Fairmas’ Dima Ladizhenski on AI & Hotel Cost Control at FHS 2026 in Dubai

Dima Ladizhenski is a Berlin-based business development professional currently serving as the Regional Sales and Business Development Manager at Fairmas GmbH, where he recently shared his industry insights in an interview with Travel and Tour World. Bringing a diverse background that spans from early career roles in journalism and editing to executive leadership in the medical and tech sectors as the Co-Founder and CEO of iMER Germany GmbH, Ladizhenski has built a robust career in international sales and regional management. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Tel Aviv University and previously studied German Studies at the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, equipping him with the cross-cultural and analytical expertise that has driven his success across organizations like Medigo, Terzel GmbH, and now Fairmas.

With rising operating costs across the Middle East and Asia, how is FairPlanner helping hoteliers to protect their profit margins and improve cost control?

FairPlanner is our main tool. It helps hotel teams see where costs are rising and what that means for their profit. They can compare results with the budget directly in FairPlanner, update the forecast, and test different options before making a decision. For example, if occupancy changes or payroll costs go up, they can see the impact and react immediately.

The value can be very high, and it goes well beyond the finance team. Finance spends less time collecting numbers and working in Excel, while department heads can easily follow their costs. General managers and corporate teams get a clearer view of performance, and everyone works from the same data.

Let me give you a simple example: if 20 hotels save just 10 hours each per month, that’s 2,400 hours a year. If you value that at 20 euros an hour, that’s 48,000 euros worth of staff time. It doesn’t automatically reduce the payroll bill, but it gives people that time back for analysis and supporting the business. Small cost savings also add up—for a group spending 100 million euros a year on operations, removing unnecessary costs equal to just 0.1% of that budget means 100,000 euros of potential value. Those are examples, of course, not guaranteed results.

Then there is the added value of faster, more precise decisions and better forecast accuracy. We call it “one version of the truth”—reliable, verified, and consolidated data. That’s harder to put a price on, but it makes a real difference in how the business is managed.

Fairmas is investing heavily in AI and machine learning for hospitality finance. How is this technology actively changing the way hotels forecast and do their budgets?

AI naturally has a great impact on technology, and that includes Fairmas. Recently, we introduced AIWA, our AI assistant. Today, it already supports a very practical task: mapping incoming data to the right accounts and departments in Fairmas. It gives users suggestions that they can review, change, or accept. AI reduces repetitive work, but the finance team remains firmly in control.

That matters because good planning starts with good data. If the mapping is inconsistent, you spend time fixing the numbers before you can even start budgeting or forecasting. Looking ahead, we have a lot of plans for how AI can support hoteliers in their planning, forecasting, controlling, and reporting.

The direction is clear: less manual work, faster analysis, and better support for finance, revenue, and operational teams. Crucially, people still make the final decisions, not AI. It is important to have everything under control and not give AI the ability to do whatever it wants.