Author: Linda Girrbach, Co-Founder & Head of Hospitality Consulting at RobosizeME
Introduction
What’s the biggest challenge you face running a hotel today? Rising guest expectations, fewer staff, or the constant race against time? Well, for most hotel leaders I speak with, it’s all three. And despite all the innovation, too much hotel tech still seems to get in the way or slow teams down with undue complexities instead of smoothing out operations.
As someone who has worked closely with hotel directors and international chain managers on digital transformation projects, I’ve seen how the right automations can eliminate repetitive tasks, reduce costly errors, and create more time for service and strategy.
I will now share with you 10 concrete automations you can rapidly put in place. These are proven use cases I’ve seen deliver results, particularly for a group of hotels. They are designed to reduce errors, and to free up your staff for what really matters: your guests. By the end of this read, you’ll have clear examples you can start acting on immediately.
1. Automate guest review responses
I’m sure you value your online reputation. Yet replying to every single Google or OTA review consumes hours each week.
How it works: An AI-powered Review Responses tool connects to your Google account and monitors incoming reviews. For each new review, an AI model generates a context-aware, brand-aligned reply and posts it automatically.
Why it matters for you: Instead of chasing reviews manually, your hotel maintains a consistent, professional tone 24/7. Staff save time, and guests feel heard—without delays.
2. Eliminate duplicate guest profiles
Duplicate profiles in your PMS fragment guest history, making personalization nearly impossible.
How it works: A suspended profile automation can scan the PMS for duplicate or suspended profiles using rules based on name, email, and booking history. The digital worker then merges them into one clean, unified record.
Why it matters for you: Your team avoids confusion, guest data stays accurate, and loyalty strategies become more effective because you finally get a single view of each guest.
3. Update reservation details automatically based on source
Different booking channels often require specific routing or billing instructions, and you can waste a lot of time when manually updating them.
How it works: Every day, a Routing Instructions Update automation allows the system to identify new reservations from OTAs, wholesalers or GDS partners and apply the correct routing instructions in the PMS. A summary report is sent to staff for review.
Why it matters for you: Billing is accurate from the start, and your staff doesn’t waste time correcting errors after guests check in.
4. Collect and post deposits automatically
Chasing deposits manually is error-prone and creates friction between departments.
How it works: A Batch Deposits automation detects reservations flagged for deposit, groups them by due date, processes the payments in batch, and updates the PMS with the transaction and reservation status.
Why it matters for you: Finance and reservations teams always see up-to-date payment data, while reducing the risk of lost revenue from missed deposits.
5. Enrich OTA reservations with guest details and routing
OTA reservations often arrive incomplete—missing preferences, special notes, or correct payment routing.
How it works: With an automated OTA Reservation Processing, each day, the system retrieves OTA bookings via API, updates payer information, adds notes or preferences, sets up traces and fixed charges, routes virtual credit cards to the correct folio, and sends a daily output report of which actions were taken.
Why it matters for you: Guests enjoy smoother check-ins because the PMS already has complete, accurate reservation details. It also eliminates the need for daily Front Office arrival checks.
6. Detect high-risk reservations to reduce no-shows
What about automating the detection of no-shows and fake bookings that eat away at margins and create operational stress?
How it works: An AI-powered model reviews each new reservation, scores its risk of being a no-show, and generates a daily report for staff to act on potentially fraudulent or low-likelihood bookings.
Why it matters for you: Even preventing a handful of no-shows per month can have an immediate impact on revenue, while your team gains confidence in reservation quality.
7. Reconcile commissions weekly to avoid errors
OTA commissions are one of the most common sources of billing headaches.
How it works: A Commission Tracking automation will generate weekly OTA partner performance reports, match them with PMS data and OTA commission claims, calculate commissions, and deliver a clear summary for verification.
Why it matters for you: You avoid overpaying commissions, and your finance team spends less time manually checking line items.
8. Reconcile credit card payments across PMS, POS, and payment providers
Every day, your PMS, POS, and payment providers produce streams of transactions. Reconciling them manually is slow and error prone. This is typically a task that can easily be automated.
How it works: A Credit Card Reconciliation automated workflow gathers transactions from PMS, POS, and gateways like Adyen, consolidates them into one master report, flags discrepancies, and distributes it daily.
Why it matters for you: Finance gets full visibility instantly, and potential issues are caught before they snowball into costly mistakes.
9. Automate invoice processing and approval routing
Invoice handling often ties up valuable finance resources with repetitive approval checks.
How it works: Using an Invoice Approval (non-PO coding) automation allows your system to apply value-based approval rules, route invoices accordingly, and enter the results into a central report for review.
Why it matters for you: Low-value invoices no longer require unnecessary staff intervention, freeing your finance team for higher-level work.
10. Extract and deliver daily income audit and cashier adjustment reports
Daily financial oversight is critical but gathering and formatting audit reports can take hours.
How it works: An automation running Income Audit pulls data from PMS, POS, and spreadsheets, compiles them into a standardized Income Audit Report, and distributes it automatically each day.
Why it matters for you: Reports are delivered reliably and on time, giving finance teams more space to analyze results instead of chasing data.
Conclusion
These 10 automation ideas are not a complete digital transformation roadmap, but they can give you practical entry points you can adopt immediately. They address pain points you already face daily: reputation management, payment accuracy, reservation quality, and financial control.
In my experience, hotels that start with even one or two of these automations see the benefits quickly.
My personal view is simple: automation is not about replacing people. It’s about giving your team the freedom to focus on service and strategy. Every automation you implement today brings you closer to running a more efficient, profitable, and guest-focused hotel.
Next Step for You
If you found these ideas helpful, I encourage you to download The Hotelier’s Guide to Starting Your Automation Journey. It will assist you design a safe automation roadmap.
