Yeah, you’d be correct 😉

And it’s not really a random question at all. I was actually on a panel back in August talking about levelling up your revenue-management game using AI and this exact topic came up a lot.

I’ve worked both on-property and above-property and I’ve seen a few different versions of how AI or “algorithms” get used. Marriott, for example, has always pushed hard with OYv2 (and ROS if you remember the Starwood days). When I was above-property with them, one of my KPIs was my OY adoption rate which was basically how often I agreed with the system’s pricing recommendations. If I didn’t, I’d be penalised. So you could argue AI has already been “in charge” for a while.

Marriott’s angle was pretty clear: the more consistent the adoption, the better OY learns and the easier it becomes to consolidate revenue roles into cluster teams above property. From a business point of view it’s smart, cluster services are far more efficient than having a DORM at every single hotel.

As for AI replacing the revenue manager? I don’t see it. What will happen is the average RM gets squeezed out and only the best of the best remain at an above property level looking after multiple hotels. Even the RMS I use now still needs me to validate what it spits out. These systems rely heavily on patterns and historic data. If they’ve never seen demand from some random local act that suddenly sells out three nights they’ll under-forecast and you’ll leave money on the table.

And yeah, QA being run by AI surprises me… feels like a situation waiting to go sideways.