ROI
How to measure the ROI of a digital concierge
The value is spread across four levers and measured against a baseline from your own hotel, not a round percentage.
Whenever a hotelier asks us how much they will save with a digital concierge, the answer is an awkward one: it depends, and savings are not the only way to measure it. The value of an AI concierge or a voice receptionist is spread across four different levers, and boiling it down to a single savings figure is the fastest way to invent an ROI. This guide shows how to measure it properly, with what you already have.
Why digital concierge ROI is usually measured badly
The classic question in a demo is "show me the ROI". The classic answer from many vendors is a round percentage: "+15% revenue, -30% calls". It sounds great and is almost never documented. The problem is not the figure itself. The real value is mixed, and folding time saved, extra revenue, reputation and staff retention into one number is creative statistics.
A digital concierge touches four different parts of the hotel at once. Look at only one and you undersell it. Look at all four without a baseline and you are making them up. So let's separate the levers first.
The four real levers of value
1. Operational efficiency
The most visible lever: front desk and housekeeping time freed up because guests answer their own routine questions, order room service from the app and book the spa or restaurant without calling. What to measure:
- Average time per request, before and after switching the tool on.
- Share of requests solved without escalating to a person (chat and voice).
- Calls no longer missed at night or during check-in peaks.
This is not about letting anyone go. It is about taking repetitive work off the team so they have time for what genuinely needs a person. The relationship between AI and your team has its own guide.
2. Extra revenue
A guest who asks for an extra towel at 11 pm through the chat can also order a bottle of wine. When the chat suggests the spa for the next day, some guests book it. What to measure:
- Room service revenue, before and after the rollout.
- In-house bookings (restaurant, spa, experiences) that come from the app or the chat.
- Well-timed offers that fit the moment, not mass emails after booking.
Be careful not to credit the tool with everything: if it is a strong month, part of the lift is seasonal. That is why the baseline matters.
3. Reputation
Good reviews are earned by getting things right during the stay. If guests get what they need quickly, in their own language and without repeating themselves three times, they are more likely to rate you well. What to measure:
- Average score on Booking, Google and TripAdvisor.
- Share of positive reviews out of the total.
- Mentions of the app or chat in free text (search for "chat", "app", "quick", "easy").
A small bump in your score shows up in conversion and supports a slightly higher rate. We don't promise numbers: every hotel finds them in its own data.
4. Avoided cost
The least discussed lever, and often the biggest. It covers mistakes that never happen, complaints that never escalate and staff who don't burn out on the same loop:
- Miscommunication avoided because each room's history is written down.
- Fewer formal complaints, because small issues get fixed on the spot.
- Turnover from stress: a front desk swamped every night ends up quitting.
Where each lever is measured
Set a baseline before you switch anything on
Without a baseline there is no ROI, just a story. Before turning on a digital concierge, spend 2 to 4 weeks measuring these five numbers with whatever you have (a spreadsheet is enough):
- Requests per day (front desk, phone, email and in person).
- Average response time and time to resolution.
- Missed calls (your switchboard or the hotel mobile will tell you).
- Average revenue per stay (room plus whatever is sold during the stay).
- Average score on the two or three review channels you care about most.
After the rollout, compare the same five numbers over a comparable window. Simply not comparing against an unusual month (a packed bank holiday, a wave of cancellations, a refurbishment) removes half the bias.
The same five numbers in both windows
What not to do when you calculate ROI
- Credit the tool with everything. If you raised rates, switched OTAs or refurbished the restaurant, part of the gain comes from that. Count only what the tool brings.
- Compare against an exceptional month. Neither the best nor the worst. If you can, use the average of several similar weeks from last year.
- Make up uplift percentages. If a vendor can't show you how a figure was calculated, assume it is marketing. Estevano doesn't publish other hotels' metrics.
- Forget the real cost. It is not just the subscription: setup time and keeping content up to date count too. In Estevano that time is low by design, but it isn't zero.
A simple formula
You don't need a financial model. A back-of-the-envelope sum will do:
ROI ≈ value created per month − (price per room × rooms)
Value created per month is the sum of the four levers, each with its own measured number. If the result is positive and reasonable three months in a row, the ROI is real. If it depends on one good month, it isn't ROI. It's noise.
Estevano is priced per room per month, based on the size of the hotel, precisely so the cost side is predictable and slots into that sum without surprises.
Five metrics any hotel can track today
- Average response time to a guest request, in minutes.
- Share of unanswered calls outside front desk hours.
- Average in-stay revenue per room (room service and the hotel's own experiences).
- Average score on Booking and Google over the last 90 days.
- Front desk staff turnover over the last 12 months.
Five numbers and no business intelligence team required. If you're going to invest in a digital concierge, measure them before and after: it saves you internal debates and inflated conversations with vendors.
What Estevano does and what it doesn't
Estevano gives you visibility of operations from the team console: tickets, timings, requests by department and each guest's activity. That covers lever 1 without opening a spreadsheet every Monday. For lever 2, the console gives you orders and bookings as counts; the money comes from the hotel's own systems. Levers 3 (reputation) and 4 (avoided cost) are closed by the hotel with its own systems: Booking, Google, its HR tool.
Santo Domingo Bay runs on Estevano every day; in the demo you see the product working.
The bottom line
Digital concierge ROI is real, but it isn't one number. It is the sum of efficiency, revenue, reputation and avoided cost, compared against a calmly measured baseline. Before you sign anything, track the five numbers for a month. After go-live, measure them again under comparable conditions. That difference is your real ROI, not the one a salesperson promises. To choose a tool, start with our guide to digital concierge software or see the product.