AI’s Role in Hospitality: Enhancing Guest Experience with Conversational AI
By John Smallwood, President of Travel Outlook
July 2024
As the hospitality industry continues to evolve, Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a powerful tool that allows hoteliers to unlock new levels of efficiency. Not all AI is created equal, and what works for one industry may not work for another.
In our previous post, we explored the fundamental questions hoteliers should ask when considering AI solutions, focusing on how AI can provide guests with a warm, engaging, and personalized experience.
Continue reading below as we dive into the conversational capabilities of Annette, The Virtual Hotel Agent™ and how it can meet and exceed guest expectations.
Understanding Guest Requests with Conversational AI
One of the standout features of advanced conversational AI like Annette is its ability to understand guest requests accurately, even when they narrate or speak in long-winded sentences. Guests often digress, interrupt, or change topics during conversations. Traditional automated systems struggle with such interactions, frequently requiring guests to repeat themselves. Annette, however, excels in these scenarios.
Powered by PolyAI’s natural language understanding software, Annette can handle multi-turn queries seamlessly, ensuring a smooth and intuitive guest interaction. Annette’s conversational AI is designed to mimic human conversation and is programmed from billions of casual human interactions, including social media, chat forums, and movie dialogues.
Unlike other AI models, Annette can understand various inflections and nuances in speech. This ability makes Annette a versatile tool that can adapt to different speaking styles, ensuring guests feel heard and understood no matter how they communicate their needs.
Learning and Adapting to Hotel-Specific Terms
Another significant advantage of Annette is its ability to learn and adapt to a specific property’s specific terminology and phrases. This feature ensures that Annette can understand and respond accurately to queries about the hotel’s services and amenities, even local information. Whether a guest asks about the availability of a particular room type, the schedule of hotel activities, or the best local dining options, Annette will respond with precise and relevant information.
This learning capability expands to understanding colloquial terms and regional phrases, making Annette particularly effective in diverse linguistic environments. For example, guests at a hotel in Hawaii may use local terms or phrases when inquiring about services. Annette’s ability to comprehend and respond to these terms ensures every caller feels heard.
Enhancing Multilingual Capabilities
In an increasingly global market, communicating in multiple languages is crucial for hotels. Annette’s multilingual support is a game-changer in this regard. Unlike basic translation tools, Annette understands and speaks multiple languages fluently. This capability ensures that language barriers do not hinder the guest’s experience.
Annette’s language capabilities broaden to handling different dialects and accents. For instance, a guest from France and a guest from Quebec may both speak French but with different accents and regional variations. Annette can navigate these differences seamlessly, providing consistent, high-quality interactions for all guests.
Personalizing Guest Interactions
Personalization remains a cornerstone of exceptional guest service. Annette allows hotels to use their own voice talent. This level of customization ensures that guests are greeted with a voice that feels familiar and comforting, enhancing the overall experience.
Advanced Call Handling and Follow-Up
Annette’s functionality extends beyond basic interactions. It can answer hundreds of frequently asked questions (FAQs) specific to a hotel, route calls to the appropriate internal departments, and always offer the option to transfer to a live agent if needed. This flexibility ensures that guests receive the assistance they need promptly and efficiently.
Additionally, Annette can send follow-up texts to guests, providing additional information or confirming details discussed during the call. This proactive approach to guest service helps maintain high satisfaction levels and fosters loyalty.
As AI continues to transform the hospitality industry, tools like Annette, The Virtual Hotel Agent™ stand out by offering a blend of advanced technology and human-like interaction. Annette’s ability to understand complex guest requests, learn hotel-specific terms, support multiple languages, and personalize interactions makes it an invaluable asset for hoteliers.
Travel Outlook’s Annette represents the next generation of conversational AI designed specifically for the hospitality industry. By integrating Annette into daily operations, hotels can address staffing challenges, enhance customer service, and create memorable guest experiences that stand out in a competitive market.
For more information on how conversational AI can transform your hotel’s operations and how Annette can become an invaluable asset to your team, visit Travel Outlook’s Annette.
About John Smallwood, President of Travel Outlook
A veteran in the hospitality industry, John has owned, developed, and managed hotels for many years. After earning a BBA from New Mexico State University, he started his career with AT&T, gaining invaluable insight and experience in the early years of the data revolution. His experience in technology and hospitality merged in his development of Travel Outlook, the world-class hospitality contact center. More recently, he has branched out with the creation of ExpressRez, the premier contact center for the Bed and Breakfast industry, and with the creation of Annette (formerly “Bella” by Travel Outlook), the first AI-powered voice bot for the hotel industry.
