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AI in hospitality for hotels, restaurants and pubs

AI in hospitality, as we build it, works on the systems your sites run: the property management system (PMS), table bookings, EPOS and rota. We join them, so a booking, a menu change or a shift is entered once and every team sees it. AI reads, sorts and drafts; a named person checks.

This page is about AI for hotels, restaurants, pubs and cafés run as independents or small groups. By government estimates, accommodation and food service had the fourth largest share of UK small and medium business employment in 2025, at 9.2%.

Start a projectWhat we would build

Where the time goes

  • Allergens, every time a dish changes

    A new supplier or recipe means checking spec sheets against the 14 allergens the FSA lists, then updating the matrix, menus, online ordering and labels, and briefing the team. Online orders need the information before purchase and again on delivery.

  • Guest messages, before and during a stay

    Questions come by email, webchat, WhatsApp and booking sites, and each answer depends on the booking. Mews takes guest messages from connected messaging apps, and a housekeeping or maintenance request becomes a task with a deadline for that department.

  • Tips, service charges and the tronc

    Tips and service charges go to workers without deductions, bar a few exceptions, shared fairly under a written policy and paid by the end of the month after the customer paid. A worker can ask in writing for the record, answered within four weeks.

  • Rooms turned between guests

    Housekeeping moves each room from dirty to clean to inspected while the front desk waits to check guests in. Mews holds that state per room; other systems can update it. Each guest aged 16 or over gives a full name and nationality for the register.

The systems you already run

  • Mews, OPERA Cloud and other property management systems

    Reservations, rooms, guests and payments. Mews documents a Connector API for partners, with webhooks for reservations, messages and room updates. OPERA Cloud Foundation users are authorised to use Oracle's Hospitality Integration Platform and APIs.

  • ResDiary and other table booking systems

    Bookings, table plans, pre-orders and payments. ResDiary lists certified integrations with EPOS and PMS providers, including Square, Mews and Guestline. We found no public API documentation, so we would agree access with ResDiary.

  • Lightspeed Restaurant and other EPOS

    Orders, items, payments and sales. Lightspeed's K-Series API covers sales data and items with an allergens lookup, with webhooks for online orders, payments, item availability and reservations.

  • Planday, Fourth, Deputy and other rota tools

    Rotas, timesheets, leave and payroll. Planday's API covers schedules, punch clock, payroll and revenue against scheduled cost. Fourth documents APIs for UK employees, schedules and EPOS sales. Deputy sends webhooks when a rota is published or a timesheet changes.

What we would build

  • One allergen record, from recipe to menu

    Each recipe's ingredients and 14 allergens in one record, with the supplier spec behind each line. A change shows every dish it touches and, once the head chef signs off, updates the matrix, menus, EPOS and labels. Drinks lists show the small measures English and Welsh licensing conditions require.

  • One guest inbox

    Email, webchat and booking site messages in one queue, each matched to its booking. AI drafts answers from your own facts for the front desk to send. Allergy questions and complaints go to a named person; requests become housekeeping or maintenance tasks.

  • Rotas from forecast covers

    A draft rota per site from bookings, sales by hour and availability, sent to your rota tool for the manager to publish. Each shift and change is recorded with the notice given, ready for the Employment Rights Act 2025's coming shift notice rules.

  • A tips ledger

    Card tips and service charges from the EPOS by day and site, shared out by your written policy and sent to payroll before the deadline. Each worker's record is kept for three years, ready as a statement when they ask.

  • Review replies across sites

    Reviews from Google, whose Business Profile API lists reviews and posts replies, and other platforms in one queue per site. AI drafts each reply and tags themes such as food, service or rooms; the general manager approves it. Reviews on your own website are checked for fakes first.

Where AI helps

AI should not tell a guest a dish is safe for their allergy, share out tips, publish a rota or judge a harassment complaint. Allergens, tips and harassment carry legal duties, set out below, and a rota sets people's hours and pay. A named manager decides.

  • Drafting replies to guest messages from your own facts, with the front desk checking each before sending.
  • Drafting review replies and grouping reviews by theme across sites, with the general manager approving every reply.
  • Forecasting covers and drafting rotas, with each site manager editing and publishing.

How we would start

We would start with one site's menu and its allergen record. We map how a dish change reaches the kitchen, EPOS, online menu and labels, and connect your EPOS API read-only. The first version holds each recipe against the 14 allergens, flags the dishes a supplier change touches, and drafts the new matrix for your head chef to sign off.

That first stage, the design and a written scope, typically takes one to three weeks. Like every stage, its price is fixed and agreed before it starts, and you can stop after it. How a project runs

Rules we build around

The software keeps the records these ask for. The duties stay with you.

  • FSA allergen guidance; Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019

    Allergen information for food that is not prepacked can be written, or given by staff with a written notice in clear view saying so. Since 1 October 2021, food prepacked for direct sale, such as sandwiches packed on site, carries its name and full ingredients, allergens emphasised.

  • Employment Rights Act 1996, Part 2B (Great Britain), and the tips code of practice

    Sections 27D to 27J: fair allocation under a written policy, payment by the end of the following month, and a three-year record. The Employment Rights Act 2025 will make consulting workers on the policy mandatory; GOV.UK lists stronger tipping law for 1 January 2027.

  • Equality Act 2010 (Great Britain), sections 40 and 40A, as amended from 30 October 2026

    Employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of staff, and are liable when a third party, such as a guest, harasses staff, unless they took all reasonable steps to prevent it. The software keeps reports, actions and training records as evidence.

  • Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972

    Every guest aged 16 or over gives a full name and nationality on arrival; guests the Order calls aliens also give passport or identity document details and their next destination. The record is kept for at least 12 months, open to police inspection.

  • Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20, paragraph 13

    Since 6 April 2025, writing or commissioning fake reviews, or reviews that hide an incentive, is banned, as is publishing reviews without reasonable steps to keep fakes out. AI can draft replies; it must not write reviews.

Questions

Will you replace our PMS or EPOS?

Usually not. Mews, OPERA Cloud, Lightspeed Restaurant, Planday, Fourth and Deputy document APIs, and we build on those. Where your system does a job well, we leave it alone and build the joins.

Should we buy hospitality AI instead?

Often, yes. HiJiffy and Canary sell AI guest messaging for hotels that hands what it cannot answer to staff. ResDiary has AI no-show risk and feedback replies; Tenzo forecasts demand into Planday or Deputy. We build when your data sits in several systems.

Can a chatbot answer allergy questions?

It can point a guest to your written allergen information and pass the question to a named person, but must not say a dish is safe. The FSA says written information supported by a conversation works best, and the answer must match today's recipe.

Will you hold our guests' card details?

No. PCI DSS applies to anyone who stores, processes or transmits cardholder data, or could affect its security. Card details stay with your PMS, booking system or payment provider; our software handles only booking and payment references.

Related

Other industries: Retailers, Charities.

Sources

Every rule, date and figure on this page comes from the sources below, checked on 31 October 2026. Rules change: check anything that matters with the source or your adviser.

The 30 sources

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