AI in Hospitality Marketing: Revolutionizing Customer Experience Assignment Sample

AI in Hospitality Marketing: Revolutionizing Customer Experience

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Introduction- Consumer Behaviour Marketing And Technology In Hospitality

Marketing has evolved throughout time as new media techniques have made it possible to reach a broader audience and a wider range of potential customers. Marketing has also shifted from focusing on the specific needs of the customer to focusing on customer commitment and enthusiasm for a certain brand (Ruel & Njoku, 2020). The act of promoting a hospitality company to the general public is known as hospitality marketing. Raising the reputation of the brand, its goods and/or services is the primary objective of every marketing campaign. Depending on the industry and the firm, several approaches may be used. Because the hotel sector places a high value on building long-term connections with its clients and guests, attracting new consumers is an essential aspect of a business's marketing strategy.

Hospitality businesses can now access a great amount of people quickly and easily because to the widespread use of technology, which is also incredibly adaptable and fast to respond to market shifts (Yang, Henthorne & George, 2020). Using an AI-powered application, the hotel business may customize operations, evaluate customer ratings, and provide virtual support. Personalization guarantees that the visitor appreciates their visit and that the client is satisfied which contributes heavily to the marketing efforts.

A Critical Review of The Current State of Thinking About the Concept in The Relevant Marketing Literature

In hospitality, AI would be able to do things that are impossible for humans to do. In order to maintain a high standard of service for its visitors, AI is setting a new standard for the hospitality industry. In turn, this will lead to more revenue and customer loyalty, which in turn will lead to more referrals. AI is capable of simplifying procedures, offering vital data information, and enhancing the customer's entire experience (Yang, Henthorne & George, 2020). Technology advancements (particularly artificial intelligence) have caused a fundamental shift and impacted several businesses in the past few years. While some companies have been left behind, these developments have increased value for end consumers. After getting significant encouragement from effective application instances, the implementation of innovative technological innovations has grown into a major trend (Bulchand Gidumal, 2020).

Artificial intelligence in hospitality has gotten a big drive since it has the potential to absolutely modify the sector and how it serves its customers by correct marketing efforts. As the need for smart automation of current operations grows, artificial intelligence (AI) has penetrated the conventional hospitality sector with the potential of enhancing hotel image, driving revenue, and elevating the customer experience to a whole new height. Hotels throughout the world have been modernizing their operating systems and services in order to keep up with evolving customer expectations (Mariani, Perez?Vega & Wirtz, 2022). Artificial intelligence is having a significant influence on the hotel industry's operating characteristics and specifically on marketing tactics.

Data collecting, data processing, and extra insights of demographic or macroeconomic indicators that may have an influence on marketing activities are all used in AI marketing to create automated judgments (Bounatirou & Lim, 2020). The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing is common in situations where rapidity is critical. Data and customer profiles are used by AI technologies to understand how to properly engage with consumers and afterwards offer them customized communications at the correct moment without the involvement of marketing team personnel, guaranteeing optimal efficiency (Jiang & Wen, 2020). Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being employed in the marketing industry to supplement human resources or to execute activities that need lack complexity. In the hotel industry, it has been discovered that cloud-based AI technologies are allowing a surge of reactive, customer-focused change by optimizing the work process.

The following are examples of AI marketing:

• data collection and analysis
• Synthesis of natural language
• decisions made by a computer system
• the development of information
• customized service in real-time

The current dynamics of the hospitality industry show that the adaptation of AI will be one of the most sought-after tactics for hotels (Buhalis & Moldavska, 2021). Because of its capacity to do traditionally human responsibilities at any time of the day, artificial intelligence is becoming more important in the hotel industry. There is a set of promising features that are anticipated to hold a significant possibility here for hotel operators to save money, minimize human mistakes, and give better service. The way hotels handle their clients is frequently what makes or breaks their business, and this is especially true in the hospitality sector (Buhalis & Moldavska, 2021). Artificial intelligence widens an almost boundless figure of opportunities for increasing this element, from better personalization to more precise suggestions.

Al and the Guest

The visitor experience has become practically a cliché in the hospitality context. Hoteliers have always put a priority on customized attention, even when they were all brick-and-mortar companies. In today's digitally revolutionized commercial world, innovations that were unimaginable merely 15 years ago are now driving the transformation (Ruel & Njoku, 2020).  The number of established and developing marketing tools grows, not shrinks, owing to AI-powered chatbots, AI-powered content strategies, and AI for analyzing Big Data. Because of AI's capacity for pattern detection, the hotel owner stands to gain the most from the technology (Ruel & Njoku, 2020). Customers' brand engagements and purchasing habits may be better served by hotels attributable to this feature. This is the most important advantage for visitors. 

With the use of artificial intelligence, hotel marketers are recognizing patterns in how different customers respond to communication (Yang, Henthorne & George, 2020). It is possible to write and modify responses in accordance with the guest's responses in real-time. With these technologies, the opportunities are almost endless. Especially through the use of social-media generated content, the AI-enabled technology examines customer interests and allows the companies to cater to the identified needs which enhances the marketing efforts of the companies.

CRM and AI

Using AI-powered CRM, hotels are able to better segment and communicate with prospective guests to enhance conversions by enhancing their experience while they are being advertised to. In spite of how convoluted this seems; the real-time recognition system radically changes the marketing scheme. In contrast to passive marketing, an improved user experience is almost likely to lead to improved sales (Yang, Henthorne & George, 2020). People that are prepared to try new approaches in sales and marketing should expect to see sales like these as a result of their participation. In future conversations with specific users, professionals can anticipate how much more effective it will be to employ this type of relationship analysis.

AI may be used to enhance the CRM function of hotel marketing. AI-powered CRM promotes productivity. This tool lets the hotels develop personalized offers depending on consumer behaviour. AI provides a holistic view of the customer lifecycle, spanning prospects through commitment.    The most commonly requested concerns are answered immediately through AI.  It liberates employees’ time for more critical issues (Mariani, Perez?Vega & Wirtz, 2022). AI can send relevant emails or SMS to a lead without human involvement. At this stage, marketing professionals take over and nurture the lead. AI is altering how companies communicate with and cultivate customers, rendering follow-up obsolete.

A Critical Discussion on The Marketing Concept and How It Has Been Adopted by The Companies

Industries that refuse to adapt to new technology advancements in the twenty-first-century risk going backwards in terms of progress (Doborjeh et al., 2021). Digital technology has become a need for companies throughout the world in order to maintain a steady stream of income and development. Digital solutions have seen an astonishing period of development during the previous decade. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the major breakthroughs (AI).

The notion of artificial intelligence (AI) as technical assistance is considerably broader, profound, and more ubiquitous than the idea that it would supplant human labour. However, it has increased confidence in the hotel business by demonstrating the potential of AI-powered robots to change its operations, offerings, and infrastructure (Doborjeh et al., 2021). Comfort-defining advances are most swiftly implemented in the hotel business, which has advanced its whole system with the deployment of several novel customer support approaches which has enabled the hospitality sector to expand and intensify the positive outcomes from their marketing efforts.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Within the Hospitality Industry

Despite the use of artificial intelligence within the hospitality industry is still in its formative stages, it already has various practical advantages, some of which are detailed in greater depth below:

In-Person Customer Service: In the hospitality business, one example of artificial intelligence would be the use of AI to deliver customer provision in person. Even if robots with artificial intelligence have previously been developed, there is huge potential for this technology to evolve further. Basic customer-facing circumstances have already been handled by it (D'Arco et al., 2019). “Connie”, an AI robot acquired by Hilton, is the best representation of this so far. Customers who engage with the robot will be capable to get travel information. More interestingly, it is capable of learning from human speech and relating to changing persons. Clients that use it often will see an improvement in its capabilities. This allows hotels to make their customers comfortable and attract them which boosts their marketing possibilities.

Chatbots and Messaging: Front-facing customer service may be the most apparent use of artificial intelligence in the hotel industry. Instant communication and internet chat systems, especially, have established the technology to be mostly positive in responding to basic queries or demands (D'Arco et al., 2019). With AI chatbots, clients may obtain near-instantaneous answers to their inquiries on social media channels, 24 hours a day, seven days per week. For hotels, this is precious since it allows for reaction times that would be almost difficult to achieve via human contact alone. This provides clients with rapid responses which enhances their experiences and creates a better brand image desired by the hotels' marketing approaches.

Data Analysis: In addition to customer service, AI is used in the hotel business for data processing (Naumov, 2019). Consumers or prospective guests may be identified rapidly with this technology, which can be used to swiftly filter through vast volumes of data. Customer data from surveys and online evaluations are processed using this technology, and an AI is then tasked with analysing it in order to make judgments about profitability.

AI Usage in Hotel Premier Inn

Hotels are increasingly investing in methods to understand customer perspectives and behavioural approaches. Especially for big companies like Premier Inn, it is far more significant to trace the changes in customer perspective to make significant modifications and enhancements while catering for the customers. All of these activities are analysed by AI to determine why clients halt in their search (Naumov, 2019). One may also target the communication to the customer's specific needs by evaluating the records. Considering the case of Premier Inn, the biggest hotel chain in the UK will create viability in this context. According to search indications, the business was capable of connecting with the target demographic who were seeking a decent place to stay (Naumov, 2019). Instead of manually monitoring analytics and audience behaviour, Premier Inn employed AI techniques to examine the data about the duration of stay, the devices used for researching, and the region they were intending to explore, to have their Google advertising appear at the proper moment. 

Hilton

In-person customer relations enabled by AI, in combination with chatbots, have had a significant impact on the visitors' experience leading to a better brand image and marketing of the hotels (Choudhury, 2021). Conrad Hilton's daughter, Connie, was the inspiration for Hilton's first-ever AI-powered hotel concierge robot.  An inventive and absolutely distinctive solution for hotel customers was created in conjunction with IBM in order to reduce wait time in line and improve operational efficiency in the hotel which facilitates the customers and increases their perception of the company (Jaiswal, 2020). Through perceptions, knowledge, and experiences it allows the computer system to understand its surroundings in the same way as people.

Just like a front desk employee, concierge, or representatives at the hotel, Connie is able to provide customers with information on hotel amenities, area activities, and eating suggestions which leads to better market awareness of the company (Jaiswal, 2020). Connie "identifies and reacts intuitively to the requirements and preferences of Hilton's visitors Which gives an experience that's especially compelling in a hospitality context, where it can result in greater customer connection. With the introduction of Connie, Hilton's artificial intelligence (AI) robot, the hospitality sector has been transformed in an unprecedented manner.

From the above exemplification of the hotels which use AI for their business operations and marketing tactics, the importance of the usage of AI can be clearly seen. The growing trend of AI has enabled all the luxury as well as some comparatively smaller companies to gain better market exposure and customer preferences which marks a significant advancement in the hospitality sector.

Critiques And Recommendations on The Marketing Value

The current state of AI and its relevance in the hospitality industry is remarkable since hotels have adapted ways to incorporate AI into their marketing and operational procedures. The most important aspect is that AI adds in value and enhances the market awareness by introducing optimized services which create preference. In the hospitality sector, the image of a hotel is everything, therefore it's critical to what the intended market say about the company and its service excellence (Koo et al., 2021). A company will be able to react more effectively to customer feedback by using AI's speed and scalability in interpreting feedback and social media postings. Positive feedback may be spread and increased, whereas bad responses can be addressed by getting out to the source of the problem and resolving the issue at its core. By being alerted before a crisis occurs, AI may prevent from getting embarrassing customer relations gaffes.

There is still a long way to go before the hotel sector fully embraces AI. When artificial intelligence (AI) enters the scene, it's going to have a significant impact on how consumers and employees in both the front and back of the desk interact (Koo et al., 2021). Virtual worlds such as the Metaverse, which focuses on social interactions and allows consumers to tour guestrooms and facilities even before they get to their location, are just one example of how technology is transforming the hospitality industry. Entirely new use of AI should be explored as soon as possible (Koo et al., 2021). Even Nevertheless, new forms of AI are on the horizon, and the business must bear this in mind when making decisions. Artificial intelligence has the potential to further revolutionize the sector, thus it is imperative that all industry players accept its application if they are to maintain a competitive advantage.

Recommendation

AI can be used in multiple ways in future by the hospitality industry to cater to its marketing objectives. Such as:

1. With hyperdynamic pricing, a booking engine may leverage data from social media and even global news to offer prices that optimize profit (Buhalis & Moldavska, 2021). To put it another way, the artificially intelligent software will immediately modify pricing to match an upsurge if there is a huge convention around.
2. Using a user's location, chatbot translators may rapidly detect the language they are using on a webpage. 

Conclusion

The use and relevance of AI cannot be overstated, witnessing the growth and impact it had in the last few years. Companies are constantly chasing to gain better competitive advantages to be more relevant in the market, and AI has given these companies the opportunity to intensify their competitiveness. Especially by using the data processing and optimizing approaches through AI, the hotels have been enhancing their marketing efforts to reach out to a wider customer base. This report has attempted to provide a critical explanation and rationale on the subject by analyzing related literature and viable exemplifications.

References

Bounatirou, M., & Lim, A. (2020). A Case Study on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on a Hospitality Company. In Sustainable Hospitality Management. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Buhalis, D., & Moldavska, I. (2021). In-room voice-based AI digital assistants transforming on-site hotel services and guests’ experiences. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2021 (pp. 30-44). Springer, Cham.

Bulchand Gidumal, J. (2020). Impact of artificial intelligence in travel, tourism and hospitality.

Choudhury, D. (2021). Artificial Intelligence in the Hospitality Sector. In Insights, Innovation, and Analytics for Optimal Customer Engagement (pp. 257-278). IGI Global.

D'Arco, M., Presti, L. L., Marino, V., & Resciniti, R. (2019). Embracing AI and big data in customer journey mapping: from literature review to a theoretical framework. Innovative Marketing, 15(4), 102.

Doborjeh, Z., Hemmington, N., Doborjeh, M., & Kasabov, N. (2021). Artificial intelligence: a systematic review of methods and applications in hospitality and tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Jaiswal, G. (2020). A quantitative evaluation of customer marketing impact by artificial intelligence in hospitality industry. Pranjana: The Journal of Management Awareness, 23(2), 40-44.

Jiang, Y., & Wen, J. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on hotel marketing and management: a perspective article. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Koo, C., Xiang, Z., Gretzel, U., & Sigala, M. (2021). Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in travel, hospitality and leisure. Electronic Markets, 31(3), 473-476.

Mariani, M. M., Perez?Vega, R., & Wirtz, J. (2022). AI in marketing, consumer research and psychology: A systematic literature review and research agenda. Psychology & Marketing, 39(4), 755-776.

Naumov, N. (2019). The impact of robots, artificial intelligence, and service automation on service quality and service experience in hospitality. In Robots, artificial intelligence, and service automation in travel, tourism and hospitality. emerald publishing limited.

Ruel, H., & Njoku, E. (2020). AI redefining the hospitality industry. Journal of Tourism Futures.

Yang, L., Henthorne, T. L., & George, B. (2020). Artificial intelligence and robotics technology in the hospitality industry: Current applications and future trends. Digital transformation in business and society, 211-228.