Guestline integrates ResDiary and AI to boost sales of ancillary products

Self-service guest portal provides reduces administration for hotel teams

Guestline, part of Access Group, has introduced a host of self-service options to its GuestStay offering.

One of those is incorporating AI to further reduce pressure on hotel staff while empowering guests.

The self-service portal from Guestline, part of the GuestStay product, enables guests to manage their hotel reservation with options to modify or update dates, rate plan or room type, and to pre-order additional products and services like breakfast or parking in advance of their stay. 

With greater automation embedded, AI identifies, categorises, and creates actionable requests in the PMS.

Guests will be able to secure a restaurant booking through bookings and table management software provider ResDiary.

This is now fully integrated with the portal for table reservations. 

Chris Jones, senior product manager of Guestline, said: “By empowering the guest to manage their own stay, our hotel partners are not only liberated from administrative tasks, they also benefit from faster access to more accurate first-party data, which can drive better efficiency and personalisation. 

"With AI we can provide even further automation to support hotel teams. 

"This means staff can focus on what’s most important - providing guests with a memorable, engaging experience. In trials, the self-service has proven particularly popular with corporate travellers who appreciate the ability to make amendments in a few clicks and to make specific requests ahead of their arrival.”

Through the guest self-service portal, hotels are able to surface more of their F&B offering and wider ancillary products and services throughout the digital guest journey to secure demand and drive increased TRevPAR while delivering an enhanced guest experience. 

This is especially relevant for OTA bookings, where bookings are often room only.

Jones added: “As well as happier guests and refocused staff, hotels using the guest portal see increases in restaurant bookings thanks to the integration with ResDiary. 

"We are already seeing properties with around 25% of their table bookings now coming via the GuestStay portal, with even more upsell options to the portal to drive additional revenue already in development.

"At a time when room-only margins are tight, every little uplift on guest spend counts - and with staffing issues still prevailing in hospitality, reducing ‘zombie jobs’ and creating more autonomy for guests is a vital part of our vision for GuestStay and the portal.”  

The portal's capabilities allow hoteliers to prompt guests to complete admin processes from their own devices in their own time, such as pre-arrival digital registration, checking their spend during stay, and settling their bill and checking out on the day of departure.   

Additional functionality and features are planned for later in 2024.