At Cornell, the future of hospitality is already live

A living laboratory

The Statler Hotel at Cornell University sits in Ithaca, New York, and is unlike almost any other hotel in the world. Operated by Cornell's Nolan School of Hotel Administration, it runs as a working property where students learn the discipline of hospitality by doing it. Every front desk shift, every service recovery, every operational decision is also a lesson. The standard, accordingly, is high.

When the Statler's leadership decided to modernise its digital guest journey, they needed a platform that could keep up. Innspire completed its deployment across the property in May 2025, bringing AI Concierge, mobile check-in, and in-room dining into a fully integrated stack connected to the property's existing systems.

What is live and what it is doing

The numbers since go-live are clear. Innspire's AI Concierge now handles 66.7% of all guest messaging at the Statler, answering questions, fulfilling routine requests, and routing anything complex to staff without delay. Mobile check-in allows guests to bypass the front desk on arrival. The Innspire Marketplace powers in-room dining, giving guests a direct ordering channel and opening a new revenue stream for the property.

Behind the scenes, Innspire is integrated with the Statler's property-management system and its service optimisation platform. Requests flow directly into the operations layer; staff see what needs doing without waiting for a call or a message to be manually triaged. Mobile key integration is currently underway.

Arthur Keith, General Manager of the Statler, put it directly: his team now spends less time managing systems and more time with guests. That is the point.

More than one hotel

Teaching hotels are where the next generation of hoteliers forms their view of what good looks like. For Innspire, that makes this partnership a meaningful one. Building the student experience on a platform that connects every touchpoint, handles routine interactions automatically, and keeps staff free for the moments that matter sets the right baseline for an entire future career.

The next phase of the partnership will bring contactless mobile keys to the property. The longer vision goes further: more advanced AI that learns from each property's patterns and surfaces better decisions over time. At the Statler, that future is already under construction. Read the full announcement on HospitalityNet.