AI Agents are quickly becoming one of the biggest technology trends in hospitality, but not every AI solution is built with real hotels in mind.

We spoke with Profitroom product director, Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza, and the lead product manager for AI Agent, Małgorzata Krajewska, about the thinking behind our AI solution, what we’ve learnt in the past year, and where the product is heading next.

When you started developing AI Agent initially, what problem in hospitality were you most focused on solving?

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: We didn't start with "let's build AI," we started with a clear problem: hotels were losing bookings because guests weren't getting answers when intent was highest. Questions about availability, rooms, pet policies, or late check-outs often arrived outside reception hours, and by the time a human replied, the guest had already booked elsewhere.

This challenge has grown with international travel, language barriers, different time zones, and changing guest expectations. Millennials and Gen Z prefer instant messaging over phone calls and expect answers in their own language, 24/7.

Our focus was simple: close the response gap at the moment of intent. The goal wasn't to automate conversations for the sake of it, but to ensure every guest receives an accurate, on-brand, booking-ready answer instantly, turning a coverage challenge for hotels into a revenue and guest-experience opportunity.

AI Agents are a major trend right now. How did you think about building something that was genuinely useful for hotels, rather than just following the trend?

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: We were deliberate about not building a "trend product." The test we held ourselves to was simple: will this move the needle to an outcome a hotelier actually cares about — direct bookings, conversion, revenue per enquiry, or time saved at the front desk? If a capability couldn't be traced back to one of those numerical outcomes, it didn't make the roadmap.

Małgorzata Krajewska: We really approached development as a "hospitality native". The tool was built around a functional understanding of how hotel departments (reception, reservations, sales, and marketing) actually operate.

Our AI Agent is a part of our interconnected ecosystem: we didn't build a standalone product; we integrated the AI Agent into a broader ecosystem that connects the AI Agent, central CRM, Personalized Offering tool, and a Unified Inbox. This ensures the tool actually drives and supports the entire reservation pipeline rather than just answering basic FAQs.

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: That's why we're able to deliver real value. The AI isn't operating in isolation; it's part of a comprehensive platform designed specifically for hospitality. The trend may have accelerated adoption, but the product was built around solving real operational and commercial challenges for hotels.

What did you know Profitroom’s AI Agent needed to do differently from generic chatbots or general AI tools?

Małgorzata Krajewska: We recognized that generic tools "skate on the surface" and fail at critical hospitality touchpoints.

To stand out, Profitroom’s AI Agent was designed first to handle complex logic like accurately processing hotel-specific contexts, such as calculating special child discounts based on age parameters. It also prevents cart abandonment: generic bots often turn guests away with a blunt "no rooms available" message. Our tool is designed to actively pivot, proposing alternative dates or stay lengths to keep the lead alive.

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: It had to be transactional, not just conversational. The goal wasn't simply to answer questions, but to help guests move confidently toward a booking.

Success isn't measured by how many conversations it handles, but by how effectively it helps hotels convert demand while delivering a great guest experience.

Generic AI tools optimise for plausible answers. In hospitality, a plausible-but-wrong answer about availability, pricing, or hotel policies can quickly erode trust. That's why we focused on delivering responses that are accurate, reliable, and aligned with the hotel's brand.

Why was native integration with the Booking Engine such an important part of the product?

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: Because it's the difference between answering questions and helping guests book. Without native Booking Engine integration, a chatbot can provide information, but the guest still has to leave the conversation and complete the booking elsewhere.

Małgorzata Krajewska: Our native Booking Engine integration is the absolute backbone of the AI Agent’s effectiveness, enabling it to pull real-time rates, verify live inventory, and instantly filter offers based on rigid guest criteria like exact age counts or pet policies. Furthermore, if a guest isn't ready to book right away on-screen, our system allows the agent to seamlessly compile and email a tailored offer directly to their inbox to secure the sale later.

We released our first version of our AI Agent a year ago, what’s changed since then?

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: A lot has changed over the past year, and most of it has been driven by what we've learned from real hotels and real guest interactions. The first version proved that guests are comfortable engaging with AI when the answers are accurate, relevant, and helpful.

Since then, we've expanded the Agent's capabilities, strengthened its integration across the Profitroom ecosystem, and improved how it supports both guests and hotel teams throughout the booking journey. We've also enhanced accuracy, broadened language coverage, and given hotels greater control over how the Agent represents their brand.

In many ways, the first year was about building trust. Now that we've proven the technology can reliably support guests and hotels, we're focused on helping it deliver even more value across the guest journey.

We’ve had a lot of internal conversations about making sure our AI Agent is “proactive,” what do you mean by that?

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: For us, proactive means helping guests move forward rather than simply responding to questions. A reactive agent waits for the next message; a proactive one understands the context of the conversation and helps guests find the information, offers, or options most relevant to them.

Małgorzata Krajewska: Proactive also means it actively fights to save a sale rather than acting as a passive text box. When a hotel is fully booked for a guest's requested dates, our agent automatically steps in to calculate and suggest alternative dates or neighboring weekends, while utilizing smart backup matching strategies to rescue abandoned shopping carts and keep the guest anchored in the booking flow.

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza:The goal isn't to be pushy, it's to make the booking journey easier and more intuitive. When done well, it feels less like automation and more like the experience of speaking with a great hotel concierge who anticipates what you might need next.

Human takeover is a key feature of AI Agent. Why was it important to keep hotel teams involved in the conversation?

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: Because hospitality will always be a people business. We never saw AI Agent as a replacement for hotel teams; we built it to support them.

Małgorzata Krajewska: We’re focused on allowing the AI agent and the human staff to work together as a team. Our AI Agent answers the common questions automatically, but it steps back the moment a guest asks for a human. Hotel staff can take over the conversation from their Profitroom dashboard, seeing everything the guest already said. This helps the hotel team give personal attention exactly when the guest needs it, keeping the booking on track.

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: It's also an important part of building trust. Hotels want to know they're always in control of their guest relationships and brand experience. Giving teams visibility and the ability to take over at any moment makes it easier for them to embrace AI with confidence.

We’ve seen a lot of AI Agents come on the market for hospitality recently. How did you go about differentiating Profitroom’s solution from the others?

Małgorzata Krajewska: We realized early on that the market doesn’t need another flashy chatbot. Anyone can hook up an AI model to answer basic questions, but those standalone widgets usually sit in a silo, disconnected from the hotel's actual operations.

Our biggest differentiator is that our AI Agent is natively built right into the Profitroom ecosystem. Because it is directly connected to the Booking Engine, the CRM, and the reservation workflows, it doesn’t just talk - it actually acts.

Ultimately, our strength doesn't come from the AI model itself, but from the powerful booking platform it is built upon.

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: That matters because AI alone isn't the competitive advantage anymore. The real value comes from where it's embedded and what it can do. While many solutions can answer questions, our AI Agent can engage guests across channels, work with real-time information, support hotel teams in one unified workspace, and help turn conversations into direct bookings.

That's the difference between an AI tool and an AI platform.

What feedback or behaviour from hotels and guests has been most valuable so far?

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: What surprised us most was how quickly both guests and hotels built trust in the technology when it consistently delivered accurate and useful answers.

Guests were often far more comfortable engaging with AI than many in the industry expected, provided the experience felt natural and the information was reliable. For hotels, the most valuable feedback wasn't just about new capabilities, it was about control. Features like human takeover, transparency, and brand customisation proved just as important as the AI itself.

We've also learned a lot by observing behaviour rather than simply collecting opinions. Understanding where guests ask questions, what drives booking intent, and when hotel teams choose to step in has helped shape the product far more than any survey could.

Małgorzata Krajewska: From guests, we learned that proactivity is the key to keeping a sale alive; they are highly receptive when the AI automatically suggests alternative stay lengths or neighboring dates when a property is at full capacity. On the hotel side, hoteliers told us they needed complete visibility into what the AI actually understands. This led us to make the AI's knowledge base transparent and build a mechanism that explicitly highlights where the agent is missing knowledge and cannot provide an answer.

Looking ahead, how do you see our AI Agent evolving, and what role do you think it will play in the future of hospitality?

Małgorzata Krajewska: I see the future of the AI Agent as a major shift from a helpful conversational tool to a proactive, full-scale sales partner.

Moving forward, the AI will become even more intelligent at understanding guest intent, using the power of our platform to craft hyper-personalized stay options and manage complex reservation requests automatically.

It will also play a foundational role in helping hotels adapt to new digital habits, ensuring their properties are easily found and accurately represented in a world where travelers use AI assistants to plan their trips.

Katarzyna Raiter-Łuksza: Guests won't necessarily think about whether they're interacting with AI or not; they'll simply expect fast, relevant, and personalised assistance whenever they need it. In some moments the AI will be highly visible, while in others it will work quietly in the background, supporting both guests and hotel teams.

The most successful AI solutions won't be the ones with the most features. They'll be the ones that genuinely understand the industries they serve. In hospitality, that means supporting hotel teams, strengthening guest relationships, and driving measurable business results while preserving the human touch that makes great hospitality unique.

Learn more about our AI Agent.