Hilton Introduces Customer Service Chatbot to China

As we’ve explored, the path forward is not merely about adopting new technologies, but about reimagining the role of every individual within the hospitality ecosystem. Across the hospitality and travel industries, other companies have similarly worked to simplify and personalize travel planning, booking and guest experience by adopting AI. Expedia and Bookings are looking to land customers at the top of the travel sales funnel, as analysts describe it. A lot of travelers start with a Google search, such as for flights to Italy or hotels in Las Vegas. Expedia Group similarly leaned on OpenAI’s technology to launch a chat feature for customers last year.

To maximize the potential of ChatGPT, it’s crucial to understand the components of a good prompt and provide clear, concise input with sufficient context while using the model within its knowledge and capabilities. The company has now raised a total of €6.2 million including a seed round in late 2020. Leonardo Hotels has successfully integrated HiJiffy’s Guest Communications Hub across its 213 properties, marking a significant milestone in the collaboration. Since the initiation of the partnership, the solution has evolved to become the hotel’s preferred method of guest communication. As a Premium user you get access to background information and details about the release of this statistic.

Germany-based TUI Group, on the other hand, controls its own supply of flights, hotels, and ticketed experiences. The company owns several European airlines including TUI Airways, as well as multiple hotel brands, the world’s largest tour operator company, and more. The most notable AI chatbot releases so far have been from large online travel agencies or other third-party aggregators of travel products. Expedia Group, for example, was one of the first to release a chatbot tool and is now planning updates over the next few months.

AI Integration Costs vs. Benefits

The offering gives advertisers access to an in-house creative team, advertising tools that target high-intent travelers, offsite capabilities through YouTube and connected TV and access to Expedia Group’s global network and scale. Unlike humans, robots are able to work 24 hours a day, which means providing service overnight when staffing is reduced, or in some cases when no concierge staff is available as the front desk is closed. They can also assist customers by assisting them in their native language. For extremely touristy areas this is a significant advantage as it ensures no miscommunications and the customer is assisted promptly.It’s important to note that robots will never fully replace humans. Both robots and humans aren’t perfect; if a robot breaks down or experiences some sort of malfunction, a human will be needed to assist.

This could extend to services like smart pricing recommendations, where AI dynamically adjusts travel offers based on real-time market data and individual preferences. “We’re not just improving booking systems; we’re building a platform that anticipates the customer’s next move,” Keller added. These innovations are poised to reshape how travelers discover new destinations, make reservations and book ancillary experiences provided by their chosen hotels. Since AI grows its capabilities alongside its stores of available data, it’s not difficult to imagine how prompts and chatbots could guide guests through the entirety of their journey in the near future. Diverting repetitive requests to AI presents a more significant impact than simply performing actions faster; it allows operators to rework their position from supervising technology to overseeing the guest experience.

For travel companies, AI poses many new opportunities and advantages. According to a report from Skift Research, using generative AI in travel is set to be a $28 billion opportunity for the travel sector. Sabre started the G-Blitz competition — where Concierge.AI was born — in 2021. Participants from across Sabre’s six main offices worldwide select teams ChatGPT of around five people, and they’ve given free reign to develop and pitch a product within one of three categories. The project can be focused on tech or a new idea around policy or market approach. Generative AI is still young, but some travel companies are encouraging workers to experiment as they determine how the tech will be used in the future.

With the planned expansions and future upgrades, it seems certain that AI will continue to redefine how consumers experience travel, and Priceline is positioning itself at the forefront of this revolution. One of the key reasons why Penny stands out in the crowded field of AI-powered chatbots is its ability to personalize recommendations based on user data. Priceline’s vast customer data platform allows Penny to pull from past interactions to provide more relevant suggestions. Whether recommending a beachfront hotel or highlighting nearby restaurants, Penny’s personalized approach aims to make every interaction feel tailored to the individual. “Penny doesn’t just answer questions; she learns from each interaction, making her smarter and more helpful over time,” Keller noted.

The integration of AI into hotel operations offers unprecedented opportunities for efficiency, personalization, and innovation. For online travel agencies such as Booking Holdings and Expedia Group, there is an opportunity to pair conversational AI with each company’s suite of booking tools. Booking Holdings, for instance, last year launched an AI Trip Planner it said combined existing AI recommendation capabilities with conversational AI technology from ChatGPT creator OpenAI. As defined by McKinsey and Co., generative AI algorithms can create new content, such as audio, code, images, etc. Commonly reported uses of generative AI tools are in marketing and sales, product and service development, and service operations. Think ChatGPT — you can submit a list of five social media post ideas to promote your hotel.

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Priceline says Penny can address highly specific questions or complete bookings within the chatbot interface, which is made possible through integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Priceline’s own coding system. AI could help you book that next trip to Hawaii, or cruise in the Mediterranean. That’s the hope for online travel companies such as Booking Holdings (BKNG) and Expedia stock — along with tech giants Alphabet (GOOGL) and Meta (META) — racing to offer AI-powered tools for trip planning. By deciphering patterns and predicting demand, AI enables hotels to optimize staff schedules and efficiently manage resources. This translates to a smoother, more compelling experience for guests. From trip planning to digital concierge to luggage storage on check-out, AI is changing the hospitality industry.

This potentially means that hotel owners can save significant money, eliminate human error and deliver superior service. Since 2017, Radisson Hotel Group has worked with ReviewPro as one of its key technology partners to support its guest-centric strategy. In 2019, the two companies began working together on an AI solution specialized for hospitality, and by the end of March 2020, more than 80% of Radisson Hotel Group’s incoming requests were successfully managed by the chatbot. Radisson Hotel Group selects ReviewPro’s Guest Experience Automation™ solution to improve the digital guest experience. With AR technology, the text is overlayed with the translation, enabling travelers to read signs, menus and more.

And I certainly can tell you that — I’ll give you a lot of examples in Europe, where, unfortunately, this goes back to politics, where the protection of certain vested interests are much worse in Europe than they are in the US. So, it depends on which industry, which thing you want to talk about. But you and I, we’re on the same page, though, that we want to create an environment, an economic system, that provides the best value to the society, and one of the ways to do that is to make sure there is fair competition. Look, it all comes down to the individual cases, and what we don’t want to do is enable monopolies to continue to entrench their monopoly power. And very, very, very few companies ever become of a type that can become an IPO. The one other thing, though — what would be really bad for us — is if you price below the price you give to us.

“At the pace of which we’re moving, I think you’re going to have to make a decision sooner rather than later, and I think it’s first-mover advantage right now because everyone will be forced into it,” Jordaan said. Cathay is also developing a tech training program with AWS, with plans to train 1,000 employees, including senior managers, in the next three years. France-based Accor says it encompasses more than 40 hotel brands totaling 5,500 properties in 110 countries. AI is especially valuable for complex tasks like reconciling revenue from multiple disparate sources. Work that would take several days for humans can be completed by AI in a matter of minutes, with any discrepancies highlighted so they can be addressed. RPA can take over repetitive tasks, undertaking them more rapidly and with fewer errors.

My biggest decision is really making sure that I’m hiring the right people, the best people, and even there, I’m using other people to help me make that decision. A. The overall cost to develop an AI-powered software in the hospitality sector can vary from $50,000 to $300,000 or more. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Partnering with a dedicated development team can help you get exact time and cost estimates based on your custom preferences.

This will help the hotels in optimizing everything from energy use to staff allocation. This can lead to significant cost savings and a smoother operation that consistently meets guests’ needs. Hilton has introduced “Connie,” a Watson-enabled ChatGPT App AI robot, across its concierge desks to provide an innovative guest service experience. Using advanced natural language processing, Connie offers quick and accurate information about local attractions, hotel services, and amenities.

Unlike typical chatbots that rely solely on text-based interactions, Penny can now respond to spoken commands. “Voice just launched yesterday in a limited capacity,” said Keller, but in the coming weeks, it will offer full voice integration. Travelers can ask Penny for recommendations, such as “Find me a beachfront hotel,” and the chatbot will provide suggestions in real time.

In the hospitality industry, AI agents can be utilized in several areas. Marketing teams can use AI agents to analyze customer data and create targeted campaigns based on guest preferences and behavior. Sales teams can employ AI agents to respond to customer inquiries and make personalized recommendations for accommodations and other services. Revenue management teams can benefit from AI agents that analyze pricing and demand data in real time, adjusting room rates to maximize revenue. Operations teams can leverage AI agents to schedule housekeeping and maintenance services, optimizing efficiency and guest satisfaction. Artificial intelligence in hospitality refers to the use of machine learning, data analytics, and other smart technologies to enhance guests’ experiences and improve hotels’ operational efficiency.

Improvements in revenue forecasting accuracy alone are significant for hotel revenue management, but there are additional AI use cases that can improve customer relationships. We just revised our menus and wine lists while utilizing AI, and while AI provides insights and depth, it still takes a human to know what is best in a market. It can speed up many processes, support innovation, etc., but there needs to be human knowledge present to question, validate and understand it. First, you have to get from your home to the airport, then the airplane takes you to the place, then you have to get from the airport to your accommodations, then when you get to the accommodations, maybe you have dinner reservations…

Like when we came out of the pandemic, there was that revenge travel surge, which is fantastic. But the truth is, I know that that couldn’t possibly last because in the end, we’re going to end up in a long-term run where travel goes slightly better than GDP. Now, on top of that, our job is to get a bigger share of that, and we have benefits of scale and capabilities that enable us to do that.

The conversations also seem to save properly, unlike on ChatGPT Plus. Visit us online for more about our hotels and reservations and IHG One Rewards. To download the IHG One Rewards app, visit the Apple App or Google Play stores. The hotel company also pointed to Google Cloud’s cybersecurity, data governance and privacy approaches — as well as its ethical stance on AI — as key advantages of the partnership. Our look at the most important tourism stories, including destination management, marketing, and development. TUI Group is one of the first companies to test how it can use a generative AI chatbot to help consumers search through its own portfolio of products.

Booking.com manages 150 petabytes of data, Francis said, and began working with AWS in 2021 as a way to improve data limitations and embrace newer technologies. The booking platform connects to 28 million lodging accommodations, flights to 54 countries, 52,000 rental car locations, and thousands of ticketed ai hotel chatbot attractions. For its Cathay Cargo subsidiary, the company is developing a revenue management system meant to help the sales team adjust prices based on demand and availability. The company plans to establish the Cathay Machine Learning Innovation Hub to develop technologies to enhance certain operations.

From where he sits, the hotels don’t necessarily want to operate customer service in a hundred languages or take dozens of different payment methods, and that’s the service Booking is offering. AI-driven dynamic pricing tools analyze vast amounts of data, including occupancy rates, market demand, competitor pricing, and even weather forecasts, to adjust room prices in real-time. This helps in maximizing revenue while also ensuring pricing competitiveness in the market. By dynamically pricing rooms, hotels can optimize their revenue management strategies, attract more bookings, and adjust quickly to changing market conditions. AI-based concierge apps or software have the power to transform guest service by providing instant, accurate information and personalized recommendations.

The question is, how will we come up with what the fair way is so that we can best decide on how we handle all the different stakeholders in travel? Because it’s not just the suppliers, it’s not just the travelers, and not just people like us, who are helping to arrange it all; it’s the people who live in these neighborhoods. So, we have a lot of things to think about, as travel continues to increase in popularity, which it will. We’ll have to think about those consequences and, hopefully, think long enough ahead that we can come up with the smart ways to handle it in a fair way.

And I imagine, boy, the rate of advancement is going so rapidly, maybe it’ll be sooner than I think. For example, if you have a flight that is delayed, being able to have an AI agent go through all the permutations, what the right things are, and all the other parts of the trip, because a trip is a chain of many different things. Marriott International leverages “Marriott’s Dynamic Pricing Engine,” an AI-driven system that dynamically adjusts room rates to optimize revenue. This system analyzes real-time data on market demand, local events, and other critical factors, allowing Marriott to offer competitive pricing while maximizing occupancy. The technology ensures that pricing strategies are responsive to changing market conditions, providing a strategic advantage in a highly competitive industry.

• If you live in the US, you may know, I hope you know Booking.com, but you may know Kayak better, or you may know OpenTable, or you may know Priceline.
• Crocombe believes hotel companies that use generative AI will outperform the big online travel agencies because hotels will be able to provide information, like check-out times, that third-party companies likely will not have access to.
• Similarly, Expedia Group’s (EXPE) newly unveiled Romie promises to build travel schedules and even offer tips within text group chats with friends.

In response, traditional hotels have stayed competitive by diversifying their branded product portfolios, embracing technology, enriching their amenities and intensifying their commitment to quality service. Likewise, the ascent of travel influencers on social media exposed uncharted destinations and created an additional avenue to engage with lifestyle-oriented consumers. AI can even take it a step further to help tailor itineraries based on personal preferences and time limits. From there, users can continue giving directions to the AI for further hyper-personalization.

That’s close to a 2 percentage point drop from its forecast in February. O’Neill notes that U.S. urban and airport hotels are set to overperform while those in resort locations will likely underperform relative to their post-pandemic boom. The future of hospitality is here, and it’s more human – and more revolutionary – than we ever imagined. The integration of AI in the hotel industry is not without its challenges. Addressing these concerns head-on is crucial for successful implementation. As AI takes on more routine tasks, the human element in hospitality becomes even more critical.

This move is part of a broader strategy to integrate AI across the company, aiming to simplify the booking process and offer direct, reliable information. TUI Group’s approach contrasts with online travel agencies by focusing on its own stock of products, aiming to enhance customer experience and internal productivity through AI innovations. The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the hospitality sector is reshaping how hotels operate, enhancing guest experiences, improving operational efficiencies, and even bolstering their sustainability efforts. From smart room technology to AI-powered concierge services, the industry is witnessing a transformative shift.