EHL Innovation Rewind: Romy Abbrederis on AI Agents, Email Overload, and the Future of Hotel Workflows
Which technology or innovation do you think will reshape our industry the most over the next 5 to 10 years?
Definitely AI, especially generative AI. These agents can actually perform different actions—they can create recipes, book flights, access multiple sources, and reason through steps to reach a goal. Generative means they can execute, not just respond. We already know text-to-text, like ChatGPT, but now it's text-to-action or text-to-multistep execution. In the US, operator agents are already being used. Europe is still catching up. We are using US-based models like OpenAI's chatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic because of how fast they innovate, although there are promising European players like Mistral.
Can I ask you which problem you're trying to solve and how?
We are solving the problem of emails—specifically, reservation-related emails that overwhelm hotel teams. Some RFPs can take up to two hours to answer. What makes email complex is its lack of synchronicity. You can't just ask back and forth like in a chat. So we built Lobby to sit between the inbox and the reservation system. It pulls in the request, fetches data from the PMS, and can handle full reservation workflows—creating, modifying, and cancelling bookings. We focused on complex bookings, not the easy ones others tackle. What's different is our human-in-the-loop approach. That means the system prepares everything—rate plans, guest details, reply—and the staff approves or edits before it's executed. The AI doesn't just dump duplicate profiles into the CRM. It's precise and careful. We give hoteliers control, not replacement, and allow for full automation where appropriate—like with simple cancellations.
Do you agree with the statement that the human will never be completely out of the loop in hospitality?
It depends on the segment. If a hotel has a very simple rate setup—one category, one refundable and one non-refundable—it could be fully automated. But in many cases, especially premium properties, the service element matters. That's why we made Lobby modular. Some hotels want to create bookings with status inquiry first, some don't want to auto-book at all. Every hotel has its own logic, and we've built our tech to support that diversity. That's what makes it successful. It's also why we don't believe in a one-size-fits-all AI.
Can you see Lobby evolving beyond emails, for example with voice or instant messaging?
Definitely. We chose email because no one else is solving it at this level of complexity. But we are already planning for chat and voice. Voice is a bit different—you have less context, and it's real-time—but we are already deeply integrated with PMS platforms like MEWS and soon Oracle's Opera Cloud. So we are prepared. In the future, we believe there might not even be Booking.com as we know it. You'll talk to your travel agent, who talks to Lobby's agent. Our agent will handle the complexity and book the trip, fully conversationally. That's the vision we're building toward. And because our system is modular, we're also exploring partnerships with other hospitality tech vendors who want to stay competitive but don't have the infrastructure to develop this in-house.
About the EHL Open Innovation Summit 2025
This interview was recorded during the EHL Open Innovation Summit in Lausanne, where Hospitality Net joined as official media partner.
The event brought together a global mix of thinkers and doers to explore the future of hospitality, food, and travel through open innovation. What made it special was the mix of ideas, formats, and people. It was not only about tech or talks. It was also about people showing up, working together, and sharing energy in real time.
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