ALICE, the hospitality industry’s leading concierge and hotel operations technology, is newly-integrated with transportation automation platform Chauffeur Express. The integration, built via ALICE’s Open API, is making it considerably easier for concierges to book guest transportation – and make transportation booking a better experience for guests – at Firmdale Hotels‘ eight London properties.
“Today, when we talk about hotel operations, everything is about being efficient, in control, and reliable, while offering a great experience to guests,” says Chauffeur Express CEO Alex Dicu. It’s for this reason “the integration between ALICE and Chauffeur Express makes perfect sense for concierges.”
Prior to integrating ALICE and Chauffeur Express, Firmdale concierges were already using both systems to improve guest service. Concierges were using ALICE to track guest requests and make guest reservations, create guest itineraries and letter confirmations, and improve concierge team organization and communication. “ALICE is an essential tool in our day-to-day operation as it makes communicating very efficient between our team. Without the help of ALICE, we would not be able to provide the kind of service we provide,” notes Oliver Koenicke, Head Concierge at Firmdale flagship Ham Yard Hotel.
Alongside ALICE, Firmdale concierges were also using Chauffeur Express to optimize transportation operations across the group’s portfolio of London hotels. Chauffeur Express helps hotels expertly manage transportation requests by instantly assigning rides first to hotel-owned resources before assigning them to hotels’ preferred transportation providers – automating the booking process for concierges via an easy-to-use web interface.
By integrating ALICE and Chauffeur Express, concierges can now book guest transportation all in one interface and have confirmations and real-time status updates automatically communicated to guests via email and text. Explains Chauffeur Express’s Dicu: the integration “automates and syncs transportation tasks and other information between both platforms, from the guest info in the hotel PMS to ALICE to Chauffeur Express – every transportation booking and change updates in real time, without the concierges being involved. This is very important at the concierge level, as this integration reduces the time to process these types of tasks and also eliminates all possible errors, as booking details are validated in Chauffeur Express and passed over to ALICE in real time.”
Integrating two systems concierges rely on heavily in their day-to-day was a no-brainer for the ALICE and Chauffeur Express teams, who used ALICE’s API to facilitate the integration.
“We are in a moment when hotels are actively looking for tools to better help them operate their business,” says Dicu. “In a world of real-time everything, the guests expect the real-time feeling in everything they do – from the moment they book a room, to how they can access additional services, to the in-room experience and even after, when they write a review. And I think the key to make all those tools appealing for hotels is to offer them ‘plug-in solutions’ that integrate different vendors seamlessly without requiring hotel employees to change any of their habits.”
Concurs Koenicke, the integration “makes our lives much easier, as before we had to log the car services individually which was very time consuming. That’s now all automatically transferred in a one-to-one format. We as the team are delighted and appreciate the support from both ALICE and Chauffeur Express to make that happen.”
