Hi, this is the NEWT Chat editorial team. What is AI, really, and how will guest acquisition and operations at lodgings change from here? Based on a talk at the Zenryoren Youth Division's Prefectural Chairs Summit, we cover what lodging operators should do.
On September 16, 2026, at the invitation of the Youth Division of the National Federation of Ryokan and Hotel Associations (Zenryoren Youth Division), Hiroki Ukeda, Executive Officer and CBO of Reiwa Travel, spoke at the Prefectural Chairs Summit under the title "The New Common Sense of the AI Era." Based on that talk to prefectural chairs and delegates from across Japan, we cover three questions: how to think about AI, how to be chosen by AI, and how to divide work between AI and people.
Hiroki UkedaExecutive Officer, CBO, Reiwa Travel
Joined Loco Partners in 2018, leading the launch of its vacation-rental (minpaku) businessâlisting 600 properties a year and winning the company's annual MVP award. He went on to lead a 7-person new-business sales team in eastern Japan and managed major foreign-owned hotel chains in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In April 2020 he co-founded TASTE LOCAL and drove its growth, and joined Reiwa Travel as an Executive Officer in 2021.
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AI is not a tool, it is a new kind of worker
The shift from paper ledgers to digital and cloud systems was an evolution of "tools that people use." AI is different because it does the work itself. So the starting point is to see AI not as a tool but as a new kind of worker, Ukeda said.
"An AI agent is a star employee."
You do not need perfection from day one. Like any person, AI starts as a new hire and can be trained step by step. Once it becomes a star performer, it can be cloned many times over, and it never quits.
He also pointed out that AI evolves fast: the AI you use today may be an outdated model in two to three months. That is why we recommend that owners and managers start using AI early and get used to it.
Four steps to be chosen by AI
Travelers used to type keywords into a search engine, compare the listed options, and book on the property's site. Now they ask AI in natural language, such as "Is there an onsen ryokan we can visit with kids?" AI picks up the context and suggests options, and AI summaries now appear at the top of search results. Even a top-ranked page is less likely to be clicked, so what matters is how well AI "chooses" you.
"There is no clear answer yet, but we can already see what is worth doing," he said, and introduced these four steps.
1. Be discovered
Make sure AI can read your site. Some web production companies block crawlers, so check with yours.
2. Be understood
Write who the property is for and what situations it suits, and expand your FAQ. Enrich your Google Maps listing, and keep the property name, address, and phone number consistent across OTA sites.
3. Be recommended
Improve your reviews and ratings, and publish guest reviews on your own website. Add nearby attractions, seasonal events, and special plans to your site.
4. Keep being chosen
Keep your information up to date.
The key is to go in order, starting from step 1. If an earlier step is not in place, the later ones will not work.
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From tasks to hospitality: dividing the work
AI is good at repetitive work and work that must run around the clock. In guest service and experience design, people still do better in many cases. Deciding this division of roles first is an important job for management.
Take phone calls. Until now, a person took the call, listened to the request, decided whether to answer or pass it on, and left a note for handover. If AI handles the first response, it answers common questions and hands everything else to a person right away. The exchange is saved automatically as a summary or audio. Email works the same way: AI sorts incoming mail and drafts replies, and a person just reviews and sends. If you train it on past emails, it can even draft in the proprietress's own voice.
The time freed up goes to work only people can do, such as hospitality and planning. As AI becomes the norm, the roles of staff, managers, and general managers will change as well.
PHT: a metric for guest satisfaction
To maximize guest satisfaction, the talk introduced "PHT (Pure Hospitality Time)." It multiplies the time each staff member can spend on hospitality by the quality of that time. The more time and the higher the quality, the higher the guest satisfaction, which leads to repeat stays and better room rates.
There is also an order to follow:
- Find tasks AI can take over without lowering guest satisfaction
- Hospitality time increases
- Data accumulates
- Spread the knowledge of highly rated staff to others and raise quality
Keeping this cycle turning is what matters.
Summary
Leave to AI what AI can do, and let people spend their time on hospitality only people can offer. Thinking through that order and division of roles is the starting point for running a property in the AI era.
- AI is not a tool but a new kind of worker. Train it like a new hire
- For guest acquisition, go in order: be discovered, be understood, be recommended, keep being chosen
- Hand repetitive work to AI and spend the time it frees on hospitality
To see what changed at a property that adopted AI, read the Taberu Oyado Hamanoyu case study. For more ideas on using AI, see Where NEWT Chat Fits.
Reiwa Travel holds AI study sessions anywhere in Japan, including staff sessions for a single property.
