AI Readiness Assessment
I look at how your operation really runs, department by department, and show you where the hours are going and where AI could give them back, and where it won't.
You find out before you spend a pound on software.
You're pitched AI concierges, voice agents and pricing tools every week. Some will earn their place; most will add another login and another monthly fee nobody reviews.
The useful question is where your operation is losing time and money, and whether AI is the right fix or just the newest one. A software vendor will tell you their platform is the answer. This is the step before that conversation.
Most AI spending starts in the wrong place
What I look at
I work from a framework of 16 themes: seven readiness foundations, including leadership, AI governance, data and security, and nine operational areas, from guest communication and rooms to revenue, sales and events, food and beverage and the back office. In each one I show where your team's time is going and where AI could give some of it back.
Every opportunity is ranked on your own team's account of their time, with each assumption labelled, not on industry averages. I tailor each Assessment to the property, so the number of themes I cover varies with what you actually run.
The five stages
1. Assessment
Structured sessions with your leadership team and confidential one-to-ones with managers.
2. Opportunity Mapping
Each opportunity ranked on value, effort and feasibility against your own operation, so you can see what deserves attention first.
3. Roadmap
Priorities sequenced by impact, effort and risk.
4. Key Findings Report
A readiness profile with the critical gates flagged, evidence-labelled findings, a ranked opportunity portfolio, indicative value with every assumption shown, a sequenced roadmap and the decisions needed now.
5. Presentation of findings
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.
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How it 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.
If you want help afterwards
The Assessment stands on its own. If you want to go further, the next step is the Blueprint, a separate piece of work. I take the two or three processes that matter most into a room with the people who run them, map how long each stage really takes and where technology fits, and produce a plan your team owns and a brief your IT team or a supplier can build from. After that I can build the workflow automations, train your team and support the rollout, or project manage the work with partners I've vetted so one person is accountable from roadmap to rollout. Every step is optional, and the roadmap works just as well in your own hands.
Who it's 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
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 don't quote on the first call. I confirm your fee once we've spoken properly about how your operation runs.
Questions hoteliers ask me
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It's a fixed fee set by the complexity of your property: rooms, team size and the number of distinct operating units. I don't quote on the first call because I need to understand how your property runs before I can price it fairly, so I confirm the fee once we've spoken properly about your operation. It's never hourly and never a percentage of your technology spend.
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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.
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The Assessment works from conversations with your team and a list of your systems, so I don't need access to guest records. Every recommendation is checked for data protection implications before it reaches your roadmap.
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I don't sell software. I have referral partnerships with a technology providers that I trust, and if it's ever relevant to a recommendation I tell you before you make any decision.
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Yes, with groups of up to 20 properties. Each property has its own session, and a group engagement turns the individual findings into one sequenced strategy so the same problem isn't solved twelve times.
Curious where AI would actually help your operation?
Book a 15-minute introduction. You tell me how your property runs and where the pressure sits, and I'll tell you honestly whether an Assessment is worth doing; if it isn't, I'll say so. If it is, we'll follow up with a longer conversation to go through your operation properly.
Not ready to talk? Start with my free resources