chatbots
Unlocking AI in Hospitality SMEs: Q&A With Ian Millar
Beatrice Venturini | April 11, 2024
By Beatrice Venturini Amidst the current discussions about AI's transformative potential, there's a common industry misconception that it primarily benefits large-scale hotels and enterprises, leaving smaller and medium-sized firms behind in the dark ages. To shed light on the nuanced reality, we sat down with EHL’s Ian Millar, Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Technology, to discuss how AI is not just a tool for hospitality giants but can also be a game-changer for SME hotels and firms with an innovative mindset. How is the hospitality industry gearing up to AI? PwC are describing the advent of AI as the “$15.7 trillion game changerâ...
Transforming Hotels With Artificial Intelligence
Robert Rauch | April 1, 2024
Operators Who Ignore New Tech Will Be at a Severe Competitive Disadvantage By Bob Rauch Scheduling and training processes are becoming streamlined; revenue management has improved optimizations, and SEO and marketing strategies rely on AI to enhance online visibility. Chatbots are used for customer service and exist with many hotel providers today. Practical Uses of AI in Hospitality 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. This is true with all use cases for AI. It can speed up many processes, support innovation, etc....
HSMAI Perspective: Generative AI in Hospitality
Robert Gilbert, CHME, CHA President & CEO HSMAI | March 30, 2023
By Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, President and CEO, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI)   Discussion of artificial intelligence (AI) seems ubiquitous these days. Many of our Advisory Boards and Rising Leader Councils have held spirited discussions on the topic in the last few months. We’re all familiar with existing AI tools such as virtual assistants, chatbots and automated booking processes. But, over the last 6 months, generative AI has rapidly evolved and entered our collective consciousness. I heard a quote recently that right now generative AI results are about 10% IN-accurate, but that perce...
Hotel Live Chat Instant Gratification Wins Every Time
Lodging Interactive | June 20, 2018
PARSIPPANY, NJ – June 20, 2018 - There's a lot of debate about the best way to handle the huge influx of guest messages happening through private message and live chat platforms. Should we be using more automation? More resources in house? More outsourcing? There are a number of different services and solutions out there-- not all of which are created equal-- but there's one thing that everyone agrees on: Answering customer messages quickly and thoroughly is essential. And by fast, we mean lightning fast. Chief of Marketing of Booking.com Pepijn Rijvers put it perfectly when he recently stated that a slow response or no response t...
How Artificial Intelligence In Hospitality Can Impact Operational Dynamics Positively?
Mitul Makadia, Founder, Maruti Techlabs | April 30, 2018
by Mitul Makadia Over the last couple years, multiple changes within the technology space (most notably – artificial intelligence in hotels and hospitality) have brought forward a paradigm shift and disrupted a myriad of industries, leaving some players behind while simultaneously adding more value for the end users. The adoption of new emerging technologies has gone on to become quite the trend after receiving inspiration from successful use cases. In case of hotels, the real boost of artificial intelligence in hospitality sprung from the fact that it has the power to impact and transform the industry completely. Given the rising...
Travel Brands Falling Short in Chatbot Deployment
EyeForTravel | July 17, 2017
Chatbots are a potential route to billions of consumers but travel brands are failing to fully take advantage of their possibilities according to the new Are Bots Worth the Bother? Report for EyeforTravel and Travelaer. The report looked into how far travel brands have made use of Facebook Messenger to deliver customer service and booking to customer. It finds that while 93% of these airlines have a Facebook page, and 81% a Messenger link, only 38% of the 206 contacted responded to researchers' messages, with a third of those contacted taking at least a week to reply. From the just over a third of airlines that responded through Facebo...
HREC Expands in the Northeast
JLL Real Views | September 8, 2016
O'Connell Hospitality Group, LLC Merges with HREC (Boston, MA; Denver, CO) - O'Connell Hospitality Group (www.oconnellhospitality.com) is excited to announce that they are strategically merging their premier Northeast hotel brokerage practice with HREC's national hotel platform (www.hrec.com) effective September 1, 2016. Going forward, Jim O'Connell will be Principal at HREC Investment Advisors and will be HREC's practice leader in the new Boston office. Post-merger: O'Connell Hospitality, already a national recognized brokerage powerhouse in New England, will further enhance its client centric practice by joinin...
Chatbots and the Guest Experience: How are Hotels Using Messenger Apps?
June 23, 2016
By Kevin O'Rourke, executive vice president of global sales, SiteMinder Let's face facts. We love to chat. And, believe it or not, there is little difference between men and women when it comes to the number of words we speak a day – 16,000 on average, according to a University of Arizona study a few years back. Sadly, technology is often blamed for stifling human interaction and, in particular, the art of meaningful conversation. So it's no surprise, then, that some of the technology industry's best-loved platforms have historically centered around chatting. At its peak, MSN Messenger had 330 million users – three times gre...
