ELAF Group has deployed Canary Technologies' AI voice, messaging, upsell and mobile F&B ordering tools across its entire hotel portfolio in Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and Riyadh — a rollout the operator frames as central to its growth under Saudi Vision 2030.

The deal covers two brands: ELAF Hotels, which serve Hajj and Umrah pilgrims in Makkah and Madinah, and JOUDYAN Hotels, which serve business and leisure travelers in Jeddah and Riyadh. ELAF Group has operated in the Kingdom for more than 40 years.

Canary, a San Francisco-based guest management platform used by more than 20,000 hotels in over 125 countries — including Marriott International, Four Seasons, IHG and Wyndham — confirmed the agreement in an announcement from its headquarters.

What does the system replace?

At the property level, the deployment substitutes automated handling for routine front-desk work. Two components carry the operational load:

• AI Voice and AI Guest Messaging answer guest inquiries across channels with real-time translation in more than 100 languages, reducing front desk workload.
• Digital Compendium moves property information to a mobile-first format guests access on their phones.

The translation capability is the economics story here. ELAF's properties run at high occupancy with an international guest base drawn to religious travel in Makkah and Madinah — a staffing profile where multilingual front-desk coverage is expensive and hard to scale. Automated translation in 100+ languages converts a labor cost into a software function.

Two revenue modules sit alongside it:

• F&B Mobile Ordering lets guests place food and beverage orders from their phones, extending capture beyond in-room dining call volumes.
• Dynamic Upsells surfaces tailored add-on offers across the guest journey, pushing ancillary revenue rather than relying on front-desk upselling at check-in.

Who pays, and why now

ELAF Group pays Canary as its technology vendor; the operator is betting the subscription cost comes back through reduced front-desk labor demand and incremental ancillary revenue per stay. Neither company disclosed contract value or deployment timeline for specific properties.

Manuel de la Torre, Head of Sales, EMEA at Canary Technologies, positioned the pitch around the labor equation: "Canary answers every guest question with instant translation, unlocks new revenue and takes repetitive work off hotel teams' plates, so they can devote their days to providing the hospitality ELAF is known for."

Zekirija Elezi, Chief Hospitality Officer at ELAF Group, tied the deployment directly to the company's expansion plans: "As we grow across the Kingdom in line with Vision 2030, this is an important step in that journey." He added that Canary "gives our teams the tools to respond to guests in their own language and to spend more of their time on the personal service our guests expect."

The competitive backdrop

Canary ranks as the number-one Guest Experience Platform by HotelTechReport and has drawn recognition from Deloitte, Fast Company and the American Hotel and Lodging Association. The company says its agentic AI platform handles tens of millions of guest and staff interactions end-to-end autonomously each year across its client base.

For ELAF Group, the deployment standardizes guest-facing technology across four cities and two brand identities ahead of continued Saudi hotel expansion — with the guest-communication layer and the upsell engine now operating on a single platform.