The Foreside Inn, a 24-room boutique property in Kittery, Maine, opens on August 1, 2026 with no front desk. Owner Taylor McMaster expects the lean staffing model to save about $200,000 a year compared with traditional staffing for a property of the same size, as reported by Noor Adatia in Hotel Dive.
The stack is not exotic. Goki issues one-time PIN codes for room and property access. Mews runs the PMS. Akia powers the AI concierge. A four-person remote team covers guests 24/7 by phone and text. On site: housekeepers, a general manager, a marketing manager.
The model, not the tool
Most hotels bolt AI onto one task and call it a transformation. This is the operating model rebuilt around it, at a scale an independent can actually reach. It also buys price room. On-season rooms start at $199 while others in the area sit closer to $300, per general manager Christina Lehmann.
One honest caveat from PGS: the $200,000 is a projection, not a result. The inn has not run a full season yet.
Should you remove your front desk? Not tomorrow. Start smaller. Measure how many front desk hours actually produce revenue, then automate the dead ones first.
This content was created with the help of artificial intelligence and reviewed by Rafael Osborne (Profit Guest Services) before publishing.