AI is having a moment. In the hospitality industry, hotel leaders, tourist companies, and travel agents are embracing machine learning, conversational bots, and generative AI tools at scale.
The growing market for artificial intelligence in hospitality (expected to reach a value of $70.32 billion by 2031) is a testament to the potential of this technology. Countless reports and surveys also show hotel leaders are already seeing the benefits of AI.
More than 84% of hotel executives believe AI will help them elevate guest experiences. Plus, AI can help to reduce operational costs for service providers by up to 20%, while boosting productivity among staff members by 30%. Those are huge results at a time when customers are demanding more from hospitality vendors than ever before.
While AI can help hotel companies with a various tasks, from hotel management, to building dynamic pricing strategies, the technology with the biggest potential of all is still the chatbot.
Here’s everything you need to know about the rise of the AI hotel chatbot, the impact these bots can have on guest experiences, and the best practices you should follow in your AI journey.
In every industry, AI has emerged as a gamechanger. It’s boosting productivity and efficiency, reducing operational costs, and giving companies new ways to improve customer experience. In the hospitality industry, companies are experimenting with AI in various forms.
Artificial intelligence in the hospitality industry can help businesses:
Although the use cases for AI in the hospitality industry are extensive, it’s fair to say chatbots are leading the AI revolution.
Chatbot adoption in the hospitality space has been rising constantly for the last few years. Independent hotels increased their use of chatbots by 64% in the last few years, and 88% of guests say they’ve had at least one interaction with an AI hotel chatbot.
But it’s worth noting that today’s AI bots aren’t the same as the ones guests might have used to accelerate booking processes and get answers to questions in the past.
Hotel leaders have moved beyond simple rule-based systems, introduced during the “first wave” of chatbot technology. Those bots could only follow pre-set rules and deliver predetermined answers, similar to an interactive FAQ.
Today’s AI chatbots for hotels are truly intelligent. They take advantage of machine learning, and various forms of artificial intelligence (like conversational and generative AI) to engage in complex interactions with customers. These bots don’t just make it easier to answer guest questions faster.
Bots like Aivanti’s virtual assistant can recognize user intent, handle booking requests in seconds, offer personalized room and service suggestions, and so much more. These chatbots are essentially 24/7 digital concierges, working around the clock to make guest experiences better than ever.
AI chatbots are valuable in any industry. In fact, 58% of B2B companies and 42% of B2C companies use chatbot software for customer service. In the hospitality industry, however, chatbots aren’t just nice to have, they’re essential.
Customer experience is everything in the hospitality sector. It’s the key to turning one-time visitors into repeat guests, preserving your company’s reputation, and increasing revenue. PWC even found that hospitality companies can charge up to 14% more if they offer great customer service.
Now that customer expectations are evolving, an AI hotel chatbot could be the ultimate way for hospitality brands to overcome a range of common challenges, such as:
As of 2023, 23% of travel and hospitality companies were already using AI chatbots. As competition in the sector increases, that number is growing. The simple reason for this is that chatbots deliver a huge range of benefits to hotels and hospitality brands of all sizes.
The most significant benefits include:
Guests at your hotel don’t want to wait around for a staff member to be available whenever they have a question about services, or want to make a request for more pillows. Fortunately, AI chatbots aren’t affected by the same limitations as human staff. They don’t need to eat, sleep, or take breaks.
These bots are available to your guests 24/7. They’re there to deal with late-night room service request, answer questions about lodging options, or suggest local attractions. This all reduces customer support wait times, and ensures customers feel genuinely cared for throughout the course of their stay with you.
71% of customers expect personalized service. If you’re not tailoring every experience, you offer your guests to their specific needs, you’re going to fall behind the competition. Thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning, chatbots can now personalize guest conversations at scale.
They can use your business data, alongside information gathered from previous chat interactions to personalize each response to your customers. Bots can even guide customers towards activities or restaurant reservations that appeal to their personal tastes and hobbies.
Handling international guests can be challenging, especially for hotels without multilingual staff. But if you want your company to grow, you need to accommodate guests from all over the world. Using artificial intelligence for hospitality integrations is a great first step.
AI chatbots remove language barriers, translating content into every customer’s preferred language in an instant. They can even help concierge and support staff, by translating conversations in real-time, so they can better serve diverse customers.
One of the biggest benefits of artificial intelligence for hotels? Greater efficiency. Artificial intelligence in hospitality industry settings makes it easy to automate all kinds of tasks. With chatbots, you can automate the task of dealing with common requests, or completing check-ins, so your teams can focus on other interactions that require a personal touch.
Bots can therefore improve efficiency, while enhancing employee experiences. Not only will they make your business more productive, but they can help you reduce staff turnover rates too.
Today’s customers want simple experiences when they’re interacting with hospitality companies. They don’t want to spend hours trying to contact a team member to make a booking or reservation. Chatbots, help you minimize friction points for your customers.
They can simplify the booking journey, helping customers make decisions, and complete reservation.
On top of all the benefits mentioned above, an AI hotel chatbot can also help to make your company more profitable. First, these tools improve guest experiences, which means customers are more likely to want to travel or stay with your company in the future.
Secondly, by tapping into system data, chatbots can identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities tailored to specific guests. They might suggest room upgrades, dining experiences, or spa packages based on guest profiles. This all leads to increased revenue potential.
All of those benefits might sound excellent on paper – but if you’re planning on implementing AI into your hospitality business, you might want some more concrete examples of what chatbots can do. Here are some hotel chatbot example use cases, taken from real companies.
Rose, the AI chatbot used by the Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas, has become something of a sensation in recent years. Known for its witty and playful tone of voice, Rose gives guests a full-time assistant they can turn to with any questions they might have.
Rose can handle tasks ranging from making restaurant reservations, to processing requests for extra towels and toiletries, all with a minimal wait time. This rapid, personalized level of service has significantly increased guest satisfaction rates for the Cosmopolitan, and helped it to distinguish itself from the competition in Las Vegas.
Choice Hotels International uses a simple hospitality chatbot to handle common processes, such as check-ins, check-outs, bookings, and cancellations. This chatbot doesn’t just speed up these tasks; it also recognizes guest preferences, sending personalized offers or discounts to returning guests.
This AI hotel chatbot doesn’t just reduce the time guests spend waiting to finish common processes (like checking into a room). It significantly reduces the need for front-desk staff, and frees team members up to focus on creating memorable guest experiences.
Hilton Hotels partnered with IBM on the creation of the Connie AI-powered robot for concierge desks. Connie uses IBM Watson’s state-of-the-art NLP capabilities to answer guest questions about restaurants, hotel services, and local attractions.
This not only speeds up responses to guest inquiries, but it also helps hotel staff upsell and cross-sell customers, guide them towards unique experiences, and make their stay more memorable.
Finally, Marriott International uses AI hotel chatbots that integrate with a range of popular platforms like Facebook Messenger and Slack to handle all kinds of quest inquiries. Whether visitors are looking for booking support or travel tips, Marriott’s bots can respond instantly.
This ensures guests get an instant insight into local attractions and hotel features, and have an easy way to resolve any issues that might disrupt their stay.
Clearly, there are plenty of benefits to using artificial intelligence in the hospitality industry – particularly if you’re focusing on AI chatbots. However, before you dive in, you do need to ensure you have the right strategy in place. Here are three best practice tips for success.
Not every chatbot for hotels delivers the same functionality. Some bots give you limited options to customize responses, or lack advanced machine learning capabilities. The key to success is choosing a solution that aligns with your brand’s values, and guest expectations.
Aivanti’s highly customizable AI assistant, for instance, offers hotel and hospitality leaders everything they need to design powerful AI-driven experiences for customers. Our bot can deliver 24/7 personalized service to customers, drawing on historical and real-time data. It can help cross-sell and upsell customers, increasing your revenue, and it can even ask customers follow-up questions, to help ensure they get the best experience.
Plus, with Aivanti’s bot, you’ll gain behind-the-scenes insights into crucial metrics that can help you monitor the performance of your bot over time, and make granular changes to your customer experience strategy.
One-size-fits-all, generic chatbot personalities aren’t going to connect with your customers on emotional level. You need your chatbot to sound like your brand, using the tone of voice and language that resonates best with your guests.
Choose an AI solution like Aivanti, which allows hoteliers and hospitality companies to tailor every interaction to their needs. Whether you’re looking for a warm and welcoming tone, or a luxurious, and sophisticated personality, you can adapt your bot to suit you.
You can even give Aivanti access to your own data, so it can draw on information about your products and services when interacting with customers, allowing for a more consistent brand experience.
Chatbots are not static; they require ongoing refinement to meet evolving guest needs. You need to track data and metrics for insights into how your bots are improving customer satisfaction, engagement, and conversions, so you can optimize your results over time.
Fortunately, Aivanti gives companies access to crucial metrics, reports, and dashboards they can use to further personalize guest experiences, improve cross-selling and upselling tactics, enhance marketing campaigns and more.
The more data you gather with Aivanti’s help, the more you’ll be able to differentiate yourself from the countless other hospitality companies in your space.
The AI hotel chatbot is revolutionizing hospitality. Offering access to instant, personalized service, new strategies for sales and marketing, and ways to enhance operational efficiency, these bots give companies a unique way to set themselves apart from the competition.
If you’re ready to discover the power of AI for hospitality, Aivanti’s all-in-one bot could be the perfect solution. With Aivanti, you can reduce support tickets, boost guest satisfaction, and create memorable experiences with your customers, all without unnecessary complexity.
Contact Aivanti today to learn more about the platform.
