Meliá turns to robots

Meliá Hotels International said that this year would see it implement Robotic Process Automation in areas including hotels and administration.

The company introduced RPA last year and said that it allowed for the automation of “a wide range of repetitive and rule-based business processes”, allowing employees to focus on more valuable areas.

The programme started with an initial focus on Spain and America, although the group planned to extend it across its portfolio in the medium term.

Carlos Gonzalez, VP strategic planning, Meliá, said: "We believe in the digital transformation of the hotel industry and are convinced that Robotic Process Automation will improve company results and the daily work of our team. To achieve this, we will democratise automation within the organisation by inviting employees to proactively propose processes they believe can be automated. In the medium term, many of our employees will be able to have the support of a software robot in their daily duties. The combination of RPA solutions with artificial intelligence will allow us to achieve even greater automation capacity".

Franck López, UiPath RVP EMEA, said: "Our work with Meliá Hotels International is very inspiring because we are seeing a fantastic combination of tradition and transformation. With a solid history behind it, Meliá is now a pioneer in the digital transformation of the hotel industry, and we are proud to be their partner of choice for the deployment of RPA.”