Build a Custom Voice AI for Your Hotel Rooms
The best voice AI provider for a small luxury hotel is a custom-built system using a large language model API like Claude. This approach gives you full brand control and avoids high monthly per-room fees.
A custom voice assistant integrates directly with your Property Management System (PMS) and local service APIs, answering guest questions with specific, real-time information. The build scope depends on the number of integrations, such as connecting to your PMS for booking details, a local dining API for recommendations, or your spa's scheduling software. The core system for answering common questions is a fixed-scope build.
We recently deployed a voice system for a 25-room boutique hotel. Their front desk was spending 3 hours per day answering the same 20 questions. The new in-room system now handles 80% of those queries automatically, with guest requests taking an average of 3 seconds to process from speech to response.
What Problem Does This Solve?
Hotels first look at consumer devices like Amazon Alexa for Hospitality. The immediate problem is branding; guests talk to Amazon, not your hotel. The larger issue is data privacy and the inability to deeply integrate with your specific PMS. You can create custom Alexa skills, but they are clumsy to invoke and cannot access guest-specific data like folio charges or reservation times from a system like Mews or Cloudbeds.
Then they evaluate enterprise platforms like Volara or Intelity. These solve the branding issue but introduce a prohibitive cost structure for smaller properties, often charging $10-$20 per room, per month. For a 30-room hotel, this is over $7,000 a year for a single feature. Their integration options are also limited to a pre-approved list of PMS vendors, leaving hotels with custom or niche systems with no viable path forward.
This forces a choice: dilute your brand with a consumer device, pay enterprise SaaS fees that destroy your margin, or build nothing and continue letting the front desk answer 'what time is checkout?' 40 times a day. The core issue is that off-the-shelf products are built for massive hotel chains, not for independent properties that need control and a sensible cost model.
How Does It Work?
We build a custom voice assistant that runs on commodity hardware and connects to a private API, giving you full control over the guest experience. The process begins by creating a knowledge base from your hotel's internal documentation, website, and local area guides. We feed this into a vector database hosted in Supabase, allowing the AI to answer hundreds of specific questions about amenities, policies, and local attractions.
The in-room device, typically a small single-board computer, runs a lightweight Python script for wake-word detection using PicoVoice Porcupine. This allows for a custom branded wake word like 'Hey, Hotel Name'. Once triggered, the guest's speech is transcribed and sent to a central FastAPI application running on AWS Lambda. This architecture costs under $50 per month to operate for up to 50 rooms and 5,000 guest requests.
Our FastAPI backend is the core of the system. It takes the transcribed text, queries the Supabase vector database for relevant context, and sends a precisely engineered prompt to the Claude 3 Sonnet API. For complex requests like 'book me a spa appointment' or 'what are my room charges?', the API authenticates with your PMS using its REST API and httpx to perform the action. The entire process, from a guest speaking to the device playing an audio response, takes under 2.5 seconds.
We deliver the full source code for the in-room client and the backend API to your GitHub repository. The system logs anonymized request data to a dashboard so you can see what guests are asking for most. This reveals unmet needs and provides actionable data to improve your guest services, turning a simple amenity into a valuable source of business intelligence.
What Are the Key Benefits?
Live in 4 Weeks, Not 6 Months
From knowledge base creation to in-room deployment in 20 business days. Your system starts answering guest questions immediately, not after a lengthy enterprise rollout.
One-Time Build Cost, Not Per-Room Fees
A single fixed-price engagement with minimal monthly hosting costs on AWS. Your expenses do not increase as you add more rooms or as guest usage grows.
You Own the Brand and the Code
Full source code and system documentation delivered to your GitHub. Use your hotel's name as the wake word and control every aspect of the AI's personality.
Alerts When New Questions Emerge
The system monitors for questions it cannot answer. If 3 or more guests ask a new, unknown question, you get a Slack alert so you can update the knowledge base.
Connects Directly to Your PMS
Custom API integrations connect to your specific hotel software, like Cloudbeds or Mews. Guests can ask about their bill or request late checkout, and the system acts on it.
What Does the Process Look Like?
Knowledge Base & API Audit (Week 1)
You provide access to your PMS API documentation and internal guest-facing documents. We build the initial knowledge base and confirm integration endpoints.
Core Engine & API Build (Week 2)
We build the core FastAPI application and connect it to the Claude API and your PMS. You receive a private endpoint for testing responses via text.
In-Room Client Deployment (Week 3)
We flash the voice client software onto your chosen hardware devices and test them on your network. You receive five prototype units to test in real rooms.
Full Rollout & Handoff (Week 4)
We deploy the client to all rooms and monitor the system for one week. You receive a runbook detailing how to update the knowledge base and monitor system health.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does a custom voice AI system cost?
- The cost depends on the number and complexity of API integrations. A system that only answers informational questions is a standard 4-week build. Integrating with a PMS, spa booking software, and a local restaurant API adds complexity. We provide a fixed-price quote after a 30-minute discovery call where we map out your exact requirements. Hosting costs on AWS are typically under $50 per month.
- What happens if the AI gives a wrong answer?
- We heavily constrain the AI to only use information from your verified knowledge base. For factual questions, this reduces incorrect answers to near zero. If a guest request is ambiguous, the system is programmed to respond with 'I am not sure, please contact the front desk.' All unanswered or ambiguous queries are logged for review, allowing us to tune the knowledge base over time.
- How is this better than putting Google Nest Hubs in rooms?
- A custom system offers three main advantages over a Google device. First, branding: guests interact with your hotel, not Google. Second, privacy: no guest conversations are stored by a third-party tech giant. Third, deep integration: we can connect directly to your specific PMS API to handle transactional requests like extending a stay, which is impossible with a consumer device.
- How do we update information like new menu items?
- We provide a simple web interface connected to the Supabase database. You can log in and update text-based information like restaurant hours, menu specials, or pool policies without writing any code. For larger changes, like adding a new PDF of amenities, you simply upload the new file and the system automatically retrains its knowledge base overnight.
- What hardware do we need to buy for the rooms?
- The system is designed to run on affordable, reliable hardware. Most clients use a Raspberry Pi 4 paired with a high-quality microphone array like a ReSpeaker 2-Mic Pi HAT. The total hardware cost per room is typically under $100. We provide a complete bill of materials and setup guide, or we can procure and configure the hardware for you.
- Can the system handle requests for amenities like 'bring me more towels'?
- Yes. We define specific 'intents' for service requests. When the system detects a request like 'more towels' or 'room service,' it does not ask the LLM. Instead, it triggers a direct API call to your staff management system or sends a formatted message to a specific Slack channel or text number, creating an instant ticket for your team to fulfill.
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