How to create your AI concierge with Make.com & ChatGPT

Transform your hotel operations with an AI concierge that delivers instant, personalized service 24/7 while generating measurable ROI. This comprehensive guide shows you exactly how to build, deploy, and scale an intelligent assistant using OpenAI, Make.com, Voiceflow, and Apaleo's modern API.

Why Every Hotel Needs an AI Concierge in 2025

The hospitality landscape has fundamentally shifted. Guests expect instant answers, seamless self-service, and personalized interactions at any hour. An AI concierge isn't just a nice-to-have it's becoming essential for competitive hotels that want to exceed guest expectations while optimizing operations.

The Business Case: Measurable Impact on Your Bottom Line

24/7 Coverage Without Staffing Spikes: Your AI concierge never sleeps, answering guest queries in seconds across web, WhatsApp, SMS, and kiosks. Research shows that responding within five minutes dramatically increases guest satisfaction and conversion rates something impossible with traditional staffing models.

14% Productivity Boost for Your Team: Large-scale studies demonstrate that AI support assistants increase agent productivity by 14%. Your staff can focus on high-touch, complex interactions while the AI handles routine inquiries about check-in times, WiFi passwords, and amenity information.

Revenue Generation Through Smart Upselling: Unlike passive information systems, your AI concierge actively drives revenue by offering room upgrades, late checkouts, parking packages, and dining reservations at optimal moments based on guest context and real-time inventory.

Operational Excellence at Scale

• Multilingual support without additional training costs
• Consistent service quality across all interactions
• Actionable data insights from every conversation
• Lower cost per stay through efficient inquiry resolution
• Closed-loop task execution including housekeeping tickets and reservation updates

Real Guest Experience: See Your AI Concierge in Action

Imagine a guest landing on your hotel website at 2 AM, worried about their upcoming stay. They interact with your AI concierge:

Guest: "Hi, I have a reservation next week but need to arrive later than planned."

AI Concierge: "I'd be happy to help you with your arrival time. Could you please provide your booking reference and the email address used for the reservation?"

Guest: [Provides information]

AI Concierge: "Thank you! I've found your reservation for [dates]. You're currently scheduled for a 3 PM check-in. What time would you prefer to arrive? I can update this for you immediately and ensure your room is ready."

The system seamlessly updates Apaleo, notifies housekeeping, and confirms the change—all in under 30 seconds.

Essential Technology Stack: Your AI Concierge Blueprint

Building a production-ready AI concierge requires carefully selected, enterprise-grade components that work together seamlessly:

Step-by-Step Implementation Guide

Step 1: Strategic Foundation (Week 1)

Define Your Pilot ScopeStart with 5-7 high-impact use cases that will demonstrate immediate value:

• Check-in/out time inquiries
• Late checkout requests
• Room upgrade offers
• WiFi and amenity information
• Extra towel/amenity requests
• Parking information
• Restaurant reservations

Set Measurable Success Metrics

• First Contact Resolution Rate: Target 60%+
• Average Response Time: Under 5 seconds
• Inquiry Deflection Rate: 40-60%
• Upsell Conversion Rate: Establish baseline and 20% improvement target
• Guest Satisfaction (CSAT): 4.5+ out of 5
• Cost per Conversation: Track reduction from baseline

Choose Your Channels and Languages

• Primary: Website chat widget
• Expansion: WhatsApp Business, SMS, In-room tablets
• Languages: Start with your top 3 guest languages

Step 2: Build Your OpenAI Assistant (Week 2)

Create Your Specialized Assistant‍

1. Access the OpenAI Platform (different from ChatGPT)

2. Configure your assistant with GPT-4 for optimal performance

3. Set the temperature to 0.7 for balanced accuracy and personality

Define System Instructions

You are a professional, friendly AI concierge for [Hotel Name]. Your role is to provide exceptional guest service while maintaining security and accuracy.
Core Behaviors:
- Always verify guest identity before sharing reservation details
- Speak in a warm, professional tone matching our brand voice
- Provide accurate information from our systems only
- Escalate complex requests to human staff appropriately
- Offer relevant upsells when contextually appropriate
- Respect guest privacy and data protection requirements

Configure Function Calling

‍Define secure API functions your assistant can invoke

Step 3: Design Your Conversation Interface (Week 2-3)

Build with Voiceflow

1. Create visually appealing chat widget matching your brand
2. Design conversation flows for each use case
3. Implement smart routing logic
4. Configure multilingual auto-detection
5. Set up webhook connections to Make.com

Critical Design Elements

• Clear AI disclosure: "Powered by AI Concierge"
• GDPR-compliant consent flow
• Graceful fallback messages
• Human handoff triggers
• Quick reply buttons for common actions

Step 4: Secure Integration Architecture (Week 3)

Build Make.com WorkflowsCreate secure, scalable automation scenarios:

1. Webhook Reception: Receive requests from Voiceflow
2. Data Validation: Verify parameters and sanitize inputs
3. Apaleo API Calls: Fetch or update reservation data
4. Security Checks: Validate guest identity matches
5. Response Formatting: Structure data for AI consumption
6. Error Handling: Implement retries and fallback logic

Security Best Practices

• Store API keys in Make.com's secure vault
• Implement least-privilege access in Apaleo
• Never expose PII to the language model
• Use service accounts with automatic rotation
• Enable comprehensive audit logging

Step 5: Testing and Quality Assurance (Week 4)

Safety Testing Protocol

• Prompt injection attempts
• Unauthorized data access attempts
• Edge cases and error conditions
• Compliance with brand guidelines
• Multi-language accuracy

Functional Testing Checklist

• ✓ Reservation lookup accuracy
• ✓ Upsell offer presentation
• ✓ Task creation in PMS
• ✓ Email invoice delivery
• ✓ Human handoff quality
• ✓ Error message clarity

Performance Benchmarks

• Response time < 5 seconds
• Availability > 99.9%
• Error rate < 0.1%
• Successful handoff rate > 95%

Step 6: Launch and Optimization (Week 5+)

Pilot Launch Strategy

1. Start with one property or limited hours
2. Monitor KPIs daily for first week
3. Gather staff and guest feedback
4. Iterate on responses and flows
5. Gradually expand scope

Continuous Improvement Process

• Weekly KPI reviews
• Monthly prompt optimization
• Quarterly security audits
• Regular model upgrades
• A/B testing for upsell strategies

BEST PRACTICES FOR CREATING AN AI CONCIERGE

A reliable concierge is as much process and governance as it is technology. These practices keep quality high and risk low.

• Ground answers in your knowledge. Use retrieval from curated policies, not web search. Keep a single source of truth for fees, hours, and rules.
• Guardrails first. Implementing allow lists for tool calls, strict function schemas, and safe defaults. If confidence is low, escalate.
• Minimize PII in prompts. Pass reservation IDs, not full names or emails, to the model. Redact transcripts before analytics.
• Human handoff by design. Define clear thresholds and make escalation simple for the guest. Maintain transcripts and a structured summary for agents.
• Measure what matters. Track first contact resolution, average response time, deflection rate, upsell revenue per 100 conversations, CSAT, and exceptions per 1,000 requests.
• Multi property scalability. Parameterize property data, amenities, and policies. Avoid hardcoded details in prompts. Use Make data stores for property specific configs.
• Cost controls. Set model rate limits, budget alerts, and batch long answers. Use smaller models for simple intents after routing, reserve premium models for complex reasoning.
• Compliance and audits. Document data flows, purpose, and legal bases, such as legitimate interests for service interactions under GDPR. Run quarterly reviews and vendor risk checks.
• Fail gracefully. If Apaleo or any upstream is down, the concierge should acknowledge, offer to notify the guest, and create a manual follow up task.

HOW MAKEITFUTURE HELPS YOU BUILD AN AI CONCIERGE?

Conclusion. An AI concierge becomes a force multiplier for your team when it is tightly scoped, securely connected, and relentlessly measured. Start with a small set of high impact intents, wire the assistant to Make and Apaleo with least privilege, and iterate weekly based on guest outcomes. The result, faster service, happier guests, and measurable revenue uplift with a clear cost envelope.

Where Makeitfuture fits. We design and implement AI concierges that your operations team can trust and your CFO can measure. Our specialists combine conversation design, OpenAI configuration, Apaleo integration, and Make automation to deliver a production ready concierge in weeks, not months.

• Strategy and scope, discovery workshops, ROI model, and KPI design aligned to your properties and brand.
• Architecture and security, data minimization, consent flows, least privilege in Apaleo, and Make vault usage with audit logging.
• Build and integration, OpenAI assistant setup, Voiceflow journeys, Make scenarios, and Apaleo API connectors for reservations, housekeeping, and offers.
• Testing and rollout, safety and functional test suites, pilot management, training, and handover with documentation.
• Operate and optimize, monitoring dashboards, A or B experiments for upsells, monthly model tuning, and cost controls.

Ready to see a working concierge on your data, integrated with Apaleo and Make, in less than 30 days, and a clear path to ROI, often within the first quarter? Book a scoping call. If you want to explore broader automation opportunities, visit our services page.