AI Consultant for Hotels and Hospitality (UK)
Trusted by Red Carnation Hotel Collection
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Based in Cornwall
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Clients in the UK, Ireland, the USA and South Africa
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Trusted by Red Carnation Hotel Collection 〰️ Based in Cornwall 〰️ Clients in the UK, Ireland, the USA and South Africa 〰️
Meet Francesca
I'm Francesca Wood, founder of FAI Consultancy. I'm a UK-based AI consultant who works only with hotels, resorts, venues and experience-led hospitality businesses, and I've spent twenty years running them. My AI Readiness Assessment shows you, department by department, where AI will give your team time back or protect revenue and where it won't, before you spend a pound on software.
Every vendor in your inbox says AI is the answer.
None of them has worked a Saturday changeover.
You're pitched AI concierges, voice agents and pricing tools every week, and each one promises to fix something. Some will. Most will add another login, another integration your team half-uses and another monthly fee nobody reviews.
The real question isn't which tool to buy; it's where your operation is actually losing time and money, and whether AI is the right fix or just the newest one. A platform will always tell you its platform is the answer and a build agency will always find something to build, so you need someone who can tell you what's worth doing first.
An independent AI Readiness Assessment
for hotels and hospitality groups.
I look at how your operation really works, across 18 themes from reservations and guest communication to housekeeping, F&B, maintenance, sales and the back office, and find the hours and revenue AI can realistically recover.
The Assessment runs in five stages:
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structured sessions with your leadership team and confidential one-to-ones with managers
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Each opportunity sized against your own operation, not industry averages
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Priorities sequenced by impact, effort and risk
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The evidence and recommendations in one document
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A working session with your leadership team to agree what happens next
You leave with a plan your team understands, whether you implement it with me, with a vendor or on your own.
What it found at The Montague on the Gardens
The Montague, part of Red Carnation Hotel Collection, wanted to know where AI could make a real difference without touching the guest experience the hotel is known for.
The Assessment covered 18 operational themes and identified 60 to 130 recoverable hours a month, without recommending a single new platform. Red Carnation has since moved into pilots and asked me to assess further hotels in the collection.
"We learnt so much working with you and are now firmly on our way to make digital technology work for us to give our teams more time with guests. So many hours saved by taking away repetitive work that can be done in a fraction of the time it took to do manually."
Jonathan Raggett, Chief Executive, Red Carnation Hotels
How the Assessment runs
I run every Assessment by video call, never on site. I've run hotel departments and I know what a visitor costs a property on an ordinary operating day: someone gets pulled off the floor, a briefing gets cut short and you end up seeing a performance instead of the operation.
A pre-call with your General Manager to understand the property
One leadership session of two and a half to three hours, focused and uninterrupted
Confidential 15-minute one-to-ones with managers, booked around their shifts and attributed to nobody in the report
An open items list within 48 hours of the final session
Your Key Findings Report one to two weeks later
The session has a second benefit. Heads of department hear how each other's work actually runs, and that can be as useful as the report itself.
Why an operator, not a technologist
I've been a General Manager and Head of Commercial, and I've personally run front office, housekeeping, restaurants and commercial teams in hotels and resorts across the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia. I know what a 7am handover looks like, why a reservations team stops trusting a system and which guest moments should never be automated.
That's why the recommendations stick. I'm not asking your team to change how they work for the sake of a tool; I'm finding the places where a tool removes work they already resent.
Twenty years in hospitality leadership
Member of the AI Hospitality Alliance AI Readiness Framework committee
Contributor to Hotel Magazine
BSc in Applied Science, psychology conversion degree with Distinction and a graduate business diploma
“Deep human understanding of real business workflows is the key to successful AI implementation. Francesca has not only proved to be a match for the pace of AI progress; her deep understanding of the hospitality sector is a significant differentiator in achieving practical AI-enabled productivity gains.”
Who this is for
Independent, boutique and townhouse hotels
Resorts, estates and coastal retreats
Hotel collections and groups of up to 20 properties
Wedding and events venues, restaurants and experience-led businesses
Owners and General Managers who want evidence before they commit budget
Who it isn't for
Anyone after a quick list of AI tools; my free guide, 25 AI Tools Hospitality Businesses Need, covers that
Anyone who wants software installed by Friday
Procurement-led programmes across hundreds of branded properties
How pricing works
Every Assessment is a fixed fee, agreed before any work starts. It's never hourly and never a percentage of what you later spend on technology.
The fee reflects the complexity of your property: the number of rooms, the size of your team and how many distinct operating units you run, such as rooms, restaurant, spa and events. For groups, a group engagement turns the individual property findings into one sequenced strategy, so each site isn't solving the same problem on its own.
I'll confirm your fee after a short introduction call, once I understand how your operation runs.
AI consultant, AI vendor or build agency?
| Operator-led consultant | AI software vendor | AI build agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What they sell | Independent advice and a roadmap | Their platform | Custom development |
| Starts with | Your operation | Their product | Your brief |
| Will recommend | Whatever fits, including doing nothing | Their product | Something to build |
| Right choice when | You need to decide what's worth doing | You know exactly which problem one product solves | You've chosen a project and need it built |
If you need a vendor or a build partner, the Assessment makes sure you're buying the right thing. I can then project manage the implementation with partners I've vetted, so you have one person accountable from roadmap to rollout.
Questions hoteliers ask me
What does an AI consultant for hotels actually do?
1
I find where AI can genuinely save your team time or protect revenue, size each opportunity against your own operation and give you a prioritised roadmap. I don't sell software, so the advice isn't shaped by a product I need you to buy.
How much does an AI Readiness Assessment cost?
2
It's a fixed fee set by the complexity of your property: rooms, team size and the number of distinct operating units. I confirm it after a 15-minute introduction call. It's never hourly and never a percentage of your technology spend.
How long does it take?
3
There's a pre-call with your General Manager, one leadership session of two and a half to three hours, then confidential one-to-ones with managers. You get an open items list within 48 hours of the final session and your Key Findings Report one to two weeks after that.
Do you come on site?
4
No. I run every Assessment by video call, because I know from running hotel departments what a visitor costs a property on a normal operating day. Online, the session is focused and uninterrupted and nobody gets pulled off the floor.