The global travel industry took a major hit during the pandemic, with a 42% drop in tourism revenues in 2020. As the world opens back up, hotels and travel firms are looking for ways to provide excellent customer service on tight budgets.
This is where hospitality chatbots come in.
What Are Hospitality Chatbots and Why Do Hotels Need Them?
Hospitality chatbots are software programs designed to have natural conversations with customers via text or voice. Using artificial intelligence and natural language processing, they can understand questions and requests, then provide relevant information or complete tasks like booking rooms.
For hotels and travel companies, chatbots offer numerous benefits:
- 24/7 availability: Chatbots never sleep, take breaks, or get sick. They can handle customer queries anytime, anywhere.
- Faster response times: Chatbots typically reply within seconds, meeting rising expectations for quick service.
- Multiple languages: Chatbots easily support different languages, critical for travelers worldwide.
- Lower costs: Automating repetitive tasks like reservations cuts staffing expenses.
Simply put, well-designed hospitality chatbots enhance both customer satisfaction and companies‘ bottom lines.
Types of Hotel Chatbots
There are two main types of chatbots used in the hotel and travel industry:
Rule-Based Chatbots
These chatbots rely on predefined rules and scripts to understand queries. They work well for common FAQs but lack more advanced language comprehension skills.
Pros: Simple to build, low cost
Cons: Limited flexibility
AI-Powered Chatbots
Powered by artificial intelligence and natural language processing, AI chatbots understand context and intent behind questions. They can handle more complex conversations and tasks.
Pros: Highly flexible, human-like interactions
Cons: Require more initial development effort
For most hospitality uses, AI chatbots provide more versatility long-term despite higher upfront costs.
AI chatbots like Clara at Marriott Hotels understand traveler‘s needs
Top 5 Capabilities of Hotel Chatbots
Let‘s explore some of the most valuable capabilities of AI-driven hospitality chatbots:
1. Personalized Recommendations
By asking questions and understanding each traveler‘s preferences, needs, budget, and interests, hospitality chatbots can suggest personalized destinations, hotels, room options, sites to see, and activities.
This replicates and improves on the service of human travel agents, boosting satisfaction.
2. Manage Reservations End-to-End
Chatbots can walk users through booking rooms at partner hotels completely via messaging apps. After gathering key parameters like location, dates, budget, room type, number of guests, etc., bots show available options, facilitate selection, take payment details, and complete the reservation.
3. Visa Assistance
For international travelers, chatbots can determine visa requirements for destination countries. They inform users of paperwork needed, help assemble documents, provide appointment booking, and more. This saves travelers headaches and prevents wasted trips due to improper documentation.
4. 24/7 Customer Service
Chatbots rarely sleep or take breaks. By instantly answering common questions at all hours, they take pressure off human staff and prevent guest frustrations. Even when handed to a live agent, the querying process via chat is much faster than phone queues.
5. Follow-Up Notifications
Chatbots can send booking confirmations, payment receipts, personalized special offers, flight/arrival updates, weather reports at destinations, and reminders about reservations or business meetings. Travelers appreciate these helpful alerts.
Real-World Examples
Many major hotel chains and online travel agencies now employ advanced AI-powered chatbots:
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Marriott Hotels – "Clara" makes recommendations, facilitates bookings, and answers traveler questions via Marriott‘s iOS app. It can discuss reservations made through any channel once linked to a Bonvoy account.
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OYO Hotels – This India-based chain uses a WhatsApp chatbot to showcase property photos, room availability, pricing, and amenities. It also lets guests book rooms and make payments 24/7.
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Airbnb – The vacation rental platform‘s chatbot helps users find ideal listings based on location preferences, dates, budget, property type and amenities. It sends notifications if reservations require action.
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Skyscanner – The popular flight booking site‘s chatbot lets users search for flights worldwide based on destination, dates, budget, stops, etc. It compares options across airlines and platforms.
These bots (and many more emerging examples) demonstrate the value AI-driven chatbots offer global hospitality businesses.
Choosing Hotel Chatbot Software
If exploring chatbots for your own hotels or travel company, partnering with an experienced chatbot platform is essential. When comparing options, assess providers across key criteria:
❏ AI capabilities – ensure sufficiently advanced NLP and context handling
❏ Industry expertise – proven success specifically for travel/hospitality
❏ Integration support – APIs, etc. to embed bot on your channels
❏ Multi-language – travelers speak many tongues!
❏ Pricing model – aligns with your budget and growth
❏ Scalability – easy expansion as business needs evolve
For further guidance selecting a top hospitality chatbot vendor, see our detailed report.
The Future Looks Bright for Hotel Chatbots
By delivering 24/7 automated yet personalized service, hospitality chatbots represent the future of guest engagement for hotels, travel brands, and online booking platforms. As the technology and best practices continue advancing rapidly, virtually every player in the sector should be evaluating if and how to deploy conversational AI.
With travel demand set to soar post-pandemic, chatbots allow enhancing customer experiences exponentially without inflating human staffing costs. That‘s a winning value proposition for hospitality businesses targeting profitability and loyalty ahead.
