Operating under tighter margins

Financial pressure on hotels is increasing. Labour costs are rising due to pay increases under collective labour agreements and tight labour markets. Food & beverage, energy and raw material costs have also risen significantly. At the same time, RevPAR growth, or revenue per available room, remains subdued.

Since 2026, hotels in the Netherlands have also faced a higher VAT rate on hotel stays. The rate has increased from 9% to 21%.

As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for hotels to absorb rising costs. There are also limits to further cuts in staffing and operating costs.

AI agents may offer part of the answer.

For hotels, RevPAR is not the whole picture

Hotels have traditionally focused heavily on occupancy, average room rate, and RevPAR. But as costs rise, another question becomes increasingly important: how much of that revenue ultimately remains?

Tobias van Dijk illustrates this with an example. A luxury hotel with 150 rooms, annual revenue of €10 million and a GOP margin of 37% generates €3.7 million in gross operating profit.

A 5% increase in revenue, for example through better personalisation, higher conversion, dynamic pricing and upselling, would bring revenue to €10.5 million. At the same time, reducing operating costs by three percentage points, through measures such as automation, improved workforce planning, predictive maintenance and smarter procurement, could increase GOP by more than €700,000.

In the example, GOP therefore rises above €4.4 million: an increase of around 19–25%, depending on the starting level of efficiency. This is, of course, an example, but according to Van Dijk, the practical impact of AI agents could be much greater.

The potential lies on both sides: higher revenue and lower costs.

AI agents go beyond chatbots

When we think about AI in hotels, chatbots that answer guest questions are often the first thing that comes to mind. AI agents go a step further.

They can combine information from different sources, carry out tasks, and work across different systems. This makes them suitable for areas such as workforce planning, revenue management, marketing and guest services. They can also be used for predictive maintenance, inventory management and procurement.

AI agents can therefore take over work that currently takes up significant time and help different processes within a hotel work together more effectively.

Interest is growing, but adoption in hotels remains limited

According to CBS, 9% of hospitality businesses with ten or more employees used AI in 2024. This placed hospitality, alongside construction, among the sectors with the lowest levels of AI adoption. The average across all sectors surveyed was 22.7%.

Expectations are already considerably higher across the international hotel industry. Research by Canary Technologies found that 82% of hotel technology decision-makers surveyed expect AI use within their organisation to increase over the coming year. Some 85% expect to allocate at least 5% of their IT budget to AI.

In practice, adoption still appears to be lagging behind what AI can offer.

Why adoption remains difficult for hotels

Staff shortages and operational pressure leave little time to assess, test, and implement new technology properly. AI also touches on something fundamental to hotels: personal contact. The concern that technology could come at the expense of hospitality is understandable.

The technology itself can also be an obstacle. Hotels rely on different systems that do not always communicate effectively. Introducing a new AI application can quickly add to the workload and complexity.

Finally, the return on investment is not guaranteed. Investing in AI requires money, but also knowledge, time, and ownership. A separate CBS study found that 74.6% of companies that had considered using AI but did not use it cited lack of experience as by far the main reason.

AI agents as a link between hotel systems

The different systems used within hotels are therefore part of the problem. At the same time, Van Dijk argues that AI agents can help hotel systems work together more effectively.

This does not necessarily require new software. AI can also help hotels get more value from the technology they already have.

An AI agent can combine information from different systems and, for example, use it for workforce planning, procurement, and pricing. This can help align processes more effectively.

Start with the business problem

The question is not which new technology a hotel needs, but where AI can add value within the business.

Not every hotel faces the same challenges. Where is unnecessary time being lost? Which tasks could be made simpler? Where are revenue opportunities being missed? And where could employees be better supported?

Only then should the question of which technology is right come into play.

What works for a large hotel group will not necessarily suit an independent hotel. The right application will differ from one hotel to another.

The next step for hotels

Margin pressure is increasing, while AI adoption in hotels remains limited. This makes AI not only an interesting technological development, but also a strategic choice for hotels.

Using AI agents is not an end in itself. Tighter margins do, however, require new ways of making hotel operations more efficient.

The challenge remains to balance hospitality with profitability.

Source: Tobias van Dijk (Colliers), adapted by the editorial team