important app for hotel groups and it’s going to help analyse the data quicker and better. It’s going to certainly help the engagement of businesses and hotel users. From our point of view, we’re a high-end hotel and what our people want is actually a personal engagement so I think I'm not going to get totally carried away about what it can do, which will indeed be amazing, but my guests want to talk to Vlad or Simon or Lily, who they've met 10 times over the last 10 years previously. So I think for the high-end hotels, like Burgh Island, if they do try and use it it’ll be a big mistake. But in terms of Premier Inns, some of the Hiltons and others it's gonna be phenomenally useful and save a mountain of work. So do you think only the big names in the industry will benefit from it? I think that we could use it and it would be probably more accurate and efficient for us to use it, but we will lose too much in the personal interaction. What kind of benefits would ChatGPT bring for you and the customer? It would save a huge amount of manpower because it’s very complicated (our system). We have another business for hotel offices for example, and over the last few years we have implemented an online booking system which saves us an awful lot of time. It allows our staff to do other things because people are just booking online. But our clients would rather ring reception and speak to someone to make a meeting room booking than do it on their app, which is on their phone, which would be much, much quicker. Then the other thing about upmarket hotels is that they have far more offers than Premier Inns that for example don’t necessarily offer spa days, massages, access to the gym and so for example if a guest comes in and would like to book a facial we can engage and tailor the experience to each specific person. I guess ChatGPT could do it too, but it’s just not as intimate. Do you plan to integrate ChatGPT or not at this point or in the future? I’m not looking to use it currently. I don't know how well it could be integrated with our systems without respecting the personal interaction with our guests. What I’m gaining from it appears to be quite straightforward in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and cost savings but on the other hand, what will I be losing? In terms of marketing, some people argue that ChatGPT and more generally the use of AI could be employed in the creation of images and videos. How would that translate to the hotel industry in your opinion? In terms of the hotel industry, the idea of AI's creating contents like that, it's sort of meant to be more immersive for somebody before they go to a hotel so they can get a better feeling of whether a particular hotel is right for them. But interestingly though, isn't something lost in the slight, not knowing what we are going there for? Do we really want the experience before we even get there? What do you think your guests’ reactions will be if you implement ChatGPT? Our guests would react badly. Because they also are usually a bit older, maybe not particularly IT-literate, so if we did implement it I think we’d lose a lot of guests frankly. As I said, for us it’s more about the engagement we have with our guests, and part of the experience is talking to our staff. So I think for us, it isn’t going to work because our guests don’t interact that way: they don’t even book on our website so they certainly won’t with a bot. In your opinion, is the integration of ChatGPT necessary for the hotel industry or will hoteliers manage to keep doing business even without it? Yes, of course hotels would be able to survive even without it. Usually people that come to our hotel want to get away, want to separate from their mundane, busy life and go do something else and in my opinion using AI to do so won’t be useful. I can only speak for my hotel, but I believe those in a similar position will benefit better from not implementing it.