Sponsored Research
2026 NextGen Guest Interactions
2025 AI & Automation Study
2024 Direct Booking Study
2023 Digital Hotel Operations Study
2022 Hospitality Distribution Study
2021 Automated Personalization Study
2020 Global IBE & Metasearch Study
2019 Global CRM Study
2018 Global PMS Study
2017 Global CRS Study
Custom Research
Phocuswright Partnership
AI & Automation in Hospitality
Navigating Today’s Challenges, Shaping Tomorrow’s Gains
and/or watch our online session from the 8th of October 2025.
A big thank you to everyone who participated in h2c’s 2025 AI & Automation Study!
We are grateful to our sponsors and partners for making this study possible.
Study Sponsors (alphabetical):
Access Hospitality · Apaleo · Blastness · Cendyn · Cloudbeds · dailypoint · Hospitality Solutions · IDeaS · Ireckonu · Oracle Hospitality · Planet · Profitroom · RobosizeME · SuitePad · Zucchetti
Study Supporters (alphabetical):
CUBE · ExploreTECH · Hotel Inside · HSMA · IHA
KEY STUDY HIGHLIGHTS
- AI Adoption Surges: 78% of hotel chains are already using AI, and 89% plan to expand applications in the next 12–24 months. Chatbots are the most common use case today (42%), while Customer Data Management leads planned expansions (50%).
- Low AI Reliance and Integration Remain Hurdles: Despite high adoption (not always accompanied by successful outcomes) and moderate trust in AI capabilities, true reliance on AI solutions is low, with an average reliance score of just 4.7 out of 10. Only 6% of hotel chains have a comprehensive company-wide AI strategy.
- Main Adoption Barriers: Lack of AI expertise (62%), unclear strategy (51%), and integration challenges (45%) are the top obstacles cited by hotel chains. Notably, the top adoption barrier is twice as big a challenge as organizational resistance to change (31%).
- Major Value in Automation and BI: Business Intelligence (78%) is viewed as the most valuable AI application today, closely followed by guest communications via chatbots and virtual assistants (77%) and digital marketing (72%). Looking ahead, personalized booking experiences and upselling are the top initiatives planned for enhancing the guest experience.
- Strategy and Budget Limit Scale: Only 7% have a company-wide AI strategy, and another 8% align AI strategies at the department level. Only 11% of hotel chains have dedicated AI budgets, while 58% are tracking ROI (of those, 27% consistently), but most remain cautious: just 1% say AI is central to their business model.
- Human Touch Remains Central: The majority of hoteliers view AI primarily as an enabler that frees staff to focus on more strategic and guest-centric roles, rather than as a threat to jobs. However, within five years, more than four in ten hoteliers expect that reservations and call center functions, guest data management, revenue management, and digital marketing will be fully automated.
- Key Investment Drivers: Seamless integration with existing hotel systems, reduction of repetitive manual tasks, and proven impact on revenue growth (70%, 69%, and 69%, respectively) are the top three investment decision factors, while ROI potential, data security/compliance, and guest experience personalization remain strong secondary drivers.
