AI Can Find the Place. Only You Can Feel It.

As hotels embrace digital tools, Nyne Hotels argues that technology’s best role is to make more room for human hospitality.

“AI can help you find the places to visit, but it can never tell you how you will feel when you get there.”

For Nayantara “Taru” Fonseka, founder of Nyne Hotels, that distinction is fundamental. Technology can help travellers discover destinations, book rooms and plan stays, but it cannot recreate the feeling of arrival, welcome or connection. 

As tourism becomes increasingly digital, Nyne Hotels is considering how technology can support those experiences without replacing them.

“For us, redesigning tourism does not mean rebuilding it from scratch,” says Nilka Dabare, CEO of Nyne Hotels. “It means stripping away what has made it impersonal, inefficient and disconnected from place. AI and digital tools can remove the friction that gets in the way, giving our people more time to be people.”

 At Nyne’s Luxe Collection villas in Bentota, guests can use an in-house digital concierge to arrange services during their stay. For those seeking privacy, making a request without a phone call can be part of the appeal.

“We have always believed that the best hospitality is felt rather than seen,” Dabare says. “We hold technology to the same standard.” 

Behind the scenes, Nyne uses digital tools for inventory management, scheduling, team communication and resource planning. Their value, Dabare says, lies in giving staff more time to share local knowledge, notice what guests need and respond with care.

“We want our people to be more capable and more confident, not more anxious about their relevance,” he says. 

Technology can also help manage food waste, energy use and staffing, but efficiency is not Nyne’s only measure. The company remains committed to local procurement even when systems identify cheaper imported alternatives. Supporting surrounding communities is a deliberate choice, not a cost to be optimised away. 

For independent hotels, another challenge is visibility. Through its LVIA platform, Nyne brings independent Sri Lankan properties together in a bookable collection, while using online listings, reviews and content to help them reach travellers. Yet the company also recognises the enduring value of editorial coverage and personal recommendations. 

Nyne’s approach has limits. It prioritises guest privacy over invasive tracking and sees human attentiveness as more meaningful than data-driven personalisation. A host remembering a guest’s preference, Fonseka believes, matters most when it comes from a genuine connection.

 Dabare, the risk is that an industry focused solely on speed and efficiency could lose sight of what makes travel meaningful.

“Sri Lanka’s greatest competitive advantage is not only its beaches, wildlife or extraordinary history,” he says. “It is the warmth and generosity of its people. AI cannot replicate that. What it can do is protect the time and space for our people to express it.” 

A traveller may use AI to choose where to go. How that journey feels will always be theirs to discover.