Germany’s hotel industry is traditionally associated with personal service and established routines. That model is increasingly being supplemented by digital processes, as operators respond to labor shortages, rising costs and pressure on profit margins.
Martin Kemmer’s Hey Lou hotel in Monheim am Rhein illustrates the trend. Opened in 2024 between Cologne and Düsseldorf, the hotel says around 90% of its processes are automated. Guests check in and out using terminals rather than a conventional staffed reception, and can use their mobile phones to access the building.
Kemmer, an economist and software specialist who has founded 25 companies, says the hotel operates with seven employees for 178 rooms. A central app provides instructions for operational procedures, often using images instead of lengthy text. This is intended to simplify workflows and overcome language barriers among employees. Sensors in the bed linen can also indicate whether it has been used, meaning unneeded washing can be avoided.
Digitalization also influenced the hotel’s location. Kemmer says software conducted a data-based analysis that identified business travelers in the Düsseldorf, Leverkusen and Cologne region, as well as visitors from the Netherlands who come to cycle along the Rhine, as promising target groups. The same approach was used in selecting the chain’s other locations.
Consultant Moritz Dietl of Treugast says German hospitality has to accelerate its adoption of digital and automated systems. Inflation, indexed lease agreements and new collective wage agreements have significantly reduced margins, he says, making new operating models increasingly necessary.
The industry remains cautious, however. A study by Switzerland’s HES-SO Valais-Wallis found that more than two-thirds of hotel operators considered artificial intelligence likely to become important within two years. Yet digital tools are still used mainly for bookings. Fewer than half of the hoteliers surveyed had digitized communication between departments or offered self-check-in. In a separate survey commissioned by Access Guestline, 100 hotel operators rated their current level of digitalization at an average of 3.4 out of five stars.
The Hotel Oderberger in Berlin has introduced technology while keeping its historic character. Its cloud-based property management system, adopted in 2020, coordinates key operations and alerts employees when a guest has checked out and a room is ready for cleaning. A software tool known as “Smart Host” also automates guest communication.
Hotel director Tini Diekmann says the system helped staff continue checking guests in and out during an incident involving damaged cables that caused a loss of internet and electricity. It also gives employees more time for conversations with guests because information no longer has to be entered manually at arrival. Staff can record individual preferences and connect feedback from previous surveys to a guest’s profile for future bookings, provided the guest has supplied their full name.
Diekmann says new technology should not overwhelm either employees or guests, which is why her hotel plans to introduce no more than two new tools per year. In her view, the systems make work easier while allowing staff to provide more individualized attention.
Travelers appear broadly receptive to digital hotel services. According to the Oracle Hospitality Report cited in the article, 53.6% of respondents wanted contactless check-in and check-out as well as voice control for functions such as lighting and curtains. More than one in ten considered facial recognition a must-have technology for future hotel stays.
Dietl compares the development with digital processes already common in banking and air travel. He expects hotels to differentiate more clearly between automated and personal service, with guests paying more for greater human involvement.
Several hotel groups are already built around this digital model. Koncept Hotels, headquartered in Leverkusen, operates five hotels under the slogan “Digital. Fair. Local.” Berlin-based Stayery runs hotel and apartment rooms in ten German cities. The Finnish-Estonian group Bob W, which acquired Charity Hotels in 2023, now operates several properties in six German cities.
Bob W combines booking, access, billing and guest support in its own software. Guests book online, enter using their smartphones and communicate with apps or chatbots instead of relying on room keys or a traditional concierge. Like Hey Lou, the group aims to keep staffing requirements low.
Despite the emphasis on automation, Diekmann and Kemmer both say human contact remains important. Their argument is that efficiency should not eliminate personal service but give employees more time to provide it. For Kemmer, the acceptance of his approach by established industry colleagues is itself a sign that software-led hotel operations are becoming part of the mainstream.
Sources: Handelsblatt.