Dive Brief:
- Choice Hotels International has collaborated with Amazon Web Services on an enterprisewide artificial intelligence deployment that will leverage AWS’ AgentCore platform, the hotel company announced Monday.
- The integration will impact how guests discover and book Choice hotels, how franchisees manage operations and how the company optimizes its distribution and channel ecosystem, resulting in “a more intelligent, responsive, and efficient enterprise,” according to a release.
- This enterprisewide AI adoption marks “the next chapter in Choice Hotels’ history of innovation,” Chief Information Officer Brian Kirkland said in a statement. Choice is among competitors ramping up investment in AI to drive operational efficiency for owners and enhance the guest experience.
Dive Insight:
This collaboration with AWS gives Choice “the opportunity to continuously advance our capabilities and turn intelligence into a lasting competitive advantage to support our guests and franchisees,” Kirkland said.
Choice will leverage AI to personalize the end-to-end customer journey, with guests benefiting from “relevant, timely and seamless interactions across digital and physical touchpoints,” per the release. The company will also deploy AI-powered tools aimed at helping hoteliers make smarter decisions around revenue management, maintenance and guest communications.
Meanwhile, the integration is expected to reshape how Choice manages its distribution and channel ecosystem, “enabling smarter pricing, inventory optimization and partner integrations that help drive incremental revenue for franchisees,” per the release.
The collaboration comes as hoteliers industrywide plan to increase their IT budgets this year in an effort to improve the guest experience, increase efficiencies, increase revenue and reduce costs. A significant portion of hoteliers (34%) believe working with a hotel brand is essential to incorporating AI across their business, while the majority (89%) say it’s beneficial, according to a January survey from Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
Wyndham entered an agentic AI adoption push last year with the goal of improving its customer and employee experiences. Similarly, Marriott International is actively investing in technology, data and AI, executives detailed during a fourth-quarter earnings call in February.
Hyatt is also leaning into AI investment. On Monday, OpenAI announced that Hyatt has deployed ChatGPT Enterprise across corporate departments, including finance, marketing and operations, to drive productivity, streamline operations and enhance collaboration, as well as improve Hyatt guest and customer experience.
In addition to the AWS collaboration, Choice is actively “expanding how travelers discover and book our hotels by partnering with leading technology platforms as AI reshapes travel search and booking behavior,” CEO Patrick Pacious said during a fourth-quarter earnings call. Choice is collaborating with Google on its AI-powered travel planning capabilities and OpenAI through participation in its ChatGPT advertising pilot, Pacious said.
