Where does the hotel industry really stand when it comes to artificial intelligence?

The European hotel industry in an AI check

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Artificial intelligence is considered one of the key future technologies in the hotel industry. Your potential: Automate processes, make better use of scarce resources and make decisions based on data. But how far has real use in everyday hotel life progressed?

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A recent study led by Prof. Roland Schegg now provides a reliable snapshot: Between January and April 2025, over 1,500 hotels from six European countries were surveyed, with a clear result: The willingness to use AI is high, and implementation remains selective.

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Great interest, little depth

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68% of hotels see the greatest employment opportunities in reservations, followed by marketing (62%), customer loyalty (51%) and data analysis (49%).

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However, only 41% of the companies surveyed actually use AI systems — mostly in the form of easy-to-implement tools such as ChatGPT for content creation or sentiment analyses for reviews. More complex applications such as predictive analyses, automated forecasting or dynamic cost management have so far been limited to a few pioneers.

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Barriers: Knowledge, Costs, Integration

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According to the study, four factors in particular slow down the spread:

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• Lack of knowledge of available solutions (39%)
  
  
• High implementation costs (35%)
  
  
• Technical complexity (34%)
  
  
• Lack of expertise in the team (32%)
  
  

Smaller companies in particular are also struggling with the fragmentation of their system landscape. In many cases, the linking of PMS, POS, banking and energy data is not possible or only possible with great effort, which further complicates the introduction of data-based AI applications.

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Where AI is having an impact in the hotel industry and what potential lies in the financial sector

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According to the study, hotels that already use AI report clear advantages: 76% say time savings, 54% say better internal communication, 51% say increased efficiency. However, use is usually limited to easily accessible applications such as text generation or evaluation analysis — strategic areas such as financial management have so far only been addressed sporadically.

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Yet this area in particular offers considerable potential: Hardly any other hotel segment has so much structured, regularly available data — for example from PMS, accounting, POS, HR or energy supply. profitize uses this data basis to create forecasts using artificial intelligence, identify budget discrepancies at an early stage and provide automated reports. This leads to a better overview, better management and measurable relief in day-to-day operations.

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A supplementary survey by HES-SO also shows that there is still room for improvement in many places, especially in the financial sector: Only 44% of hotels use a specialized revenue management system, and around a third continue to work with Excel. Key performance indicators such as GOPPAR or EBITDA margin are only rarely monitored. Data often remains unconnected — decisions are therefore not based on real-time analyses, but often on empirical values.

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From tool to transformation

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The results of the study clearly show that the hotel industry is ready for AI, but many companies are still just getting started. However, anyone who specifically analyses processes, connects systems sensibly and involves employees can turn AI into a real competitive advantage.

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The future belongs to hotels that combine operational reality and technological opportunities. Solutions such as Profitize show how this can be achieved - Not through more tools, but through intelligent integration.

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