AI instead of front desk
 

I'm at the Marriott Riverwalk in San Antonio right now. And when you call from your room to try to get any guest assistance, your call doesn't get connected to a human but rather an AI attempts to address your need. Only after you listen to its nonsense, can you attempt to request help by an actual person. In recognition of my status as ambassador they transfer me to the 'priority line' for faster assistance.

Anyone ever see anything like this?

That’s pretty sad.

While I can't say that I've seen it, it's not surprising. Most calls/visits to the front desk are for information that is already easily available to the guest, but they don't want to search so they call instead. Staffing levels from 2019 until now are way down and they're only going to get cut more. Anything the industry can use to reroute you away from the progressively fewer people to staff a property, in their eyes, the better. People on this site post all the time about how five or ten years ago staffing for, fill in the blank of your choice, was better than it is now. Ten years from now, you'll be saying the same thing about the front desk/trying to reach someone on property without having to go through a layer or two of the app/automation/AI.

I had this at the New Orleans Marriott on Canal a couple of weeks ago. I was trying to check on my room service order (it had been almost an hour and I got a cold while I was on this trip, so I wasn't keen on going down to the lobby to track it down myself.) When I said 'check on room service order' or something like that, the automated system asked me if I wanted to start an order and I just said "representative" and it finally connected me to a human.

I think I got transferred to the front desk and they tried to look up my order, but asked to call me back with an answer, so it wasn't like human-powered was efficient either.

If the AI actually worked I'd say it's the way to go, but I. This case I wanted to know the hours of the pool and I got told all about how great the pool was, where it was located, how it was heated, everything but what I wanted to know. Only after listening to the whole message three times was I able to prompt it to let me talk to a person.

Actually, a report in the New York Times Friday says opposite: "In a landmark, the leisure and hospitality industry returned to its employment level in February 2020, and now sits at about 16.9 million jobs."

Sadly, the fact we are back to pre-pandemic levels probably won't change this ridiculous response, though. But we should be making sure the industry knows we know.

This would be enough to make sure I never stayed in that hotel ever again.

I'm not going to argue with you, but you're completely incorrect. Looking at the total number of jobs is useless. Chains continue to open more locations. What matters and what I'm talking about, are the number of people that actually staff new and existing hotels because that number is down and will continue to go down in the years to come. I've been in the industry with Marriott and now with Hilton long enough to have seen on property staffing reduced permanently several times. First after 9/11 (I was directly impacted by this when Marriott created MBS which eliminated a large portion of their on property accounting staff at their managed locations), then during/after the Great Recession and now with Covid.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand and see what the industry has done compared to five years ago just with reduced housekeeping service and the corresponding smaller staffing footprint in that area. Those jobs have been permanently eliminated by owners and management companies. AI is also already reducing and remodeling staffing in the sales and revenue management areas. Between AI and continued increased app usage, major staffing changes are coming from the industry whether the travelling public likes it or not to front line operational staffing as well. The end game is the smallest FTE footprint possible. It's not if, just when, and how it's implemented.

I was not debating it so much as making the point from the report. Trust me, I agree that service is dismal and it's absolutely affected where I stay and what I pay. The report on jobs is an indictment more than anything.

Good chance the human you eventually get isn't on property, but at a call center providing assistance for multiple hotels. And maybe taking McDonald's Drive Up orders in between (and during) hotel calls

With (ridiculous) mandatory minimum wage demands being made in some areas, offshoring of jobs is taking off again. I just saw a news story today on a restaurant which has cashiers based in the Philippines, connected via video conference, at the kiosks. A Florida chain of Mexican restaurants also outsourced their phones to India for orders. It was obvious when I called that the offshore guy on the other end of the phone had never seen a chimichanga, let alone knew what it was.

Remote Drive up orders has been a thing for nearly a decade. Heck, remote customer service jobs has been a thing for much longer than that. Companies will try to save money any way they can. Tech companies, Retail companies, Restaurants, etc.

Last I checked, Unemployment in this country is still at historic lows.

It's the Front Desk now, then the App's Chat later.

Hallucinating AI replacing real life humans is peak Bonvoy.

I'm not sure which one would be more accurate and which one would be more unhelpful.