Airbnb recently suspended a listing that used AI to talk to guests.
And still, AI guest replies are the dominant pitch from every PMS in the market.
Guesty. Hostaway. OwnerRez. HostBuddy. All suggest that your business is better with AI that pretends to be you.
And none of them see the gaping AI-shaped hole in your business that needs to be filled.
Hostaway claims more than 70 percent of vacation rental property managers have integrated AI in some form. The vast majority using it to write replies to guests.
Every PMS is throwing a chatbot into the inbox so they can say proudly, “we have AI”, because they’re afraid of what will happen if they don’t keep up with the trend.
Do guests really want to be talking to AI?
Or do they want a human experience?
How often have you spoken to an AI chatbot and just wished a human was there to answer properly, rather than the canned responses you usually get?
Admittedly, they’re better than they were a few years ago.
I for one don’t miss the automated voice options when trying to call the bank.
But guests on holiday expect human interaction. Quick responses. Quality communication. Empathy when something goes wrong. Judgement when something is unusual.
AI in the inbox does the opposite of all of that.
It signals a lack of care for their experience.
For example, there’s a Reddit thread floating around r/AirBnB where a guest cancelled after the host’s confirmation message mentioned they used AI to communicate.
They weren’t refusing AI. They were refusing the host’s choice to put a robot in front of them at the moment of arrival.
That’s the bit nobody at the PMS companies seems to have considered. The guest doesn’t object to AI being used in your business. They object to being handed off to it.
So where should AI be used in your business?
In the few places guests can’t see.
Operations. Routing. Tracking. Triage.
The follow-ups, the reminders, the chasing
The contractor who hasn’t replied to the email from Tuesday doesn’t mind if it AI or a human that chases them.
The cleaner who needs a reminder for Saturday won’t even notice that AI sent the message.
This is the stuff guests will never see, but will feel in the quality of service.
When your business runs better, smoother, it gives you freedom to focus more on guest experience.
AI in front of your guest is a liability. AI behind your guest is leverage.
The guests want human replies, quick judgement calls, and warmth at check-in. But that is being automated away.
And the part operators actually need help with, the relentless, repetitive, admin work behind the scenes, is the unsexy part nobody’s selling.