HBO’s The White Lotus shows human hospitality is the future of luxury

Picture your relaxing escape to the White Lotus Hotel. From the moment you step inside, hotel staff are ready to replace your bags with a refreshing drink and escort you to your opulent room, outfitted with every luxury you can imagine. “Our hotel is the best in the world. At the end of the week, you will be an entirely different person,” the season three trailer of HBO’s Emmy-winning series beckons us.  

The White Lotus makes a much-anticipated return for its third season on February 16. Viewers love to hate the bad behavior of the rich, entitled guests, but it’s truly the interplay between the hotel staff and the wealthy patrons that defines the show. Every whim they have is answered and no request is too small or unrealistic. We can’t help but empathize with the resort’s staff members, and while the storylines are much wilder than in real life, the show highlights the complexities of working in hospitality today.  

So, what does it take to create the perfect luxury experience in hospitality in today’s world? It’s all about how we use technology to augment human workers so that they can do the work they’re meant to do. The right tech helps simplify the complexities of our modern work world to minimize the friction that makes work difficult for associates, because their experience becomes your guests’ experience.   

Technology helps create, not reduce, service opportunities 

Creating a luxury experience in hospitality isn’t about substituting technology for people. It’s about making behind the scenes operations faster and more optimal, so your associates can focus on delighting guests.  

Smarter forecasting and scheduling 

There are several ways that technology can enhance associates’ ability to provide the best experience for guests. One is ensuring shifts have proper coverage by taking the guesswork out of staffing for fluctuating demand. The right workforce management technology can help automatically generate the best fit schedules that factor in business demand, pay rates, labour budgets, and more.  

And since agility is also key for any hospitality organization, shifts may need to be swapped on the fly. Dayforce research found that among 67% of frontline workers who said they can swap shifts with other employees, 35% have to involve a manager or team lead to do so. Mobile self-service apps can help associates take care of basic HR requests quickly and on the go. 

Advanced workforce management technology can help organizations operate with greater confidence with the help of centralized real-time data to manage fluctuating labour demand. When hospitality organizations are working with fragmented systems, this can lead to crucial information getting lost, disjointed user experiences, and manual processes that limits leaders from seeing the full picture of workforce trends within their business.  

AI automation 

Generative and agentic AI can help simplify workflows across your HCM system, reducing manual tasks so associates can focus on providing that high-touch guest experience. AI assistants can help employees find key answers faster and help automate repetitive administrative tasks so your staff isn’t stuck in the back behind a computer.  

At a more advanced level, AI agents can even proactively anticipate scenarios such as paid time off requests to help initiate action for efficient outcomes. Advanced HCM platforms can smoothly coordinate intelligent flows of multiple agents to address each employee’s unique needs – all while keeping people in the decision-making loop.  

Your workforce may fluctuate with high and low seasons, and hiring and onboarding can be time-consuming for managers and your existing teams. AI agents can assist with multi-step tasks such as crafting job descriptions to allow managers to focus on more strategic elements of hiring.  

Training on the go 

Your workforce should be constantly adapting and developing new skills to meet our changing world and evolving customer expectations. Since frontline workers aren’t sitting in front of a desk all day, training in the flow of work is key. Mobile learning can help ensure associates are up-to-date on learning requirements, from health to safety to closing essential skills gaps, and even onboarding new employees.  

Not all organizations have harnessed the power of AI automation and AI agents yet. But intelligent agents can conduct tasks with precision in an orchestrated workflow, all while keeping people in the decision-making loop. And guests still receive an immersive experience with personalized service from associates.