Chatting about chatbots: understanding the competitive edge of hotel chatbots

The chatbots can ask what types of products the visitor prefers and give highly relevant options. The LeadDesk chatbot handled questions from approximately 20,000 attendees. Chatbots are becoming increasingly commonplace — before long, we’ll spend more time talking to them than we do to our spouses. You might think I’m joking but that’s an actual prediction by analytics firm Gartner. The hospitality industry has embraced artificial intelligence, with numerous hotels now deploying chatbots that act as a digital concierge; always online and ready to serve, no matter how demanding a guest might be. In this blog, we’ll dive into the pros and cons of hotel chatbots and a few of the ways your venue can use chatbots to drive bookings, answer questions and give customers an all-around better experience.

Even better, customers who wait to speak to a human operator are also indirectly benefiting from chatbots. With shorter lines for agent attention, customers with complex questions will have their questions answered more quickly, and more attention from agents with less interaction and more service. Some companies may have reservations, and rightfully so, about the impact customer service chats can have on the customer experience. Our research shows that with a satisfaction rate of 28%, chatbots have not won the hearts of customers.

Services & Facilities

Chatbots can help customers find the right product they are looking for from a large catalogue and go directly to the checkout page or get information about current sales. By providing answers or recommendations to specific customer requests, chatbots can guide customers and https://www.metadialog.com/ allow them to make purchases on the fly. Most customers rate “immediate” responses as important or very important to customer service. One of the biggest benefits of chatbots in customer service is the ability of chatbots to provide consistent support around the clock.

• Chatbots are becoming increasingly commonplace — before long, we’ll spend more time talking to them than we do to our spouses.
• You can prevent most mistakes from happening with well thought out answers.
• Vendors integrate with OPERA to gather guest details and with Simphony to obtain live menu options.

Recommendations are then saved in the app’s ‘Trips’ tab for future reference. Few hotels can muster more than a handful of languages among customer-facing staff, and certainly not on a 24/7 basis. Hotel chatbots however can respond in many languages, which creates a personalised feeling, and ensures that there is greater clarity between the hotel and the guest. If using an AI-assisted chatbot, and especially with voice recognition and reproduction, then the sense of engaging with a real human can be very convincing.

Big data and personalisation

Gen Z and Millennials believe that customer service chats resolve issues quickly and easily. It’s common for guests to expect lightning-fast responses to inquiries at the front desk regardless of whether it’s a human or a digital system that answers their questions, process their booking, and so on. In regards to this, the guest experience will improve but must be used with human expertise. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an essential tool for providing exceptional customer service, and chatbots and instant messaging apps are the most promising applications of AI in the hotel industry.

Preserve hospitality’s standards for welcoming service but be prepared to adjust for the new normal. Employ flexible technologies to meet—and exceed—guest expectations in a ever-changing marketplace shaped by industry, compliance, security, and socially-driven factors. Pay at table chatbots hotel or using a partner ordering solution enables contactless payment. The hotel is located in the China Merchants Xuzhou Centre, in the heart of the financial centre of Xuzhou’s New City District, and offers panoramic views over Dalong Lake and the Xuzhou Financial Centre.

Many companies today invest a lot in sales teams to find and convert leads. Their goal is to contact cold prospects and get them interested in the company’s products and services. For example, here’s HOAS (The Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region) virtual assistant Helmi. The chatbot is available on the page 24/7 and independently handles over 59% of customer queries. Yes, a chatbot is very effective for dealing with customers who come forward with simple requests and frequently asked questions. But sometimes, customers face more complex problems that require human interaction.

Hotel industry

“From our perspective, hotels definitely want to start integrating this technology,” he says. Elsewhere in the travel industry, Expedia, again taking advantage of Facebook’s technology, launched a basic bot to help travelers book hotels. Ask the user for check-in dates, display room options with prices and set actions like “Book Now”. Make sure to be present where your guests are- so that they use it as a natural way to book their trips.

Plus, for the would-be-customer, it reduces conflict and the customer doesn’t have to think a lot about what to buy. As the conversation continues, the visitor gets a genuine request for their email. If they are interested in the business’ services, the visitor will give their email to the chatbot, which will then be added to the business’ mailing list. Companies need to employ different marketing strategies for different audiences. For example, one audience might be interested in thoughtful conversations about your product/service.

Tech traveller: Hotel chatbots

With its easy conversational system – and the ability to converse using rich content like pictures, GIFs and videos, a chatbot can do a great job of showing products to customers and making sales. Other companies similar to Nordstrom that have multiple product categories and diverse audiences can also use this chatbot use case to provide an immersive, visual product demo experience. Businesses can also use chatbots like this to provide product recommendations to people looking for a holiday gift, anniversary present, etc.

Download HOAS chatbot project case study to learn more about how HOAS implemented and developed its chatbot. This makes a chatbot a really useful technology that customers will have fun interacting with. And any positive experience a customer has using your chatbot will go a long way to elevating your company’s brand image. For example, they can quickly show pictures of products, give clickable options, provide live links to Google Maps directions and more.

However, the use of AI should never – in any way – replace human expertise. As professionals within the industry, we understand how adaptation is highly required for such an intense market. A hotel cannot survive without keeping up with hospitality trends, and while AI can easily comprehend changes within travel and tourism, its performance will fall short without the drive for innovation.

With the move towards contactless check-in and mobile booking it would seem that this communication is not required. The expectation now is the answer at your fingertips, not a phone call and hold music away. You need to be able to answer those multiple guest questions via the channel that suits them. Chatbots enable brands to reach billions of new users directly on messengers and increase brand recognition. Expedia is also presumed to be the next major player to adopt AI technology to target businesses by using leisure travellers as an entry point to build their future AI strategies. Algorithms that have the ability to understand the context of online activity would be at an advantage when targeting travel customers with relevant ads.

reasons to choose SabeeApp, and Bonomi’s chatbot

If a customer is located on the other side of the world, they would have to pay for expensive international dialling rates if they wanted answers to their questions via the phone. Whereas if you have a live chat, they can get in touch for free without having to worry. However, because live chats are monitored by people, there is the potential chance of customers having to wait longer for a response.

Currently, very few hotels are using chatbots so the venues that do will inevitably be one step ahead. Just think about how technology has revolutionised the airline check-in process. “Booking additional services is where the power is,” says Nigel Symonds, Hospitality Consultant at Avenue9, a leading player in the IT sector that provides hospitality solutions. Instead of waiting for them to call for queries regarding the best deals and discounts, just set up a chatbot than can guide them with these in real-time. Instant, personalised messaging and answers to FAQs can increase direct reservations, and generate more in-stay revenue.

That’s because research has shown that too many choices can confuse and frustrate customers,  making them doubtful about their purchases rather than confident. Businesses who are willing to invest money in gaining an audience can do so through giveaways, contests, and quizzes. Contests, quizzes, and giveaways that promise discounts tend to have a high chance of going viral and help businesses gain new loyal customers very effectively and smoothly.

However, response times can be slower than a chatbot and this could potentially cause further frustrations if a customer is already upset about a situation. They’re unhappy with the experience and turn to your live chat to vent their frustrations and make a complaint. There are several reasons as to why they are frustrated and decide to list them out. HotelTCS brings years of experience in technology solutions for the hospitality sector to your team. With global coverage, HotelTCS can provide consultancy and on-site engineering resource to ensure that your hotel has the technology it deserves.

Obtaining customer reviews post stay or getting guest feedback is going to be much less invasive via a chatbot compared to traditional email marketing, which is often ignored. To be able to respond with one-click to a question will undoubtedly improve the customer engagement response rate. Earlier in August, Icelandair launched a booking bot, leveraging Facebook’s new chatbot development toolkit. Modelled on a text conversation with a real travel agent, the bot not only offers and takes reservations for flights, it also suggests a layover in Reykjavik. The best way to use a hotel chatbot is an extension of your customer service. Having a chatbot respond in real-time is the smart way to overcome resource limitations that keep you from answering every enquiry in a timely manner—and to stay on top in a service-based world where immediacy is key.