March 18, 2025 • 25 mins
What if a humanoid robot could revolutionize the way your hotel operates? In this episode, Filip Linek, the innovative owner of two family-oriented hotels in the Czech Republic, shares how he's leveraging AI technology to enhance guest experiences and streamline operations.
Key Takeaways:
- Discover how Filip is integrating a humanoid robot, named Bea, to handle administrative tasks and improve communication between staff and guests, setting a new standard for hospitality.
- Learn about the unique compensation model that ties staff salaries to guest satisfaction scores, fostering a culture of excellence and accountability.
- Explore the challenges and successes of implementing AI in a hotel setting, including the importance of human interaction in a tech-driven environment.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
They are answering the phone until another three,
four months because afterwards,there will also will be the
level of voice. So she's gonnabe answering the phone, and next
level is via Avatar or Holoboxor Homanoid.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Today, we speak with Philip Linac, who runs two
family oriented hotels in TheCzech Republic, and who is doing
a lot of fascinating things withtechnology. We talk about how he
uses AI to offload manyadministrative tasks from his
human staff to a humanoid robot.You'll want to hear how Philip
incentivizes his staff todeliver great guest experiences
(00:45):
by tying a portion of theircompensation to guest
satisfaction scores.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well, thank you, Philip, for being here. To get
started, I would love for you togive a quick intro about
yourself. Tell me about yourhotels, where you're located and
how long you've been in yourcurrent role.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Thank you for invitation. It was nice to be
here. My hotels are located inthe Czech mountains called
Krakonoshe. It's the little citycalled Petzpotznieszko which is
very popular for Czech touristsand Polish ones and also The
Netherlands One. I have twohotels.
It's apartment hotels so it'slarge rooms, 55 square meters
(01:25):
usually. I have two restaurants,one wellness spa on the roof,
very nice one. And you know ourbooking feedbacks are 9.1945. So
we try to do our best regardingthe services and customer
experience. And I'm in my rolesix years.
Actually I'm a little bitswitching from hospitality to
(01:47):
engineering which I was pressedby a situation that there is no
quality stuff I could hire formy hotel. So now I try to
improve my hotels by OpenAI,TGPT, receptionist, full
receptionist, humanoids.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Well I have a lot to ask you on that topic. I would
like to get a little morecontext on your properties. How
many rooms are in each hotel andwho is your typical guest?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
There are two hotels, totally 73 rooms and typical are
the family biscuits. So we arealmost like a family hotels. We
do lots of animations and we arevery keen on our restaurant
which are the best in the Czechmountains, Krakownache. That's
it. It's full equippedapartments, usually large rooms
(02:37):
and very popular for family withthe kids because one room could
be occupied by five, six peopleif necessary.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
So it sounds like more leisure oriented
properties. Tell me a bit aboutyour mindset on technology in
your hotels. How does technologyinteract with the guest
experience?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Actually, we implemented Hotel Time in
Bucolor in 2021 which is fouryears ago. And it's quite you
know helped to us to havingcloud system and we are using
lots of ads on apps likehousekeeping etcetera. However,
we still have lots of reportingin Google Docs, in Nextel and we
(03:22):
have to be provided lots ofreports by ourselves. And the
main topic of technology at themoment is trying to implement
fully humanoid receptionistwhich hopefully will be in our
reception until end of twentytwenty seven. So we would like
to replace receptionist byhumanoids.
(03:42):
Actually, our vision is becauseyou probably know lots of hotels
struggling with the staff andthat's the reason that lots of
hotels trying to automize theirhotels with no staff. However
it's not a goal for us. We wouldlike to combine humanoids and
human stuff together withperfect cooperation. And we are
(04:06):
looking forward this couldhappen once.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Tell me how do you envision humans and humanoids
working together? What kinds oftasks would the AI handle and
what kinds of tasks would thehuman staff handle?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Oh actually it's all about the AI. I decided to try
to fulfill my vision two yearsago when ChetGPT OpenAI was a
phenomenon in this world. And ofcourse there are lots of tasks
you have to go through and weare cooperating with lots of
universities which are helpingwith different studies. For
example, very difficult task isa speech to text. If there is a
(04:48):
humanoid or you can see in thehollow box just behind me, if
she will stand at the receptionand there's coming five people
to the receptionist.
So she has to know, she has todivide it number one, number
two, number three, number four,number five. She has to keep
discussion with each one to keepthe context of discussion. So
it's not easy just to manage,for example, 93%, ninety five %
(05:12):
accuracy regarding speech totext. Sometimes there is a noise
room, noise reception. Forexample, in one of our hotels we
have a kids club.
There's lots of noise. So Bellhas to manage communication with
no mistakes. So this is onegoal. Another task is of course
cooperation with human staffwhich means bear will be heart
(05:34):
of the hotel and bear willcommunicate with housekeeping,
will communicate with therestaurant for example. In our
hotels we are very focusing onthe details.
So for example, we know ifanyone had a birthday and during
the breakfast we will receive alittle cake with Kindle and the
receptionist has to informrestaurant that this will happen
or that there is some child orthere is some adult who is
(05:58):
having birthday so it needs tobe prepared. So yes, Bayer will
be interactive and will be youknow big helper of the rest of
the staff. So it's not onlyabout the Bayer but about the
setup, the cooperation withhuman staff.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
And is Behr currently in use now in your two hotels?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
At the moment we use in a testing, you know, version
it's a Behr virtual which isBehr is now answering all the
emails and all WhatsApp messagesto our guests. But it's not
automatic yet. We are nowlearning her. So she's
connecting to our PMS, to hoteltime. She's connecting to our
booking engine and channelmanager which is Bookcolo.
(06:39):
And she's connecting to ourwebsite. So whenever you change
something on your website sheknows it because she are
scanning websites online. Andshe's answering all our guests.
So receptionists just at themoment are focusing only for
face to face communication. Andthey are answering the phone
until another three, four monthsbecause afterwards there will
(07:01):
also will be, you know, thelevel of voice.
So she's gonna be answering thephone and next level is their
Avatar or HoloBox or Homanoid,which means she will be just
this receptionist version and wedon't need the receptionist in
the future. However, at themoment she is responding all the
requests. She is doing thereservation. She is canceling
reservations. She is preparingyour soft pillows.
(07:24):
She is reserving the table inthe restaurant. She is telling
what's gonna be the weather andwhat is the best trip around
because we have very nicemountains in Czech Republic.
They are not too high. They are1,600 square meters highest.
However, there are very niceroutes.
So, yeah, she is prepared tohelp you anytime you need even
(07:44):
before you come to our hotel. Soyou have WhatsApp number and
before you are, you know,checking in, you can communicate
about lots of issues and she canhelp you with everything you
need. So she is an agent. She isdoing the reservation, canceling
reservation. She is not only anassistant, but she has a lot of
information from the localsources.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
And is it fully automated right now? Like, if I
send a WhatsApp message and Isay, hey, I'm looking for some
hiking recommendations. Doesthey respond immediately or does
a human agent actually push sendon the message that's drafted?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
That's a good question. Not yet. At the moment
it's still supervising by ourfront office managers. They are
just approving. So Bayer willpropose the response and front
office manager at the momentwill check it.
And if it's okay then she'svalidating and giving some
(08:44):
feedback and just send it. Atthe moment, accuracy is about
80%, eighty five %. Wheneverit's going to be 95%, ninety six
% then there will be switched toautomatic which means she will
be responding and you will justcheck the reports. How many
reservation did she did? Howmany upsell?
How many cross sell? How manyanswers did she respond and you
(09:08):
will see everything she's doing.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Can you share any benefits or any specific results
that have been achieved sinceimplementing Bea like in this
agent mode? Have there been somehours saved for your staff or
has guest satisfactionincreased? I'm curious if you've
seen any preliminary indicatorsof success there.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Oh, actually, one big advantage is, of course, the one
minute response, which isamazing. Whenever Bea will be
handling the phones, which meansBea voice, she will answer on
the one, two rings, which isalso a problem for our
receptionists all the timetaking the phones in time. You
know that you are losing theguests if you're not answering
(09:51):
even if sometimes you don't havetime to call back, for example.
Another advantage, of course, islanguages. Even in our front
end, at the moment, front officemanagers will see the Chinese
text and translate it to theCzech, then the proposed Czech
response and translate it toChinese, which will sent to the
(10:13):
guests.
I'm traveling a lot all over theworld, and I'm just receiving
lots of messages in German, inAustria, Italy languages,
whatever. And this will be verypractical and comfort for me to
receiving messages in Czech allthe time because Bayer speaks
hundred plus languages with nobig issue. Another very big
(10:34):
advantage is cross selling andupselling because you can learn
and you can coach yourreceptionist, try to sell the
massages, try to sell the spaservices, whatever restaurant,
but they are not doing usuallynot only 100% but maybe even
50%. And Bayer will do it everytime. Bayer will be the best
salesman of our hotel.
(10:54):
So it's going to be perfectinformation. Bayer is always
happy. So all the messages Bayeris sending are nice, polite,
needed a little bit assertive,sometimes a little joke, but it
has to be something which is avery nice experience for our
guests, and it is. So we are nowhaving some feedbacks from our
guests and they are telling,Yeah, it's nice to communicate
(11:16):
with Bea because she is all thetime perfect, perfect
information and always nice.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah. I was going to ask how guests are responding to
Bea. Mentioned you are seeingsome feedback that's positive.
Have you seen anything that'snegative? Or have there been any
challenges with the rollout?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Of course. Of course. There are some negative
feedbacks. And usually they wereat the beginning when wasn't
perfect. For example, whenwasn't very good integration
with channel manager and therewas some problem with responding
about the capacity availabilityand so on.
However, you know, we areprepared that there's going to
be some percentage of the guestswhich would like to speak with
(11:59):
human if it's possible ofcourse. And I also would like
I'd rather speak with human thanwith AI probably but it's going
to be impossible. You probablyknow that hospitality is
employing three thirty millionpeople and until 02/1932,
there's going to be another126,000,000 people needed. And
the people just, you know, theyaren't. So the demographic, we
(12:23):
are older than the COVID, twentyfive percent left the
hospitality and even not halfcoming back to the hospitality
sector.
So there is no staff. And thereason of no staff is that the
quality of our services isdecreasing and costs for our
employees are increasing. So wehave to find some solution. For
(12:44):
me, know, the kiosk, forexample, isn't a solution. I
don't want to go to the hotelwith the kiosk and scanning my
passport hoping that I will getthe QR code to get to my room.
Which means if it's fullyautomized hotel, you usually
have no restaurants, nomassages, no spa. Maybe as a you
know traveling like a business,it's fine. You just need the
(13:06):
bed. But to spend a vacation youneed some service. And for me,
hospitality is about the peopleserving the guests.
And I'd like to keep this value.And for me, it probably will be
a combination of humans andhumanoids. It never be humans
all around in all positions in ahotel. It has to be some
(13:27):
combination. And thereceptionist seems to me it's a
lot of repetitive work seems tome this could be the first
choice.
And, of course, we will use ourreceptionist to other positions
because we are struggling withstaff in the whole hotel.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I'm curious to know how your AI interacts with the
existing tech that you have atyour hotel. Can you walk me
through your tech stack? I knowyou mentioned you use HotelTime
for your PMS. What other tech doyou have on-site?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Actually the key ones is HotelTime as a PMS and
BookOlo. Actually HotelTime hasthree software. It's a
HotelTime, Libre, and Mento,which Libre is for wellness and
spa and Bento are forrestaurants. And the second key
is BuColo, which is channelmanager for a hotel. And these
both softwares are integratedtogether, of course.
(14:22):
So we were not replacing PMS. Wewere not replacing the channel
manager, of course. We aretrying to somehow replace
receptionist work which seems tous it's not very popular
actually. For example, sometimesI had the interview with
receptionist and she was askingif there is possible home
(14:42):
office. It's impossible to havehome office on the reception.
It's like a bad joke and it'svery hard to find the
receptionist for night shift forexample. So my feeling is this
is not to help only forhoteliers because we will save
definitely lots of money. Forexample in Denmark you pay €60
per one hour receptionist workand small hotel needs at least
(15:04):
five reception in between nineday shifts all the time. And
it's crazy money. It's a millioneuro per month.
So we will save money of course.However we will also improve our
service because at the momentit's very hard to find someone
who speaks at least two, threelanguages. And there I will
speak 100 languages. So I feelcombination with the Textag,
(15:29):
Bookolo and Hotel Time, it'swork already. And in the future,
we will integrate another PMSand booking engine.
But we will also integrate, forexample, the local websites. We
have two key websites inPetpotsysko around our hotels
where all information are aboutthe trips, about skiing because
(15:50):
we have a skiing resort there,about lots of activities all
around. This will be alsoconnected to Bea and she will
provide all needed informationto our guests in a perfect
quality.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
In addition to your PMS and channel manager, is
there any other tech that guestsinteract with during their stay?
Like, do you have a hotel app ordo you have any technology in
room that guests interact with?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
No. No. We we are now automized the parking system and
cooling and heating, which isintegrating the reception. In
the future, Bayer will handleit. We have some ads on apps
like revenue management and wehave some apps regarding the
reservation, the tables,etcetera.
But my feeling is there are lotsof fragmented ads on apps which
(16:40):
is not helping a lot. Forexample, we tried to implement
the MyStay which is check-incheck out but it was very hard
to find the best solution toavoid double messaging to our
guests, for example. So we tryto, as much as we can, we try to
do with the HotelTime andBookolo. So HotelTime has also
(17:02):
lots of, like, ads on apps, Butwe'd rather have it in one
system than trying to integratemore system ads on apps which
are not working perfectly.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
I want to zoom out a little bit. I'm curious if there
are one or two high levelbusiness objectives that you're
working toward, and how doestechnology help you get there?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
From my point of view, key is guest experience.
It has to be perfect services.It doesn't matter if it's you
know just cleaning housekeepingin your room or amazing food in
our restaurants or very nice,everything nice in our wellness,
in spa. So guest experience youknow, number one. Then we also
(17:47):
focus, as I already mentioned,on the details regarding the
guest's view.
It doesn't matter if it's thebirthday or the presents from
housekeeping, whatever. And veryimportant for us is also the
highest score on Booking.comwhich means guest feedback, is
also connected to guestexperience. However, it's all
(18:08):
about the staff so we are at thebeginning again. When I take
over the hotels I switch thefixed salary for only 50% fixed
salary and the rest is regardingthe sales, revenues, and the
KPIs. Even the receptionist,even the cooks and the waiters
are well motivated regarding thesuccess.
(18:32):
We are successful by having verygood salaries This should be in
every hotel. Probably in otherstates, it's usual, but in
Czech, most of the hotels arethe wages of the staff are just
some fixed wages with no largemotivation. We're doing our best
to motivate them as much as wecan. We hope they are doing the
(18:54):
best work they can do and theyare like little companies in one
large hotel.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on building
technology versus buying it.What's your thought process in
deciding to build Bayer yourselfversus maybe find something
that's already on the market?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Actually, I hoped I will buy Bayer. It would be much
more easier. So I tried to findall the companies, the ILO,
QuickTex, lots of companieshandling with AI and hoping that
someone will deliver me Bayer orany other lady which will
replace my reception. And I justdidn't find. I had a call this
time on with Japanese companies,with lots of companies all over
(19:37):
the world, and no one was ableto provide me fully agent Bayer,
which now I know it's not veryeasy to develop because we
already spent 5,000 Mondays onBayer and the main developing is
in our lab, which is the HotelPetzer.
During the testing, you willfind lots of issues you have to
(19:59):
just solve, lots of tasks youhave to go through. Without the
better, I wouldn't be able todevelop that. Probably that
might be the reason why andprobably will be some
competitors which are also doingthe same. But until now, I
didn't find any solution whichwould be replacing Perceptionist
with all the services we wouldlike to have, with upselling,
(20:22):
cross selling, languages, voice,speech to text. It's a very
complex goal.
That's why I had to findactually, I found the Profinet,
which is a large consultancycompany. At the moment, it's
part of Amdocs, which is one ofthe largest IT AI solution
consultancy company on the USStock Exchange. At the moment,
(20:45):
we have in team 35 developersand data science experts and AI
experts. And they are developingthe bear. So it's not easy.
And for me, it would be muchnicer just to buy it, but it was
impossible. So that's why I haveto or actually, I'd like to, and
I decided to develop bear.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
So shifting gears here, I am curious based on your
experience with your two hotelsright now, what would you say
are a couple skills orcharacteristics that a hotelier
should have in order to besuccessful today?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Hotel for me as any other business because I'm not a
hotelier from the beginning. Ihad a packaging company. I had
some other projects I wasleading and after a while I sold
or I still have ink. But it's alife organism. So it's about the
leadership.
Everybody has to know it's notabout the checklist. I know a
(21:40):
checklist are very important butit's about to create the
environment which are friendlyand nice for your staff and they
are trying to do the same fortheir guests. So it's well
motivated staff. It's, ofcourse, good checklist. You
can't forget anything.
(22:01):
And it's still trying to bebetter in any position. And my
feeling is it doesn't matterwhat you are doing. For me, it's
more important the lady, she is,you know, the public toilets
taking care and they are cleanand she's all the time smiling.
It's, for me, more importantthan someone, a manager in some
very big company, just checkinghis bonuses. Whatever you do,
(22:24):
just do it as best as you can.
This setup for my hotel seems tome, you know, doing good results
because it's about the people.Hospitality is about the people.
It will be about the people andhuman rights together in the
future probably because thereare not enough people to do this
business, but it's still aboutthe people serving the guests.
(22:47):
So I would tell you it's aboutthe leadership, very good
environment, friendlyenvironment with trying to be
the best. And of course, youhave to share your success.
It doesn't matter if it's aboutthe wages or bonuses for your
staff, but it's also about thefeedbacks. So any good feedback
to our hotels, it's not for meor for my director. It's for the
(23:09):
staff. They did it, and it'sgood to tell them and show them.
So it's their medal.
And, of course, the KPImotivation, and this also has to
be very transparent. You can'thide. If you have nice revenue
and they can earn double wages,then usually you just have to
give them. There is no excusebecause you have to count it
(23:30):
first. But if it works, then youhave to be fair and you have to
be transparent.
I don't know how it's in othercountries, but I feel in Czechs
this could be something that hasto be improved. It's about the
whole region. So we establishedsome group of hotel areas where
are another 16 large hotels, andwe're trying together to improve
(23:53):
environment in our region. Soit's not about the better to be
the best, but we're cooperating.We are sharing the vendors.
We are dealing with the bestcondition for all 16 hotels and
hotel resorts in the region. Weare doing the mystery shopping
in each hotel, and we are opento even the bad feedback. And
(24:14):
our goal is Petsposneersko isthe first choice for a family
with the kids just to come in.Otherwise, it would work. We
don't want to be just one thebest hotels among no services or
very bad services, expensivefood, etc.
So we also try to enlarge it forthe whole region.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Well, it was great chatting with you, Philip. Thank
you so much for sharing yourexperience, for telling us all
about the technology you'redeveloping. Really great having
you on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Thank you. Thank you very much,
Speaker 2 (24:51):
episode. Thanks for listening to Hotel Tech Insider
produced by HotelTechReport.com.Our goal with this podcast is to
show you how the best in thebusiness are leveraging
technology to grow theirproperties and outperform the
concept by using innovativedigital tools and strategies. I
encourage all of our listenersto go try at least one of these
strategies or tools that youlearned from today's episode.
(25:13):
Successful digitaltransformation is all about
consistent small experimentsover a long period of time, So
don't wait until tomorrow to trysomething new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
(25:35):
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
They are answering the phone until another three,
four months because afterwards,there will also will be the
level of voice. So she's gonnabe answering the phone, and next
level is via Avatar or Holoboxor Homanoid.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Today, we speak with Philip Linac, who runs two
family oriented hotels in TheCzech Republic, and who is doing
a lot of fascinating things withtechnology. We talk about how he
uses AI to offload manyadministrative tasks from his
human staff to a humanoid robot.You'll want to hear how Philip
incentivizes his staff todeliver great guest experiences
(00:45):
by tying a portion of theircompensation to guest
satisfaction scores.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well, thank you, Philip, for being here. To get
started, I would love for you togive a quick intro about
yourself. Tell me about yourhotels, where you're located and
how long you've been in yourcurrent role.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Thank you for invitation. It was nice to be
here. My hotels are located inthe Czech mountains called
Krakonoshe. It's the little citycalled Petzpotznieszko which is
very popular for Czech touristsand Polish ones and also The
Netherlands One. I have twohotels.
It's apartment hotels so it'slarge rooms, 55 square meters
(01:25):
usually. I have two restaurants,one wellness spa on the roof,
very nice one. And you know ourbooking feedbacks are 9.1945. So
we try to do our best regardingthe services and customer
experience. And I'm in my rolesix years.
Actually I'm a little bitswitching from hospitality to
(01:47):
engineering which I was pressedby a situation that there is no
quality stuff I could hire formy hotel. So now I try to
improve my hotels by OpenAI,TGPT, receptionist, full
receptionist, humanoids.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Well I have a lot to ask you on that topic. I would
like to get a little morecontext on your properties. How
many rooms are in each hotel andwho is your typical guest?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
There are two hotels, totally 73 rooms and typical are
the family biscuits. So we arealmost like a family hotels. We
do lots of animations and we arevery keen on our restaurant
which are the best in the Czechmountains, Krakownache. That's
it. It's full equippedapartments, usually large rooms
(02:37):
and very popular for family withthe kids because one room could
be occupied by five, six peopleif necessary.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
So it sounds like more leisure oriented
properties. Tell me a bit aboutyour mindset on technology in
your hotels. How does technologyinteract with the guest
experience?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Actually, we implemented Hotel Time in
Bucolor in 2021 which is fouryears ago. And it's quite you
know helped to us to havingcloud system and we are using
lots of ads on apps likehousekeeping etcetera. However,
we still have lots of reportingin Google Docs, in Nextel and we
(03:22):
have to be provided lots ofreports by ourselves. And the
main topic of technology at themoment is trying to implement
fully humanoid receptionistwhich hopefully will be in our
reception until end of twentytwenty seven. So we would like
to replace receptionist byhumanoids.
(03:42):
Actually, our vision is becauseyou probably know lots of hotels
struggling with the staff andthat's the reason that lots of
hotels trying to automize theirhotels with no staff. However
it's not a goal for us. We wouldlike to combine humanoids and
human stuff together withperfect cooperation. And we are
(04:06):
looking forward this couldhappen once.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Tell me how do you envision humans and humanoids
working together? What kinds oftasks would the AI handle and
what kinds of tasks would thehuman staff handle?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Oh actually it's all about the AI. I decided to try
to fulfill my vision two yearsago when ChetGPT OpenAI was a
phenomenon in this world. And ofcourse there are lots of tasks
you have to go through and weare cooperating with lots of
universities which are helpingwith different studies. For
example, very difficult task isa speech to text. If there is a
(04:48):
humanoid or you can see in thehollow box just behind me, if
she will stand at the receptionand there's coming five people
to the receptionist.
So she has to know, she has todivide it number one, number
two, number three, number four,number five. She has to keep
discussion with each one to keepthe context of discussion. So
it's not easy just to manage,for example, 93%, ninety five %
(05:12):
accuracy regarding speech totext. Sometimes there is a noise
room, noise reception. Forexample, in one of our hotels we
have a kids club.
There's lots of noise. So Bellhas to manage communication with
no mistakes. So this is onegoal. Another task is of course
cooperation with human staffwhich means bear will be heart
(05:34):
of the hotel and bear willcommunicate with housekeeping,
will communicate with therestaurant for example. In our
hotels we are very focusing onthe details.
So for example, we know ifanyone had a birthday and during
the breakfast we will receive alittle cake with Kindle and the
receptionist has to informrestaurant that this will happen
or that there is some child orthere is some adult who is
(05:58):
having birthday so it needs tobe prepared. So yes, Bayer will
be interactive and will be youknow big helper of the rest of
the staff. So it's not onlyabout the Bayer but about the
setup, the cooperation withhuman staff.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
And is Behr currently in use now in your two hotels?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
At the moment we use in a testing, you know, version
it's a Behr virtual which isBehr is now answering all the
emails and all WhatsApp messagesto our guests. But it's not
automatic yet. We are nowlearning her. So she's
connecting to our PMS, to hoteltime. She's connecting to our
booking engine and channelmanager which is Bookcolo.
(06:39):
And she's connecting to ourwebsite. So whenever you change
something on your website sheknows it because she are
scanning websites online. Andshe's answering all our guests.
So receptionists just at themoment are focusing only for
face to face communication. Andthey are answering the phone
until another three, four monthsbecause afterwards there will
(07:01):
also will be, you know, thelevel of voice.
So she's gonna be answering thephone and next level is their
Avatar or HoloBox or Homanoid,which means she will be just
this receptionist version and wedon't need the receptionist in
the future. However, at themoment she is responding all the
requests. She is doing thereservation. She is canceling
reservations. She is preparingyour soft pillows.
(07:24):
She is reserving the table inthe restaurant. She is telling
what's gonna be the weather andwhat is the best trip around
because we have very nicemountains in Czech Republic.
They are not too high. They are1,600 square meters highest.
However, there are very niceroutes.
So, yeah, she is prepared tohelp you anytime you need even
(07:44):
before you come to our hotel. Soyou have WhatsApp number and
before you are, you know,checking in, you can communicate
about lots of issues and she canhelp you with everything you
need. So she is an agent. She isdoing the reservation, canceling
reservation. She is not only anassistant, but she has a lot of
information from the localsources.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
And is it fully automated right now? Like, if I
send a WhatsApp message and Isay, hey, I'm looking for some
hiking recommendations. Doesthey respond immediately or does
a human agent actually push sendon the message that's drafted?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
That's a good question. Not yet. At the moment
it's still supervising by ourfront office managers. They are
just approving. So Bayer willpropose the response and front
office manager at the momentwill check it.
And if it's okay then she'svalidating and giving some
(08:44):
feedback and just send it. Atthe moment, accuracy is about
80%, eighty five %. Wheneverit's going to be 95%, ninety six
% then there will be switched toautomatic which means she will
be responding and you will justcheck the reports. How many
reservation did she did? Howmany upsell?
How many cross sell? How manyanswers did she respond and you
(09:08):
will see everything she's doing.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Can you share any benefits or any specific results
that have been achieved sinceimplementing Bea like in this
agent mode? Have there been somehours saved for your staff or
has guest satisfactionincreased? I'm curious if you've
seen any preliminary indicatorsof success there.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Oh, actually, one big advantage is, of course, the one
minute response, which isamazing. Whenever Bea will be
handling the phones, which meansBea voice, she will answer on
the one, two rings, which isalso a problem for our
receptionists all the timetaking the phones in time. You
know that you are losing theguests if you're not answering
(09:51):
even if sometimes you don't havetime to call back, for example.
Another advantage, of course, islanguages. Even in our front
end, at the moment, front officemanagers will see the Chinese
text and translate it to theCzech, then the proposed Czech
response and translate it toChinese, which will sent to the
(10:13):
guests.
I'm traveling a lot all over theworld, and I'm just receiving
lots of messages in German, inAustria, Italy languages,
whatever. And this will be verypractical and comfort for me to
receiving messages in Czech allthe time because Bayer speaks
hundred plus languages with nobig issue. Another very big
(10:34):
advantage is cross selling andupselling because you can learn
and you can coach yourreceptionist, try to sell the
massages, try to sell the spaservices, whatever restaurant,
but they are not doing usuallynot only 100% but maybe even
50%. And Bayer will do it everytime. Bayer will be the best
salesman of our hotel.
(10:54):
So it's going to be perfectinformation. Bayer is always
happy. So all the messages Bayeris sending are nice, polite,
needed a little bit assertive,sometimes a little joke, but it
has to be something which is avery nice experience for our
guests, and it is. So we are nowhaving some feedbacks from our
guests and they are telling,Yeah, it's nice to communicate
(11:16):
with Bea because she is all thetime perfect, perfect
information and always nice.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah. I was going to ask how guests are responding to
Bea. Mentioned you are seeingsome feedback that's positive.
Have you seen anything that'snegative? Or have there been any
challenges with the rollout?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Of course. Of course. There are some negative
feedbacks. And usually they wereat the beginning when wasn't
perfect. For example, whenwasn't very good integration
with channel manager and therewas some problem with responding
about the capacity availabilityand so on.
However, you know, we areprepared that there's going to
be some percentage of the guestswhich would like to speak with
(11:59):
human if it's possible ofcourse. And I also would like
I'd rather speak with human thanwith AI probably but it's going
to be impossible. You probablyknow that hospitality is
employing three thirty millionpeople and until 02/1932,
there's going to be another126,000,000 people needed. And
the people just, you know, theyaren't. So the demographic, we
(12:23):
are older than the COVID, twentyfive percent left the
hospitality and even not halfcoming back to the hospitality
sector.
So there is no staff. And thereason of no staff is that the
quality of our services isdecreasing and costs for our
employees are increasing. So wehave to find some solution. For
(12:44):
me, know, the kiosk, forexample, isn't a solution. I
don't want to go to the hotelwith the kiosk and scanning my
passport hoping that I will getthe QR code to get to my room.
Which means if it's fullyautomized hotel, you usually
have no restaurants, nomassages, no spa. Maybe as a you
know traveling like a business,it's fine. You just need the
(13:06):
bed. But to spend a vacation youneed some service. And for me,
hospitality is about the peopleserving the guests.
And I'd like to keep this value.And for me, it probably will be
a combination of humans andhumanoids. It never be humans
all around in all positions in ahotel. It has to be some
(13:27):
combination. And thereceptionist seems to me it's a
lot of repetitive work seems tome this could be the first
choice.
And, of course, we will use ourreceptionist to other positions
because we are struggling withstaff in the whole hotel.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
I'm curious to know how your AI interacts with the
existing tech that you have atyour hotel. Can you walk me
through your tech stack? I knowyou mentioned you use HotelTime
for your PMS. What other tech doyou have on-site?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Actually the key ones is HotelTime as a PMS and
BookOlo. Actually HotelTime hasthree software. It's a
HotelTime, Libre, and Mento,which Libre is for wellness and
spa and Bento are forrestaurants. And the second key
is BuColo, which is channelmanager for a hotel. And these
both softwares are integratedtogether, of course.
(14:22):
So we were not replacing PMS. Wewere not replacing the channel
manager, of course. We aretrying to somehow replace
receptionist work which seems tous it's not very popular
actually. For example, sometimesI had the interview with
receptionist and she was askingif there is possible home
(14:42):
office. It's impossible to havehome office on the reception.
It's like a bad joke and it'svery hard to find the
receptionist for night shift forexample. So my feeling is this
is not to help only forhoteliers because we will save
definitely lots of money. Forexample in Denmark you pay €60
per one hour receptionist workand small hotel needs at least
(15:04):
five reception in between nineday shifts all the time. And
it's crazy money. It's a millioneuro per month.
So we will save money of course.However we will also improve our
service because at the momentit's very hard to find someone
who speaks at least two, threelanguages. And there I will
speak 100 languages. So I feelcombination with the Textag,
(15:29):
Bookolo and Hotel Time, it'swork already. And in the future,
we will integrate another PMSand booking engine.
But we will also integrate, forexample, the local websites. We
have two key websites inPetpotsysko around our hotels
where all information are aboutthe trips, about skiing because
(15:50):
we have a skiing resort there,about lots of activities all
around. This will be alsoconnected to Bea and she will
provide all needed informationto our guests in a perfect
quality.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
In addition to your PMS and channel manager, is
there any other tech that guestsinteract with during their stay?
Like, do you have a hotel app ordo you have any technology in
room that guests interact with?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
No. No. We we are now automized the parking system and
cooling and heating, which isintegrating the reception. In
the future, Bayer will handleit. We have some ads on apps
like revenue management and wehave some apps regarding the
reservation, the tables,etcetera.
But my feeling is there are lotsof fragmented ads on apps which
(16:40):
is not helping a lot. Forexample, we tried to implement
the MyStay which is check-incheck out but it was very hard
to find the best solution toavoid double messaging to our
guests, for example. So we tryto, as much as we can, we try to
do with the HotelTime andBookolo. So HotelTime has also
(17:02):
lots of, like, ads on apps, Butwe'd rather have it in one
system than trying to integratemore system ads on apps which
are not working perfectly.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
I want to zoom out a little bit. I'm curious if there
are one or two high levelbusiness objectives that you're
working toward, and how doestechnology help you get there?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
From my point of view, key is guest experience.
It has to be perfect services.It doesn't matter if it's you
know just cleaning housekeepingin your room or amazing food in
our restaurants or very nice,everything nice in our wellness,
in spa. So guest experience youknow, number one. Then we also
(17:47):
focus, as I already mentioned,on the details regarding the
guest's view.
It doesn't matter if it's thebirthday or the presents from
housekeeping, whatever. And veryimportant for us is also the
highest score on Booking.comwhich means guest feedback, is
also connected to guestexperience. However, it's all
(18:08):
about the staff so we are at thebeginning again. When I take
over the hotels I switch thefixed salary for only 50% fixed
salary and the rest is regardingthe sales, revenues, and the
KPIs. Even the receptionist,even the cooks and the waiters
are well motivated regarding thesuccess.
(18:32):
We are successful by having verygood salaries This should be in
every hotel. Probably in otherstates, it's usual, but in
Czech, most of the hotels arethe wages of the staff are just
some fixed wages with no largemotivation. We're doing our best
to motivate them as much as wecan. We hope they are doing the
(18:54):
best work they can do and theyare like little companies in one
large hotel.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on building
technology versus buying it.What's your thought process in
deciding to build Bayer yourselfversus maybe find something
that's already on the market?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Actually, I hoped I will buy Bayer. It would be much
more easier. So I tried to findall the companies, the ILO,
QuickTex, lots of companieshandling with AI and hoping that
someone will deliver me Bayer orany other lady which will
replace my reception. And I justdidn't find. I had a call this
time on with Japanese companies,with lots of companies all over
(19:37):
the world, and no one was ableto provide me fully agent Bayer,
which now I know it's not veryeasy to develop because we
already spent 5,000 Mondays onBayer and the main developing is
in our lab, which is the HotelPetzer.
During the testing, you willfind lots of issues you have to
(19:59):
just solve, lots of tasks youhave to go through. Without the
better, I wouldn't be able todevelop that. Probably that
might be the reason why andprobably will be some
competitors which are also doingthe same. But until now, I
didn't find any solution whichwould be replacing Perceptionist
with all the services we wouldlike to have, with upselling,
(20:22):
cross selling, languages, voice,speech to text. It's a very
complex goal.
That's why I had to findactually, I found the Profinet,
which is a large consultancycompany. At the moment, it's
part of Amdocs, which is one ofthe largest IT AI solution
consultancy company on the USStock Exchange. At the moment,
(20:45):
we have in team 35 developersand data science experts and AI
experts. And they are developingthe bear. So it's not easy.
And for me, it would be muchnicer just to buy it, but it was
impossible. So that's why I haveto or actually, I'd like to, and
I decided to develop bear.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
So shifting gears here, I am curious based on your
experience with your two hotelsright now, what would you say
are a couple skills orcharacteristics that a hotelier
should have in order to besuccessful today?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Hotel for me as any other business because I'm not a
hotelier from the beginning. Ihad a packaging company. I had
some other projects I wasleading and after a while I sold
or I still have ink. But it's alife organism. So it's about the
leadership.
Everybody has to know it's notabout the checklist. I know a
(21:40):
checklist are very important butit's about to create the
environment which are friendlyand nice for your staff and they
are trying to do the same fortheir guests. So it's well
motivated staff. It's, ofcourse, good checklist. You
can't forget anything.
(22:01):
And it's still trying to bebetter in any position. And my
feeling is it doesn't matterwhat you are doing. For me, it's
more important the lady, she is,you know, the public toilets
taking care and they are cleanand she's all the time smiling.
It's, for me, more importantthan someone, a manager in some
very big company, just checkinghis bonuses. Whatever you do,
(22:24):
just do it as best as you can.
This setup for my hotel seems tome, you know, doing good results
because it's about the people.Hospitality is about the people.
It will be about the people andhuman rights together in the
future probably because thereare not enough people to do this
business, but it's still aboutthe people serving the guests.
(22:47):
So I would tell you it's aboutthe leadership, very good
environment, friendlyenvironment with trying to be
the best. And of course, youhave to share your success.
It doesn't matter if it's aboutthe wages or bonuses for your
staff, but it's also about thefeedbacks. So any good feedback
to our hotels, it's not for meor for my director. It's for the
(23:09):
staff. They did it, and it'sgood to tell them and show them.
So it's their medal.
And, of course, the KPImotivation, and this also has to
be very transparent. You can'thide. If you have nice revenue
and they can earn double wages,then usually you just have to
give them. There is no excusebecause you have to count it
(23:30):
first. But if it works, then youhave to be fair and you have to
be transparent.
I don't know how it's in othercountries, but I feel in Czechs
this could be something that hasto be improved. It's about the
whole region. So we establishedsome group of hotel areas where
are another 16 large hotels, andwe're trying together to improve
(23:53):
environment in our region. Soit's not about the better to be
the best, but we're cooperating.We are sharing the vendors.
We are dealing with the bestcondition for all 16 hotels and
hotel resorts in the region. Weare doing the mystery shopping
in each hotel, and we are opento even the bad feedback. And
(24:14):
our goal is Petsposneersko isthe first choice for a family
with the kids just to come in.Otherwise, it would work. We
don't want to be just one thebest hotels among no services or
very bad services, expensivefood, etc.
So we also try to enlarge it forthe whole region.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Well, it was great chatting with you, Philip. Thank
you so much for sharing yourexperience, for telling us all
about the technology you'redeveloping. Really great having
you on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Thank you. Thank you very much,
Speaker 2 (24:51):
episode. Thanks for listening to Hotel Tech Insider
produced by HotelTechReport.com.Our goal with this podcast is to
show you how the best in thebusiness are leveraging
technology to grow theirproperties and outperform the
concept by using innovativedigital tools and strategies. I
encourage all of our listenersto go try at least one of these
strategies or tools that youlearned from today's episode.
(25:13):
Successful digitaltransformation is all about
consistent small experimentsover a long period of time, So
don't wait until tomorrow to trysomething new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
(25:35):
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
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