As hotels and resorts offer evermore variety, chatbots are playing a key part in keeping customers happy and informed, but as visitors expect more, the bots need to up their game.
With impressive or crazy new resorts opening up around the world like China’s Deep Pit Hotel near Shanghai and robot-staffed hotels in Japan, the holiday or travel experience is evolving. From more automated hotels in the west to larger destination hotels focusing in minute detail on the customer and their needs, chatbots are helping take the load.
Chatbots already provide a digital concierge service, updates on the latest events in and round the hotel or resort, and can help with wider travel. Bots like Rose and BeBot lead the way, showing what’s possible and how to keep the bot on top when it comes to a front-of-house experience.
Revenue and Positive Experiences From Hotel Bots
For any hotel, the chabot can help provide better information about what customers want, and help with check-in, front desk and room service chores. As guest numbers, revenue and good reviews are all tied to customer experience, it is up to the hotel and any point of interaction to offer a great experience.
Chatbots are ideal as the quest will have access to them on their smartphone throughout their journey. This means they can be used to guide visitors to the hotel, help them check in and provide extra services. Before people arrive, hotel bots can help customers find the best rates, and make their stay as interruption free as possible.
The hotel can also find out data on customers throughout their stay. They can check in with guests from time to time, to find out if everything is in order. By not leaving it until the end-of-stay comments to find out something small-but-annoying, that the visitor didn’t want to hassle the front desk with, a problem can be addressed to improve their stay and help demonstrate the value of the bot to both business and user.
Chatbots are also on hand and can integrate with hotel systems to extend stays, order a taxi or massage service, augmented the experience and saving the front desk’s time for more involved interactions.
Three key benefits of a bot to the hotel and guest
The ability to give quick answers, avoiding the new to queue or wait on the phone. Saving time, especially for busy working travellers is a key benefit, and most of these guests are used to bots and automated services.
Help the hotel understand guest’s needs, both during the stay and by crunching the numbers to spot growing trends over seasons, and to find out what people expect from their bot, allowing new features to be added to the bot and increasing the hotel’s range of offerings, extra services, and provide access to facilities, all faster then previous methods. From booking a spa session to a business lunch, or tickets to a show, bots can be revenue generators as well as helpful.
Finally, at the end of a stay, the chatbot can also help with social sharing and reviews, reminding guests to share a memory or summary of their stay and driving them to review sites like TripAdvisor and others. Helping boost the hotel’s image and ratings are vital in the digital age, and the chatbot can link to multiple services.
Bot services providers like SnatchBot offer multilingual to help widen their accessibility, they offer voice services for people who like to chat and use cloud analytics can help the hotel stay on top of customer needs and demands.
Via Facebook Messenger, Skype and other apps, they provide instant contact points and no waiting for an agent to be available. All of this as a 24/7 service makes the bot a part of a guest or traveller’s digital toolkit along with their travel apps and social media for staying in touch on a trip.
Hotels without bots will find themselves with longer queues at the desk, frustrated customers and less insight into the activities of their guests. And those with bots working today are already getting ahead of the game in attracting the next generation of guests and making their current visitors happier.
