written by:
Mara Stäbert,
Senior Content Marketing Manager
A guest has stayed with you three times. He loves your breakfast, always comes in autumn and said at his last check-out that he’d be back next year. On his fourth stay, he books via Booking.com. Same price for him, commission for you. In between was a year in which nobody got in touch with him. Nobody had the time.
That’s exactly where the answer lies to the question of what you should still do yourselves in 2027. Most properties lose revenue in places where all that’s missing is a routine. And routines can be handed over.
In short: everything that runs the same way every day and is based on data should run automatically in 2027. That means adjusting prices, following up on offers, pre-arrival emails, maintaining guest data, collecting feedback and winning guests back for the off-season. What stays with you: your pricing strategy, your most important guests and everything that happens on site.
Why the question is so urgent right now
The work isn’t shrinking, but the workforce is. 66% of hotels in the DACH region struggle to find qualified staff, and only 46% have a dedicated pricing role at all. In day-to-day terms: pricing, guest communication and marketing all land on the same desk. Usually the general manager’s. Usually on the side.
â–¸ If a task looks the same every morning, no person should have to do it in 2027.
6 tasks you can hand over in 2027
We’ll go through them in the order your guest experiences them: from the price they see first to their next booking.
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1. Updating prices every day
Daily price adjustments are the easiest to automate because they’re entirely data-based: demand, booking pace, competitors, events in the region. A revenue management system like RoomPriceGenie runs the numbers continuously and pushes prices straight to your channels. If you still do this in Excel every morning, you’re spending your best hour on maths.
Tip: set clean minimum and maximum prices once. Then just watch the recommendations for a week before letting them apply automatically. That way you get to know the system and stay in control of the framework.
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2. Answering enquiries and following up on offers
Offers that sit in the inbox without a follow-up are direct bookings given away. Yet that’s exactly what gets left, because someone’s checking in at reception. A correspondence manager builds offers from your templates, sends them in your property’s look and automatically reminds the guest if they don’t reply.
Tip: look at your conversion rate, meaning how many offers end up as bookings. If you don’t know that number right now, that’s your first insight.
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3. Guiding guests before arrival
Pre-arrival emails reach guests exactly when they’re most looking forward to their stay. That makes it the best moment for upselling. Spa appointment, late check-out, wine pairing with dinner: a hotel CRM suggests these automatically to suit each guest. Families get different ideas than couples, business travellers different ones than weekend guests.
Tip: start with a single email five to seven days before arrival and exactly one add-on offer per guest segment. Better one really good email than three nobody reads.
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4. Merging and maintaining guest data
Nobody maintains guest data by hand in 2027. A hotel CRMÂ pulls it from your PMS, whether Protel, Mews, Apaleo or ASA, merges duplicates and builds a living guest profile with stays, preferences, revenue and booking channel. It pays off: hotels that store guest preferences increase their return rate by up to 20%. And when the receptionist who knows every regular by name leaves, her knowledge stays in the profile.
Tip: check how many of your guests have a valid email address and newsletter consent. Everything that follows depends on that number.
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5. Collecting feedback and reviews
Automatically asking for feedback after departure is standard in 2027. The interesting question is what happens with the answers. The system directs happy guests to review platforms, while critical feedback lands internally with you first.
Tip: don’t just ask for stars. An open question like “What should we do differently next time?” tells you more than any average score.
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6. Winning guests back for the off-season
This is where pricing and guest communication connect most closely. Your pricing system shows where demand is weak, whether that’s the January slump or the gap in November. Your CRM knows which guests have stayed with you in exactly that period before. Instead of lowering the price for everyone, you target the guests who like that time of year anyway. That protects your rate and brings in direct bookings. Smart Host customers generate an average of 4-7% of their revenue from campaigns like these, with an average open rate of 36.3% since 2018.
Tip: once a year, identify your three weakest months and set up an automated campaign to your regulars for each. From then on, it runs by itself every year.
What stays with you in 2027
Automation creates time. You decide what for. These three things belong in human hands:
Your pricing strategy. The system calculates, you set the framework. Where do you want to position yourselves on price, which guests do you want to attract, when do you hold the rate even if it hurts?
Your most important guests. The regular in their 15th year, the complaint after a botched evening, the wedding enquiry with special requests. Someone picks up the phone for those. The CRM tells you who’s up next.
Everything that happens on site. The greeting at the breakfast buffet, the conversation at the bar, the team you lead. That’s what the time is ultimately for.
â–¸ Good automation goes unnoticed by the guest. All they notice is that you remember them.
At a glance
Task | Runs automatically via | Your role |
Adjusting prices | Revenue management system, e.g. RoomPriceGenie | Minimum and maximum prices, strategy |
Creating and following up on offers | Correspondence manager | Set up templates once |
Pre-arrival and upselling | Hotel CRM | Choose one add-on per segment |
Maintaining guest data | Hotel CRM with PMS integration | Collect consents properly |
Collecting feedback | Hotel CRM | Respond to criticism personally |
Filling the off-season | Pricing system and hotel CRM | Identify weak months, approve campaign |
Hand over the routine first, then win your guests back
The guest from the beginning would have received an email in September. With his favourite room, at his usual travel time and with a direct booking link. Nobody would have had to think of it. That’s the real task for 2027: setting up systems that remember for you, so you have time for the guests standing in front of you right now.
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FAQ
Which tasks can a hotel automate in 2027?
All tasks that run the same way regularly and are based on data. These include daily price adjustments, booking confirmations, pre-arrival emails, following up on offers, review requests and campaigns to regular guests. Strategic decisions and personal contact with key guests stay with the team.
Does automation make guest communication impersonal?
With clean guest data, it becomes more personal. A hotel CRM addresses guests by name, with relevant offers and at the right time, for example with the room they had last time. It only becomes impersonal when every guest gets the same email.
What’s the difference between a revenue management system and a hotel CRM?
A revenue management system like RoomPriceGenie determines the right price for every room on every day. A hotel CRM like Smart Host determines which guest gets which message. Together they cover price and demand: one shows when you need guests, the other reaches them.
Is automation worth it for small hotels too?
Yes, especially for small properties without a dedicated revenue or marketing role. There, pricing and guest communication often depend on a single person, and every hour of routine is an hour missing for guests. Only 46% of DACH hotels have a dedicated pricing position at all (RoomPriceGenie Report 2026).
Sources: RoomPriceGenie Report 2026; Smart Host campaign data (4-7% revenue share, avg. 36.3% open rate since 2018); Smart Host e-book “The Psychology Behind Guest Loyalty” (up to 20% higher return rate).
To learn how RoomPriceGenie can help your property increase your property’s profitability, start your free trial of our automated pricing solution today!
