Applications of machine intelligence and decision analytics in hospitality: a systematic review

Abstract

This systematic review synthesizes how machine intelligence (MI) and decision analytics (DA) are deployed across hospitality functions (customer relationship management (CRM)/personalization, revenue management (RM) and pricing, and operations) and clarifies barriers and research frontiers. Following a PRISMA-oriented protocol for the 2008–2025 period, the study searched Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE/Elsevier, and SpringerLink using combined terms for MI/artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) and hospitality/tourism with CRM, revenue/pricing, forecasting, and operations. The inclusion criteria focused on peer-reviewed English studies reporting concrete models/applications or empirical evidence. Studies were thematically coded into four streams: CRM and personalization; RM and dynamic pricing; operations and scheduling; and governance (privacy/ethics/skills). The findings consistently show that MI/DA improves customer segmentation, demand forecasting, dynamic pricing (revenue per available room (RevPAR)), and workforce/maintenance efficiency. Yet, adoption is slowed by data governance (privacy/general data protection regulation (GDPR)) and siloed systems. Unlike prior broad IT/e Tourism reviews, this study integrates recent MI advances (spatiotemporal deep learning, real-time decisioning, and human–AI teaming) into a hospitality-specific decision pipeline and outlines a testable research agenda around scalability/drift, privacy-by-design, and controlled field experiments.