Hello Filip, great to see you, and thank you for joining us!
Filip Linek: Thank you for having me. I’m very happy to be here. I always enjoy conversations where I can share not only what we are building, but also the personal journey behind it. For me, entrepreneurship has never been only about business. It has always been about people, responsibility, and trying to create something meaningful.
Tell us in one sentence what the BE-A.AI is and what it does?
Filip: BE-A.AI is an AI receptionist for hotels that automates guest communication across email, WhatsApp, and phone, responds 24/7 in more than 100 languages, and helps hotels improve service quality, operational efficiency and direct bookings.
You spent years in hospitality before founding FLÆ Robotics. What specific frustration or moment convinced you that hotels needed AI receptionists?
It was not one single dramatic moment. It was something I saw every day in hotel operations. Reception teams were constantly switching between emails, phone calls, WhatsApp messages, reservation changes, guest questions, special requests and operational issues. Very often, this happened exactly when they should have been focusing on the guests standing in front of them. What frustrated me most was seeing good people under pressure, not because they were not capable, but because the system around them was overloaded. Guests expected instant answers, in any language, at any time of day. Hotels wanted to provide great service, but the reality of daily operations made it very difficult.
That is when I realised hotels did not need just another chatbot. They needed a real AI receptionist — something that could take over a large part of guest communication, work across channels, understand hotel context and give people back time for genuine hospitality.
FLÆ Robotics positions itself as more than a chatbot company — you’re talking about avatars, holoboxes, and humanoid staff. How far are we realistically from seeing this become mainstream in hotels?
I think it is important to separate two things: the AI receptionist as software, and its physical presence through an avatar, holobox or humanoid. The first part is no longer the future — hotels are already using it today. BE-A is already helping hotels automate a large part of guest communication across email, WhatsApp, and phone, including more complex questions, reservation changes, offers, multilingual communication, and operational requests. The physical layer will come step by step. First, we will see avatars and holoboxes in hotels where they make sense as either a premium experience or a powerful operational tool — for example, in lobbies, resorts, events, or properties with a high volume of guest communication.
Humanoid staff will take longer, because it is not only about technology, but also about price, reliability, maintenance and guest acceptance. But the direction is clear. Hotels will increasingly combine human hospitality with AI workers that can handle 80–90% of guest communication, 24/7, in multiple languages and across the entire guest journey.
Your BE-A platform promises 24/7 multilingual guest communication and operational savings. What has been the most surprising reaction from hotel operators so far?
What has surprised me most is how emotional and positive the reaction from hotel operators has been. Most of them are not only interested — they are genuinely relieved when they see what BE-A can do. They are often pleasantly surprised that BE-A can really handle the vast majority of the work normally done by reception, reservations and concierge teams. To this day, we have not had a single churn. We do not have a customer who implemented BE-A and then concluded that it was not helping them or that they did not want to continue using it.
Sometimes, at the end of online sales demo calls, hotel operators actually start clapping. For me, that is a very powerful moment. It shows that the problem I experienced as a hotelier is shared by many others. It is the same dream: to have a reliable, multilingual, and always-available receptionist that supports the team, improves the guest experience, and helps the hotel grow. We also see strong commercial interest during demos. In many cases, once hotel operators understand that BE-A is not just answering questions but can support revenue through faster offers, never missing calls, and offering additional services during the guest journey, the conversation becomes very concrete very quickly.
Many people still fear that AI will replace human workers. How do you respond to criticism that AI receptionists could reduce hospitality jobs?
I understand that concern, but from my experience, the reality in hospitality is different. Hotels are usually not struggling because they have too many people. Quite the opposite — they are facing a long-term shortage of good staff, high turnover, rising costs, and enormous pressure on front-office teams. For me, BE-A does not replace human hospitality. It removes overload. It takes over a large part of communication that hotels often cannot handle fast enough, consistently enough or in every language.
That allows people to focus on what humans are truly irreplaceable at — personal care, empathy, sensitive situations and building a real relationship with the guest. My goal has never been to create hotels without people. Quite the opposite. I want to help hotels give people more time for real hospitality. I believe AI receptionists will become similar to elevators, payment terminals or online booking — technologies that changed how work is done, but ultimately helped hotels provide better service.
You are expanding internationally, including the UK and potentially the US market. What makes your technology competitive against larger global AI players?
Our advantage is not that we want to compete with the largest AI companies in building foundation models. Our advantage is that we understand a very specific problem in hotels and we are building a specialised solution directly for hotel operations. BE-A is not a generic chatbot. It is an AI receptionist designed for the entire guest journey — from the first enquiry, through offers, reservations, booking changes, pre-arrival communication, in-stay support and post-stay communication.
It works across email, WhatsApp and phone, maintains context across channels and is gradually integrating with hotel systems such as PMS, booking engines and other operational tools. Of course, we use a world-class software stack and the best available AI technologies, including large language models, ChatGPT, ElevenLabs and other tools. But on top of that, we are building our own technology layer specifically designed for the hotel environment.
Especially in areas such as recognising incoming communication, understanding context, speech-to-text, voice interaction, decision-making based on hotel data and routing guest requests correctly, we are developing our own technology. That is what makes BE-A a real AI worker, not just an interface on top of a general model. The larger global AI players have enormous technological power, but they are often not deeply focused on the everyday reality of a hotel front desk. We come from real hotel operations. I ran hotels for years, so I know where the chaos appears, where hotels lose time, money and service quality.
And I believe this combination — deep hospitality know-how, focus on a specific use case, use of the best global AI technologies, our own technology layer, integrations into hotel systems and the ability to cover 80–90% of guest communication — is why we can be competitive even against much larger players.
As an entrepreneur, you’ve already built and sold one company before launching FLÆ Robotics. What lessons from your previous business experience are proving most valuable now?
The most valuable lesson is that a company is not just a product or a technology. A company is the ability to build trust over time — with customers, partners, investors and your own team. When I was building my previous company, I learned that growth is never based only on a good idea. It is based on discipline, quality of execution, listening to customers and making difficult decisions at the right time.
That is extremely important today at FLÆ Robotics. We may have great technology, but if we cannot implement it reliably in a hotel, explain its value, support the customer and build a strong team around it, it is not enough. Another lesson is patience. Even in AI, where everything moves incredibly fast, the old entrepreneurial principles still apply: understand the customer, maintain quality, watch cash flow, have the right people and do not lose the long-term vision.
And perhaps the most important lesson is personal responsibility. When you are a founder, you cannot hide. You have to carry both the good and the difficult moments. That experience helps me a lot today.
Hospitality is traditionally a very human-centered industry. How do you ensure that automation doesn’t remove the emotional aspect of guest experience?
This is a very important topic for me, because hospitality will never be only about efficiency. Hospitality is about feeling, trust, care and making the guest feel welcome. That is why we are not building BE-A as a technology that removes human contact, but as a technology that gives people more time for truly human moments. If BE-A takes over a large part of guest communication, it does not mean the hotel loses its human touch. Quite the opposite — a good team finally has more space to be truly present where humans are irreplaceable.
We also protect the emotional aspect inside the product itself. BE-A has to communicate naturally, empathetically, in the tone of each hotel and with a strong understanding of context. It must not feel like a cold machine. It has to know when it can solve the situation itself, and when it should hand it over to a human — especially in sensitive, emotional or very personal situations. My view is simple: AI should not take the soul out of hotels. It should help hotels show it again.
What has been the biggest technological challenge so far in building an AI receptionist that can actually operate in real hotel environments?
The biggest technological challenge is not just making AI answer well. Many systems can do that today. The real challenge is making an AI receptionist operate safely and reliably in a real hotel environment. Hotel communication is extremely diverse. It is often incomplete, emotional, multilingual and connected to specific hotel data.
Guests do not write perfect questions. They use shortcuts, mix languages, send incomplete information, change reservations, ask about price, availability, parking, wellness, late check-in, invoices, special requests or problems during their stay. BE-A first has to understand what the guest really wants, recognise the type of request, evaluate the context, find the right data and decide whether it can solve the situation itself or whether it should hand it over to a human.
Integrations are another major challenge. A hotel is not one simple system. Each property may use a different PMS, booking engine, payment system, email inbox, telephony setup and internal processes. And then there is voice. Phone communication is much more demanding than text. You need to handle speech-to-text, different accents, background noise, fast response times, a natural voice tone and, at the same time, accuracy of information. For me, that is the difference between an impressive AI demo and a product that truly helps a hotel every day.
If we meet again in five years, what do you hope FLÆ Robotics will look like by then? A software company, a robotics company, or something entirely different?
In five years, I would like FLÆ Robotics to be seen primarily as a company that changed the way hotels communicate with guests and how the modern front office operates. I do not want to define us only as a software company or a robotics company. Software is the foundation, robotics and avatars are the physical layer, but the real ambition is bigger: to create a new category of AI workers for hospitality.
I believe that in five years BE-A will be a normal part of hotel operations in many countries. It will communicate with guests across email, WhatsApp, phone and physical avatars, it will be connected to hotel systems and it will be able not only to answer, but also to perform a large part of the work that is currently done by reception, reservations and concierge teams.
At the same time, I hope FLÆ Robotics will remain a company with a human view of technology. I do not want to build a world where hotels lose personal contact. I want to build technology that allows hotels to provide better service, available 24/7, in every language and with greater consistency. So if you ask whether we will be a software company, a robotics company or something else, my answer is: we will be an AI hospitality company.
What are the biggest obstacles that you are dealing with?
The biggest obstacle today is speed. The market is changing extremely fast, AI technology is moving almost every week, and hotels are beginning to understand that this change is not a distant future, but something happening right now. Our challenge is to grow fast enough, while at the same time not losing quality, reliability and customer trust.
The second major obstacle is integration. Every hotel uses a different technology stack — different PMS, booking engines, telephony, email systems, payment solutions and internal processes. If BE-A is to work as a real AI receptionist, it has to work with hotel data, keep information consistent and gradually perform specific actions inside hotel operations.
The third area is market education. Many hoteliers already understand that AI can be a huge help, but we still need to explain the difference between a simple chatbot and a real AI worker that can cover 80–90% of guest communication across the entire guest journey.
And of course, like every fast-growing technology company, we are also dealing with team building, fundraising and international expansion. We need the right people, the right partners and the capital that will allow us to enter key markets faster, especially the UK, the DACH region and later the US. But I see these more as natural growth challenges than as problems. We have a product that hotels truly need, and now our job is to scale it at the right pace.
What do you personally enjoy or find most inspiring about working in this environment?
What inspires me most is the combination of three worlds that come together at FLÆ Robotics: hospitality, technology and people. I know hospitality from the inside, so I understand how demanding hotel operations really are. At the same time, we are living in a moment when AI can transform entire industries at incredible speed. And between those two worlds are people — hoteliers, receptionists, guests, our team, partners and investors.
What I enjoy is that we are not solving an abstract technology problem, but a very specific problem that I experienced myself for many years. When I see that BE-A truly helps a hotel, supports the team, speeds up guest communication, improves service and also helps generate more revenue, it is a huge motivation for me. It is not just software on a screen. It is a tool that changes the everyday reality of people working in hotel operations.
The speed of the whole environment is also very inspiring. Every month brings new possibilities, new technologies and new ideas. You have to stay alert, keep learning, make decisions quickly and at the same time not lose the long-term vision. For me, this is probably the most difficult project I have ever worked on, but also one of the most inspiring.
And let’s focus now more on your personal journey. How did you get into the world of venture capital?
I actually entered the world of venture capital through FLÆ Robotics. My previous entrepreneurial journey was different. I built a traditional company, ran it for many years and eventually sold it to a strategic buyer. That experience taught me how to build a company for the long term, manage cash flow, work with customers and teams, and carry responsibility for everyday operations. With FLÆ Robotics, the situation is different. From the beginning, it was clear that if we wanted to build a global technology company, a good product and organic growth would not be enough. We needed capital, experienced investors, an international network and the ability to scale faster.
So I naturally started learning the world of venture capital — how investors think, what they expect from founders, how to build the company story, and how fundraising, valuation, cap tables and future financing rounds work. For me, venture capital is not only about money. A good investor can help a company open markets, accelerate decision-making, bring experience with scaling and also hold up a mirror to the founder.
At the same time, I believe my advantage is that I am not entering the venture capital world only as a technology founder with an idea. I am entering it as an entrepreneur who has already built and sold a company, operated hotels for years and deeply understands the problem we are solving today.
What was your background before BE-A_AI?
Before BE-A.AI, I spent most of my entrepreneurial career building, managing and improving companies in real operations. I started in a traditional business, where I built OSKAR PLAST, a packaging materials distribution company, which I later sold to the strategic buyer Bunzl. That was a very important business school for me — I learned how to manage sales, cash flow, teams, customers and company growth in a competitive environment. Alongside that, I was also involved in several other projects — real estate investments in Portugal, a sports facility with beach volleyball courts in Prague, and a few smaller business projects. Most of them achieved strong growth and successful exits.
I think what I have always enjoyed in business is taking an average or underdeveloped business and gradually turning it into a high-quality product, service or brand. Later, I moved much more deeply into hospitality. I own and for several years personally managed the PECR hotel complex in Pec pod Sněžkou, which we developed into a property serving tens of thousands of guests per year.
That is where I experienced the everyday reality of hotel operations very closely — the pressure on reception teams, staff shortages, the volume of emails, phone calls, reservations, booking changes, guest requests and the need to communicate quickly, accurately and in multiple languages. So my background is not purely technological. I come from entrepreneurship, operations, investments and hospitality. And I believe that is very important for BE-A.AI. We are not building technology for an abstract problem. We are building it for a problem I experienced myself for years as a hotelier and entrepreneur.
What’s the most rewarding part of building BE-A_AI? And what’s the hardest part no one sees?
The most rewarding part is seeing that BE-A truly helps hotels in their everyday operations — and also has a direct impact on their revenue. When a hotelier says after implementation that the team is under less pressure, guests receive faster answers, communication is more consistent and the reception team can focus more on the guests in front of them, that is a huge motivation for me. But equally important is the revenue side. Hotels can respond to enquiries faster, send offers on time, never miss a phone call and actively offer additional services during the guest journey. In hospitality, minutes, availability and the ability to offer the right service at the right moment can make a real difference.
The hardest part, which people outside often do not see, is the pressure on the founder. Everyone sees the presentations, demos, new customers, investors or media coverage. But behind that, there is a huge amount of decision-making, uncertainty, responsibility and energy that you have to find again every day. You have to deal with product, team, customers, fundraising, cash flow, technology, legal matters and international expansion — often all at the same time.
And in AI, that pressure is even stronger, because the market is changing incredibly fast. Every week, there is a new technology, a new competitor, a new opportunity, or a new risk. You have to be fast, but you cannot lose quality. That is difficult. But at the same time, it is exactly what makes the whole project so powerful and meaningful.
How do you personally define success—for yourself, and for BE-A_AI?
For me personally, success is not only about money, valuation or an exit. Of course, as an entrepreneur, I have to think about growth, investors, returns and company value. But real success for me means building something meaningful, something that helps people and leaves a positive mark. For BE-A.AI, I would define success very concretely: if we manage to change the way hotels communicate with guests, improve service quality, reduce pressure on hotel teams and at the same time help hotels grow, that will be a huge success.
I want BE-A to be seen not just as another piece of software, but as a new standard for the modern front office — an AI worker that is available 24/7, communicates in more than 100 languages, never misses an enquiry or a phone call and helps hotels provide better service. Of course, we also have a big global ambition. Success for BE-A would mean becoming an international company operating in key hotel markets across Europe, the UK, the US and other regions.
And if we manage to create a new category of AI workers for hospitality, become a global standard and build a company with unicorn-level value, that would be proof to me that we have not just built a good product, but a truly significant company. On a personal level, success is also about balance. I want to be a good founder, but also a good father, partner and human being. If I can build a global company and at the same time remain someone who enjoys family, relationships and life, that will be real success for me. And maybe the simplest definition is this: success is when I wake up excited about what we are building, and in the evening I feel that it was meaningful.
What do you do to stay sharp and creative—books, podcasts, habits?
To be honest, I do not read as much as I would like to anymore. The world of AI is moving so fast that it is a real ride. That is why I use AI a lot to help me filter information, create summaries, follow trends and quickly understand what really matters. I see AI not only as the product we are building, but also as a daily tool that helps me stay faster and better informed. At the same time, I follow the key hospitality markets very closely, especially the UK, the DACH region and Central Europe. We are members of several hotel associations, including in the UK, and it is very important for us to stay close to the current problems hoteliers are dealing with — staff shortages, rising costs, pressure on service quality, digitalisation, direct bookings and guests expecting instant communication.
For me, the best inspiration often does not come from books, but from the real market. From conversations with hoteliers, receptionists, partners, investors and our own team. When I hear the same problem repeatedly from different countries, it is a very strong signal that there is a real opportunity. And of course, movement helps me as well — mainly running in nature and strength training. Very often, the best ideas come during or after sport, because you step out of the daily pressure for a moment and start seeing things more clearly.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you love to be doing instead?
I think I would still be doing something where I could build, improve and move things forward. That is probably my nature. I enjoy taking a project, a company or a service that has potential but is not yet fully developed, and gradually turning it into something much better, higher quality and more meaningful. If I were not building BE-A.AI, I would probably continue working in hospitality, real estate or projects that combine service, design, experience and operational quality. Maybe I would develop more hotels, maybe focus more on real estate investments in Portugal, or maybe build a new concept in hospitality or leisure.
But I think the common denominator would be the same: building something with soul, high quality and real value for people. I have always been attracted to projects that are not only about spreadsheets, but also about emotion, environment and experience. A hotel, a gallery, a sports facility or a technology company may look like very different worlds, but for me they have one thing in common: the opportunity to create a place, product or service that improves or enriches people’s lives in some way.
So if I were not doing this, I would probably still be an entrepreneur. I might just be building a different type of project — one that connects quality, service, people and long-term value.
And our one last question, What’s the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten?
Probably the weirdest food I have ever eaten was crocodile in Cuba. It was not bad, but I have to admit it was more of an experience for me than something I would eat regularly. I love good food, but I am not the kind of person who actively searches for extreme food experiences just to say that I have tried them. What I enjoy about travelling is discovering the culture, the people and the atmosphere of a place. Food is definitely part of that — and sometimes you try something you would probably never order at home.
Thank you for joining us. We wish you the best of luck!
Thank you very much for having me. I really enjoyed the conversation and I appreciate the opportunity to share our journey with BE-A.AI.
