• by Mitul Makadia , Columnist, March 7, 2018

The adoption of emerging technologies has become quite the trend after receiving inspiration from myriad successful use cases. In the hospitality industry, the real boost of artificial intelligence sprang from the fact that it can cause a massive paradigm shift. Given the rising need for smart automation of processes, AI has entered the traditional hospitality landscape with a promise to enhance hotel reputation, drive revenue and take customer experience to the next level.

Booking experience in native language

Chatbots in hospitality are changing the way booking inquiries are handled and visitors converted into patrons. The front-desk staff that is normally liable for conducting booking-related queries could well be replaced with conversational bots. Theseintelligent chatbots are programmed to create simulated conversation (text/voice) in native language, enabling controlled, concise and efficient interactions between humans and machines.

Interactions for hotel booking that are enriched with intelligent chatbots offer immense convenience to customers: 24/7 availability, fast-paced delivery service along with several custom options for booking room services.

Machine learning and automation

Hotels need precisely crafted, strategic automation of internal and customer care services to reduce and optimize service/operational cost. Integrating chatbot software within the sales and marketing departments to ascertain and understand existing offers, changing customer tastes, behavioral patterns and convincing responses would be the first step to making this possible.

Machine learning in AI observes the shifts and consistency in trends along with delivered responses of previous agent conversations before it begins to produce its own accurate responses, custom offers and personalized suggestions that complement the lifestyle choices of travel planners. Thus, chatbots in hospitality not only help enhance customer service but also result in flawless decisions based on the massive volume of data.

IoT and intelligence of things

Thanks to widespread adoption of IoT, we see almost everyone with wearable devices now, measuring their body temperature, energy level, cardiovascular/respiratory activities in minute detail to get customized health solutions. You can now juxtapose something very similar with the latest incipient revolutions materializing in the world of hotel industry.

By establishing AI and IoT in hotels, the hospitality industry can create more significant opportunities to deliver excellent guest-friendly services ranging from matching guest preferences, suggesting books or music, nearby sports club to complement customers’ taste, all the way to automatically alerting hotel staff for personalized meal choices, special privileges and complimentary services, etc. 

Perceptive personalization and on-premise recommendations

After garnering heaps of customer data, hotels can use machine learning with business-specific algorithms to generate predictions about what customers are most likely to opt for.

This analytical ability can keep hotels agile in identifying the next set of trends when it comes to products/service offerings. It can be used to evaluate and identify the customer persona in order to match them up with relevant services or packages that the hotel provides. Using predictive analytics and personality branding, hotels can identify future needs and please customers by serving up what exactly they might be looking for before they even ask for it (e.g., Red Roof Inn leveraging weather and flight data to attract potential customers through predictive analytics).

Voice-enabled virtual assistants

As technology grows more sophisticated and popular, hoteliers find it easy to engage and treat their guests with far more personalized service through voice technology. Guests expect an experience with in-room technology as similar to what they enjoy at home.

Thanks to recent advances in AI, hotels have begun to equip their rooms with smart devices that have recognize voice. One such hotel that has equipped as many as 5,000 hotel rooms withAmazon’s Echo speaker is Wynn Las Vegas. 

Smart guest rooms and getting smarter

The world inside and outside our domestic premise is growing smarter every day.Gartner research says that by 2022, a typical American home will have 500 smart devices. With IoT and sensors imbued with AI technology, the following can happen:

• Hotel’s wifi network can ably recognize an arriving guest’s smartphone.

• IoT system can alert the management staff for quick, frictionless guest check-in.

• AI-enabled system can allow auto-unlocking of the door as guests stand at it.

Hoteliers who adopt this intelligent approach gain detailed insight into their operations and take intelligence-driven decisions to retain customers, increase reputation and drive business growth.

Conclusion

With so much pressure to beat the competition and capture wide customer base in tight deadlines, hotels across the globe will require substantial technological innovations to survive increasing demands. In the world that is more interconnected than ever, hoteliers must adopt the innovative fusion of IoT, AI and ML to transform their space and redefine current service standards.