Radisson Hotel Group cut guest response times and boosted event sales conversions by deploying two separate AI systems that automated routine inquiries. One AI chatbot now resolves more than 80% of guest requests without staff involvement, while AI sales agents reduced proposal turnaround by 59% and more than doubled response rates for meetings and events.
A hotel can lose a guest in minutes - not because of a poor room, but because no one answered a simple question quickly enough. In hospitality, response speed shapes what guests think of their stay before the actual service begins.
How an AI chatbot cut guest response times
Radisson had worked with ReviewPro, now part of Shiji Group, since 2017 on guest experience tools. In 2019, the partnership targeted a specific problem: routine guest questions arriving through digital channels at all hours. Check-in times, WiFi access, restaurant hours - none required human judgment, but all demanded fast answers.
ReviewPro added the AI chatbot to its Guest Experience Automation platform. By late March 2020, the chatbot was resolving more than 80% of incoming guest requests without any staff involvement, around the clock. Front desk teams stopped spending hours on repeat questions and turned their attention to guests who needed personal help. The chatbot's performance showed how AI for Customer Support can handle high-volume routine inquiries at scale without adding headcount.
AI agents that sped up event sales
Once guest communication improved, Radisson turned to a different bottleneck: meetings and event sales. Event planners send requests for proposals to several hotels and tend to choose whichever responds first with a complete proposal. Radisson found that assembling a proposal took an average of 81 minutes after opening an RFP, and the full response process averaged 48 hours. Same-day proposals converted at 25% to 27%, so every hour of delay reduced the odds of winning business.
Starting in 2022, Radisson partnered with hivr.ai and EY to rebuild this process. Two tools handled most of the work. An AI email agent named Alex reads incoming RFPs and extracts key details automatically. A voice agent named Mandy handles calls in more than 50 languages, day and night.
From late 2022 through September 2023, lead-to-quote conversion rose 80%. Response rates more than doubled, up 125%. Proposal turnaround dropped 59%. These results came from Radisson's business-to-business sales process for event planners and corporate clients, not from guest-facing response times.
What the strategy got right
Radisson never rolled out one sweeping AI platform. It built two narrow tools, each focused on a single measurable bottleneck, roughly three years apart. Neither replaced people. The chatbots - Alex and Mandy - left contract terms and relationship management to sales teams. AI absorbed repetitive first-contact work, and people handled everything that followed.
Hotels exploring AI for Hospitality & Events would do well to start narrow: pick the single highest-volume, lowest-complexity task in the pipeline, whether that is guest FAQs or RFP intake, and measure response time before committing to a wider rollout.
Why this matters for hospitality and events professionals
Radisson's results offer a concrete blueprint rather than vague promises. The data is specific: 80% of routine guest requests handled automatically, 59% faster proposal turnaround, 125% higher response rates. For hospitality professionals, the highest-ROI AI projects target the repetitive, high-volume tasks that consume staff hours without requiring human judgment. Start with the bottleneck you can measure, not with the platform a vendor wants to sell you.
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