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HiJiffy clients usually run around 90% of guest enquiries automatically – the remaining 10% are the moments where your team is really needed. Here’s how AI frees up the time for those requests, and keeps your staff prepared to resolve them quickly.
Daily life at the front desk, in the reservations department and during the night shift is defined by repetition: the same questions about parking, check-in times or Wi-Fi, plus manually following up on maintenance reports and coordinating across departments. When staffing is short, this quickly turns into putting out fires reactively – and that’s exactly when there’s no time left for what hospitality is really about.
The numbers confirm the pressure. According to HVS, labour costs make up 30–45% of a hotel’s operating costs. At the same time, the global hospitality industry will be short of around 8.6 million workers by 2035, according to a recent WTTC report, roughly 18% below the level of staff actually needed, with noticeable bottlenecks.
This is exactly where AI for hotels comes in: it takes on the routine, so your team can focus on guests. On average, HiJiffy’s AI automates 90% of all guest communications – on-brand, across every channel. The following ten ways show what that looks like in practical day-to-day scenarios.
Breakfast times, parking options, pet policies, airport transfers: these FAQs take up a disproportionate amount of time, even though the answers are always identical. Hotel-specific conversational AI answers these standard enquiries reliably and consistently across every property in a hotel group: at Lub d, the automation rate across webchat, Facebook and Instagram reached 87% of 42,000 conversations in 2024, at a 7.9x ROI (more on this: HiJiffy success story with Lub d).
The HiJiffy Console analyses incoming messages in real time for sentiment and intent. It detects anger, frustration, or urgent requests, tags the message accordingly, and shows it with priority in the Inbox. So your team sees straight away where it needs to step in, which stops complaints from getting lost in the general flow of messages.
Aplysia, HiJiffy’s own hotel AI, combines deep learning with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), among other things, and draws exclusively on verified hotel documents – which prevents AI hallucinations. The result: suggested replies that are factually correct and consistently on-brand, and can be adjusted to the tone you want with a single click, whether professional, informal or empathetic.
In international teams, language barriers can cause miscommunications: special requests handled incorrectly in housekeeping, safety instructions misunderstood in the kitchen, and uncertain complaint handling in service. Instant translation of guest communications in the Console solves exactly this: your team reads every message in their own language and replies with a single click, error-free in German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and more – Aplysia itself understands over 130 languages.
When the AI reaches its limits, for example with a complaint or a VIP request, the chat is automatically routed to the right person or department, complete with the conversation history and captured guest data. Your team doesn’t start from scratch, but knows the full context straight away.
Unlike generic chat tools, HiJiffy runs workflows connected directly to your PMS: automated room-upgrade campaigns via WhatsApp before arrival, online check-in links, reminders about spa or breakfast offers during the stay, and feedback requests after check-out. It all runs without anyone having to follow up manually (more on this in our Campaigns Manager).
Grammar checking, auto-filling booking details, suggested replies and instant translation make the Power Tools a co-pilot. New or less experienced team members reply in your brand’s tone and language from day one – onboarding time is cut noticeably, and quality stays consistent, regardless of experience, language or shift.
Because labour costs account for 30–45% of operating costs (HVS), every automated hour directly affects margin. Lake District Hotels, for example, cut inbound call volume by 70% – time the team has since put into personal guest contact (read the Lake District Hotel success story).
For those responsible for IT and data protection, it matters: HiJiffy is fully GDPR-compliant, hosted encrypted in the EU (AWS Ireland), with annual external penetration tests. An official, audited guest communications platform also stops team members turning to unsecured public AI tools under time pressure and accidentally exposing guest data. Hotel chatbots fall under “limited risk” per the EU AI Act – HiJiffy builds in the transparency obligation under Article 50 automatically across every channel. More on this in our guide to the EU AI Act for hotels.
This is the essential point: the remaining 10% of conversations that cannot (or shouldn’t) be automated are the ones where human empathy and judgement count – a room problem, a delayed arrival, noise from neighbours. Here, a standard reply feels less than thoughtful. The AI filters and qualifies these requests in advance, so your team can step in with full context and a clear head.
As HiJiffy CEO Tiago Araújo puts it in the Virtual Coffees conversation (02:08 in the video above): “That’s what HiJiffy is here for, to try to take on as many repetitive tasks as possible (…) taking the eyes of whoever is in hotel operations away from the screen and looking more at the guests, having true conversations.”
How hoteliers balance this tension between automation and the personal touch in practice is explored in our free publication “Where is the line? Balancing the human touch and AI tech in hospitality“.
Before you introduce an AI solution in your hotel, a structured approach pays off:
You’ll find a detailed roadmap in our step-by-step guide to getting hotel teams on board with AI tools..
AI for hotels is no replacement for empathy – it’s the tool that gives your team back the time for it. With a global shortfall of 8.6 million hospitality workers by 2035, this isn’t about replacing staff, but about keeping operations running with the team you already have – and raising service quality rather than cutting corners on it. Automating repetitive tasks helps team members focus on more meaningful, higher-impact work: the moments where hospitality really counts.
Give your team a lift today
Want to see what AI-supported guest communications could look like in your hotel? Book a free demo to see how HiJiffy supports your hotel team.
The key benefits HiJiffy brings to your guest communications:
No – and we believe it shouldn’t. AI automates administrative processes and standard enquiries, so the team has time and energy for what counts: the guest. Empathy, care and emotional connection stay human tasks. AI for hotels is meant to support the hotel team, not replace it.
AI for hotels like HiJiffy answers an average of 90% of recurring standard enquiries – depending on hotel type and channel. That gives the hotel team back time to spend on the remaining 10%, and so on real hospitality, personal care and individual requests.
They’re handed straight to the right team member via smart routing, with the full conversation history, context and captured sentiment – so all the information is available immediately.
In the central Console, integrated Power Tools support hotel teams: real-time sentiment analysis for prioritisation, AI-suggested replies, grammar checking and instant translation into multiple languages.
Yes. Boutique and independent hotels are often especially agile and can roll out cloud-based solutions within a few days – letting them compete on equal terms with large chains and OTAs on online service.
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