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They are answering the phone until another three, four months because afterwards, there will also will be the level of voice. So she's gonna be answering the phone, and next level is via Avatar or Holobox or Homanoid.
Speaker 2:From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider, a show about the future of hotels and the technology that powers them.
Speaker 3:Today, we speak with Philip Linac, who runs two family oriented hotels in The Czech Republic, and who is doing a lot of fascinating things with technology. We talk about how he uses AI to offload many administrative tasks from his human staff to a humanoid robot. You'll want to hear how Philip incentivizes his staff to deliver great guest experiences by tying a portion of their compensation to guest satisfaction scores.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you, Philip, for being here. To get started, I would love for you to give a quick intro about yourself. Tell me about your hotels, where you're located and how long you've been in your current role.
Speaker 1:Thank you for invitation. It was nice to be here. My hotels are located in the Czech mountains called Krakonoshe. It's the little city called Petzpotznieszko which is very popular for Czech tourists and Polish ones and also The Netherlands One. I have two hotels.
Speaker 1:It's apartment hotels so it's large rooms, 55 square meters usually. I have two restaurants, one wellness spa on the roof, very nice one. And you know our booking feedbacks are 9.1945. So we try to do our best regarding the services and customer experience. And I'm in my role six years.
Speaker 1:Actually I'm a little bit switching from hospitality to engineering which I was pressed by a situation that there is no quality stuff I could hire for my hotel. So now I try to improve my hotels by OpenAI, TGPT, receptionist, full receptionist, humanoids.
Speaker 4:Well I have a lot to ask you on that topic. I would like to get a little more context on your properties. How many rooms are in each hotel and who is your typical guest?
Speaker 1:There are two hotels, totally 73 rooms and typical are the family biscuits. So we are almost like a family hotels. We do lots of animations and we are very keen on our restaurant which are the best in the Czech mountains, Krakownache. That's it. It's full equipped apartments, usually large rooms and very popular for family with the kids because one room could be occupied by five, six people if necessary.
Speaker 4:So it sounds like more leisure oriented properties. Tell me a bit about your mindset on technology in your hotels. How does technology interact with the guest experience?
Speaker 1:Actually, we implemented Hotel Time in Bucolor in 2021 which is four years ago. And it's quite you know helped to us to having cloud system and we are using lots of ads on apps like housekeeping etcetera. However, we still have lots of reporting in Google Docs, in Nextel and we have to be provided lots of reports by ourselves. And the main topic of technology at the moment is trying to implement fully humanoid receptionist which hopefully will be in our reception until end of twenty twenty seven. So we would like to replace receptionist by humanoids.
Speaker 1:Actually, our vision is because you probably know lots of hotels struggling with the staff and that's the reason that lots of hotels trying to automize their hotels with no staff. However it's not a goal for us. We would like to combine humanoids and human stuff together with perfect cooperation. And we are looking forward this could happen once.
Speaker 4:Tell me how do you envision humans and humanoids working together? What kinds of tasks would the AI handle and what kinds of tasks would the human staff handle?
Speaker 1:Oh actually it's all about the AI. I decided to try to fulfill my vision two years ago when ChetGPT OpenAI was a phenomenon in this world. And of course there are lots of tasks you have to go through and we are cooperating with lots of universities which are helping with different studies. For example, very difficult task is a speech to text. If there is a humanoid or you can see in the hollow box just behind me, if she will stand at the reception and there's coming five people to the receptionist.
Speaker 1:So she has to know, she has to divide it number one, number two, number three, number four, number five. She has to keep discussion with each one to keep the context of discussion. So it's not easy just to manage, for example, 93%, ninety five % accuracy regarding speech to text. Sometimes there is a noise room, noise reception. For example, in one of our hotels we have a kids club.
Speaker 1:There's lots of noise. So Bell has to manage communication with no mistakes. So this is one goal. Another task is of course cooperation with human staff which means bear will be heart of the hotel and bear will communicate with housekeeping, will communicate with the restaurant for example. In our hotels we are very focusing on the details.
Speaker 1:So for example, we know if anyone had a birthday and during the breakfast we will receive a little cake with Kindle and the receptionist has to inform restaurant that this will happen or that there is some child or there is some adult who is having birthday so it needs to be prepared. So yes, Bayer will be interactive and will be you know big helper of the rest of the staff. So it's not only about the Bayer but about the setup, the cooperation with human staff.
Speaker 4:And is Behr currently in use now in your two hotels?
Speaker 1:At the moment we use in a testing, you know, version it's a Behr virtual which is Behr is now answering all the emails and all WhatsApp messages to our guests. But it's not automatic yet. We are now learning her. So she's connecting to our PMS, to hotel time. She's connecting to our booking engine and channel manager which is Bookcolo.
Speaker 1:And she's connecting to our website. So whenever you change something on your website she knows it because she are scanning websites online. And she's answering all our guests. So receptionists just at the moment are focusing only for face to face communication. And they are answering the phone until another three, four months because afterwards there will also will be, you know, the level of voice.
Speaker 1:So she's gonna be answering the phone and next level is their Avatar or HoloBox or Homanoid, which means she will be just this receptionist version and we don't need the receptionist in the future. However, at the moment she is responding all the requests. She is doing the reservation. She is canceling reservations. She is preparing your soft pillows.
Speaker 1:She is reserving the table in the restaurant. She is telling what's gonna be the weather and what is the best trip around because we have very nice mountains in Czech Republic. They are not too high. They are 1,600 square meters highest. However, there are very nice routes.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, she is prepared to help you anytime you need even before you come to our hotel. So you have WhatsApp number and before you are, you know, checking in, you can communicate about lots of issues and she can help you with everything you need. So she is an agent. She is doing the reservation, canceling reservation. She is not only an assistant, but she has a lot of information from the local sources.
Speaker 4:And is it fully automated right now? Like, if I send a WhatsApp message and I say, hey, I'm looking for some hiking recommendations. Does they respond immediately or does a human agent actually push send on the message that's drafted?
Speaker 1:That's a good question. Not yet. At the moment it's still supervising by our front office managers. They are just approving. So Bayer will propose the response and front office manager at the moment will check it.
Speaker 1:And if it's okay then she's validating and giving some feedback and just send it. At the moment, accuracy is about 80%, eighty five %. Whenever it's going to be 95%, ninety six % then there will be switched to automatic which means she will be responding and you will just check the reports. How many reservation did she did? How many upsell?
Speaker 1:How many cross sell? How many answers did she respond and you will see everything she's doing.
Speaker 4:Can you share any benefits or any specific results that have been achieved since implementing Bea like in this agent mode? Have there been some hours saved for your staff or has guest satisfaction increased? I'm curious if you've seen any preliminary indicators of success there.
Speaker 1:Oh, actually, one big advantage is, of course, the one minute response, which is amazing. Whenever Bea will be handling the phones, which means Bea voice, she will answer on the one, two rings, which is also a problem for our receptionists all the time taking the phones in time. You know that you are losing the guests if you're not answering even if sometimes you don't have time to call back, for example. Another advantage, of course, is languages. Even in our front end, at the moment, front office managers will see the Chinese text and translate it to the Czech, then the proposed Czech response and translate it to Chinese, which will sent to the guests.
Speaker 1:I'm traveling a lot all over the world, and I'm just receiving lots of messages in German, in Austria, Italy languages, whatever. And this will be very practical and comfort for me to receiving messages in Czech all the time because Bayer speaks hundred plus languages with no big issue. Another very big advantage is cross selling and upselling because you can learn and you can coach your receptionist, try to sell the massages, try to sell the spa services, whatever restaurant, but they are not doing usually not only 100% but maybe even 50%. And Bayer will do it every time. Bayer will be the best salesman of our hotel.
Speaker 1:So it's going to be perfect information. Bayer is always happy. So all the messages Bayer is sending are nice, polite, needed a little bit assertive, sometimes a little joke, but it has to be something which is a very nice experience for our guests, and it is. So we are now having some feedbacks from our guests and they are telling, Yeah, it's nice to communicate with Bea because she is all the time perfect, perfect information and always nice.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I was going to ask how guests are responding to Bea. Mentioned you are seeing some feedback that's positive. Have you seen anything that's negative? Or have there been any challenges with the rollout?
Speaker 1:Of course. Of course. There are some negative feedbacks. And usually they were at the beginning when wasn't perfect. For example, when wasn't very good integration with channel manager and there was some problem with responding about the capacity availability and so on.
Speaker 1:However, you know, we are prepared that there's going to be some percentage of the guests which would like to speak with human if it's possible of course. And I also would like I'd rather speak with human than with AI probably but it's going to be impossible. You probably know that hospitality is employing three thirty million people and until 02/1932, there's going to be another 126,000,000 people needed. And the people just, you know, they aren't. So the demographic, we are older than the COVID, twenty five percent left the hospitality and even not half coming back to the hospitality sector.
Speaker 1:So there is no staff. And the reason of no staff is that the quality of our services is decreasing and costs for our employees are increasing. So we have to find some solution. For me, know, the kiosk, for example, isn't a solution. I don't want to go to the hotel with the kiosk and scanning my passport hoping that I will get the QR code to get to my room.
Speaker 1:Which means if it's fully automized hotel, you usually have no restaurants, no massages, no spa. Maybe as a you know traveling like a business, it's fine. You just need the bed. But to spend a vacation you need some service. And for me, hospitality is about the people serving the guests.
Speaker 1:And I'd like to keep this value. And for me, it probably will be a combination of humans and humanoids. It never be humans all around in all positions in a hotel. It has to be some combination. And the receptionist seems to me it's a lot of repetitive work seems to me this could be the first choice.
Speaker 1:And, of course, we will use our receptionist to other positions because we are struggling with staff in the whole hotel.
Speaker 4:I'm curious to know how your AI interacts with the existing tech that you have at your hotel. Can you walk me through your tech stack? I know you mentioned you use HotelTime for your PMS. What other tech do you have on-site?
Speaker 1:Actually the key ones is HotelTime as a PMS and BookOlo. Actually HotelTime has three software. It's a HotelTime, Libre, and Mento, which Libre is for wellness and spa and Bento are for restaurants. And the second key is BuColo, which is channel manager for a hotel. And these both softwares are integrated together, of course.
Speaker 1:So we were not replacing PMS. We were not replacing the channel manager, of course. We are trying to somehow replace receptionist work which seems to us it's not very popular actually. For example, sometimes I had the interview with receptionist and she was asking if there is possible home office. It's impossible to have home office on the reception.
Speaker 1:It's like a bad joke and it's very hard to find the receptionist for night shift for example. So my feeling is this is not to help only for hoteliers because we will save definitely lots of money. For example in Denmark you pay €60 per one hour receptionist work and small hotel needs at least five reception in between nine day shifts all the time. And it's crazy money. It's a million euro per month.
Speaker 1:So we will save money of course. However we will also improve our service because at the moment it's very hard to find someone who speaks at least two, three languages. And there I will speak 100 languages. So I feel combination with the Textag, Bookolo and Hotel Time, it's work already. And in the future, we will integrate another PMS and booking engine.
Speaker 1:But we will also integrate, for example, the local websites. We have two key websites in Petpotsysko around our hotels where all information are about the trips, about skiing because we have a skiing resort there, about lots of activities all around. This will be also connected to Bea and she will provide all needed information to our guests in a perfect quality.
Speaker 4:In addition to your PMS and channel manager, is there any other tech that guests interact with during their stay? Like, do you have a hotel app or do you have any technology in room that guests interact with?
Speaker 1:No. No. We we are now automized the parking system and cooling and heating, which is integrating the reception. In the future, Bayer will handle it. We have some ads on apps like revenue management and we have some apps regarding the reservation, the tables, etcetera.
Speaker 1:But my feeling is there are lots of fragmented ads on apps which is not helping a lot. For example, we tried to implement the MyStay which is check-in check out but it was very hard to find the best solution to avoid double messaging to our guests, for example. So we try to, as much as we can, we try to do with the HotelTime and Bookolo. So HotelTime has also lots of, like, ads on apps, But we'd rather have it in one system than trying to integrate more system ads on apps which are not working perfectly.
Speaker 4:I want to zoom out a little bit. I'm curious if there are one or two high level business objectives that you're working toward, and how does technology help you get there?
Speaker 1: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 housekeeping in your room or amazing food in our restaurants or very nice, everything nice in our wellness, in spa. So guest experience you know, number one. Then we also focus, as I already mentioned, on the details regarding the guest's view.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter if it's the birthday or the presents from housekeeping, whatever. And very important for us is also the highest score on Booking.com which means guest feedback, is also connected to guest experience. However, it's all about the staff so we are at the beginning again. When I take over the hotels I switch the fixed salary for only 50% fixed salary and the rest is regarding the sales, revenues, and the KPIs. Even the receptionist, even the cooks and the waiters are well motivated regarding the success.
Speaker 1:We are successful by having very good salaries This should be in every hotel. Probably in other states, it's usual, but in Czech, most of the hotels are the wages of the staff are just some fixed wages with no large motivation. We're doing our best to motivate them as much as we can. We hope they are doing the best work they can do and they are like little companies in one large hotel.
Speaker 4:I'm curious to hear your thoughts on building technology versus buying it. What's your thought process in deciding to build Bayer yourself versus maybe find something that's already on the market?
Speaker 1:Actually, I hoped I will buy Bayer. It would be much more easier. So I tried to find all the companies, the ILO, QuickTex, lots of companies handling with AI and hoping that someone will deliver me Bayer or any other lady which will replace my reception. And I just didn't find. I had a call this time on with Japanese companies, with lots of companies all over the world, and no one was able to provide me fully agent Bayer, which now I know it's not very easy to develop because we already spent 5,000 Mondays on Bayer and the main developing is in our lab, which is the Hotel Petzer.
Speaker 1:During the testing, you will find lots of issues you have to just solve, lots of tasks you have to go through. Without the better, I wouldn't be able to develop that. Probably that might be the reason why and probably will be some competitors which are also doing the same. But until now, I didn't find any solution which would be replacing Perceptionist with all the services we would like to have, with upselling, cross selling, languages, voice, speech to text. It's a very complex goal.
Speaker 1:That's why I had to find actually, I found the Profinet, which is a large consultancy company. At the moment, it's part of Amdocs, which is one of the largest IT AI solution consultancy company on the US Stock Exchange. At the moment, we have in team 35 developers and data science experts and AI experts. And they are developing the bear. So it's not easy.
Speaker 1:And for me, it would be much nicer just to buy it, but it was impossible. So that's why I have to or actually, I'd like to, and I decided to develop bear.
Speaker 4:So shifting gears here, I am curious based on your experience with your two hotels right now, what would you say are a couple skills or characteristics that a hotelier should have in order to be successful today?
Speaker 1:Hotel for me as any other business because I'm not a hotelier from the beginning. I had a packaging company. I had some other projects I was leading and after a while I sold or I still have ink. But it's a life organism. So it's about the leadership.
Speaker 1:Everybody has to know it's not about the checklist. I know a checklist are very important but it's about to create the environment which are friendly and nice for your staff and they are trying to do the same for their guests. So it's well motivated staff. It's, of course, good checklist. You can't forget anything.
Speaker 1:And it's still trying to be better in any position. And my feeling is it doesn't matter what you are doing. For me, it's more important the lady, she is, you know, the public toilets taking care and they are clean and she's all the time smiling. It's, for me, more important than someone, a manager in some very big company, just checking his bonuses. Whatever you do, just do it as best as you can.
Speaker 1:This setup for my hotel seems to me, you know, doing good results because it's about the people. Hospitality is about the people. It will be about the people and human rights together in the future probably because there are not enough people to do this business, but it's still about the people serving the guests. So I would tell you it's about the leadership, very good environment, friendly environment with trying to be the best. And of course, you have to share your success.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter if it's about the wages or bonuses for your staff, but it's also about the feedbacks. So any good feedback to our hotels, it's not for me or for my director. It's for the staff. They did it, and it's good to tell them and show them. So it's their medal.
Speaker 1:And, of course, the KPI motivation, and this also has to be very transparent. You can't hide. If you have nice revenue and they can earn double wages, then usually you just have to give them. There is no excuse because you have to count it first. But if it works, then you have to be fair and you have to be transparent.
Speaker 1:I don't know how it's in other countries, but I feel in Czechs this could be something that has to be improved. It's about the whole region. So we established some group of hotel areas where are another 16 large hotels, and we're trying together to improve environment in our region. So it's not about the better to be the best, but we're cooperating. We are sharing the vendors.
Speaker 1:We are dealing with the best condition for all 16 hotels and hotel resorts in the region. We are doing the mystery shopping in each hotel, and we are open to even the bad feedback. And our goal is Petsposneersko is the first choice for a family with the kids just to come in. Otherwise, it would work. We don't want to be just one the best hotels among no services or very bad services, expensive food, etc.
Speaker 1:So we also try to enlarge it for the whole region.
Speaker 4:Well, it was great chatting with you, Philip. Thank you so much for sharing your experience, for telling us all about the technology you're developing. Really great having you on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you very much,
Speaker 2: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 the business are leveraging technology to grow their properties and outperform the concept by using innovative digital tools and strategies. I encourage all of our listeners to go try at least one of these strategies or tools that you learned from today's episode. Successful digital transformation is all about consistent small experiments over a long period of time, So don't wait until tomorrow to try something new.
Speaker 2:Do you know a hotelier who would be great to feature on this show, or do you think that your story would bring a lot of value to our audience? Reach out to me directly on LinkedIn by searching for Jordan Hollander. For more episodes like this, follow Hotel Tech Insider on all major streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.