Travel & Hospitality · Guest-service automation
Your front desk answers the same 20 requests every shift
Banao builds AI guest-service agents that handle booking changes, room requests, check-in questions, and property FAQs — wired into your PMS, WhatsApp, and web widget — around the clock, not just during staffed hours.
Anything the agent cannot resolve is passed to a human with the full conversation thread, the guest's booking context, and a suggested action. Staff spend time on the requests that need a person, not the ones that do not.
The first call is free · 45 minutes · no obligation
What we build
What a Banao guest-service deployment includes
An AI agent for hospitality is not a chatbot widget. It is the agent, the PMS integration, the handoff protocol, and the team adoption — we own all four.
Booking and reservation changes
Date changes, room upgrades, early check-in and late checkout requests handled in the channel where guests already message — WhatsApp, web, or SMS — confirmed against live PMS availability without staff involvement.
Common guest requests and property FAQs
Pool hours, Wi-Fi passwords, airport transfer booking, restaurant reservations, and the 40 other questions that repeat each day. The agent answers from a property-specific knowledge base, not a generic hotel template.
PMS integration — agent reads the booking first
The agent pulls reservation details, room type, check-in date, and loyalty tier from your PMS before the first reply. Guests do not have to explain their booking; the agent already has it.
Human handoff with full context
When a request exceeds the agent's scope — a complaint, an unusual ask, a relationship-sensitive guest — it routes to the duty manager with the full conversation thread and a suggested response, not a blank ticket.
Volume and gap analytics
Weekly reports on request volume by category, deflection rate, handoff reasons, and unresolved gaps — so you know what to add to the knowledge base and where staff time still goes.
Dogfooding
We run the same pattern on our own operation
Banao's own demand-generation agent — Vikaas — handles inbound enquiry routing, follow-up sequencing, and context-passing to human account managers. The architecture is identical to what we build for hotel front desks: a trained agent, a handoff protocol, and a knowledge base that gets updated when the agent fails.
Before we recommend it to a hotel, we have run it on 300 people for long enough to know where it breaks. That is what the Discovery Sprint surfaces: not the cases that work, but the cases that do not.
The honest version
When AI guest-service agents do not earn their keep
Guest-service AI handles volume well. It does not handle everything. Here is where we tell clients to keep a person in the loop:
- Complaint resolution with an emotional charge — a bad stay, a missed event, a family grievance. These need a human voice and a decision to make it right.
- Relationship-sensitive guests — long-stay corporates, VIP regulars, event bookers. The agent can flag and route them; the relationship remains a person's responsibility.
- Requests outside the knowledge base that cannot be answered without calling a supplier — specialist tours, offsite medical, unusual room configurations. Agent escalates; staff close.
- Properties with fewer than 20 repeating request types per day. If the request volume does not justify a dedicated knowledge base, a shared inbox with canned replies costs less.
How we start
How engagements run
Every engagement starts with a fixed-price sprint so you know what you are buying before you commit to a build.
- 01
Discovery Sprint
Fixed price
One week. We audit your front-desk request log, map the top 30 request categories, identify PMS integration points, and deliver a scoped build estimate and a go/no-go recommendation.
- 02
Build and integrate
Agent training on your property FAQ, PMS integration (Opera, Mews, Cloudbeds, or your system), WhatsApp Business API setup, handoff protocol wiring, and staff training. Delivery in 6–10 weeks.
- 03
Pilot on one channel
Live on WhatsApp or web widget for 30 days. We monitor deflection rate, handoff reasons, and satisfaction scores. We fix what breaks before expanding to all channels.
- 04
Full deployment and optimisation
All channels live. Monthly knowledge-base updates driven by the analytics gap reports. Agent scope extended incrementally as confidence data builds.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Which PMS systems can you integrate with?
Banao has integration patterns for Opera, Mews, Cloudbeds, and Apaleo, and can build against any PMS with a REST or webhook API. The Discovery Sprint confirms your specific integration path and any data-access constraints.
What happens when the agent cannot answer a request?
The agent hands off to a human — duty manager, front desk, or a nominated contact — with the full conversation thread, the guest's booking details from the PMS, and a suggested action. The guest sees a brief hold message during the transfer. No request disappears into a black box.
How do you train the agent on our property's specifics?
We start with your front-desk log and FAQ documents, then run a structured interview with your ops team to capture the 30–40 property-specific scenarios that appear most often. The agent is trained on your real requests, not a generic hotel dataset.
Can guests tell they are talking to an AI?
The agent identifies itself as an AI at the start of every conversation. Banao does not build agents that impersonate staff. Clear disclosure is both the ethical standard and, in most markets, a legal requirement. Most guests respond positively when the agent is fast and accurate.
What languages does the agent support?
The underlying models handle over 80 languages, but the knowledge base must be maintained in each language you want to support. For most properties, English plus one or two regional languages covers the majority of guest volume. The Discovery Sprint identifies which languages your guest mix actually needs.
Get started
Start with your front-desk request log
Bring a week of front-desk logs or a list of your 20 most common guest requests. In 45 minutes we will tell you whether an AI agent earns its cost — and what the build would look like.
Book a Discovery Sprint