Cognitive technology has made inroads in the hospitality industry. So much so that the idea of having a digital concierge is not as impersonal and detached as it sounds. Evidence of this is apparent in the fact that more than 56% of customers trust computers more than humans. We have cherry-picked some examples that speak to the acceptance and usage of artificial intelligence in mobile and wearable devices, to ensure that guests have a convenient 21st century world-class holiday experience.
Butlr, founded by Garrett Camp , is a digital concierge app created with the help of experienced hoteliers. Every step of its developments was carefully considered to ensure that guests have an efficient and exceptional vacation or business trip. It provides guests access to all the services within the hotel as well as access to surrounding restaurants and tourist attractions. It also has a built in profile function that allows guests to keep track of their bills. All guests need to do is download the app when they get to the hotel after which the login details are then sent to them. It’s that easy. Another similar app is Suiteness , a digital concierge service that allows members to make special requests not only for hotel suites, but also for meetings and events.
ALICE – staff, concierge and guest app
ALICE, is a digital operations platform that integrates all the operations and services that a hotel have in one place; ensuring that customers have a seamless and stress-free experience on their trip. It was built to offer a solution to the problems that the hospitality industry sometimes faces; by balancing and merging hospitality and technology. The concierge section of the app includes a database of local vendors, a custom confirmation letter from the hotel, maps, and itineraries. The name ALICE is an acronym that stands for “A Life-Improving Customer Experience” – guests are able discover and communicate with their hotels for any service, at any time, from the palm of their hand.
Gustaffo – the supreme digital concierge
Gustaffo is a digital concierge service created by a Vienna based start-up, which goes by the same name. This digital concierge app gives 24 hour concierge services to guests in over 30 hotels around the world. It does everything a human concierge would do and more – in the guest’s native language. It tracks and engages the guests from arrival and check-in until they leave the hotel and give feedback about their stay; thus ensuring that first time guests become regular guests. The app allows the guest to also communicate with intelligent assistants via Amazon Echo and Facebook Messenger
There are more companies looking at bringing cognitive technology within close proximity to their guests, Panasonic and IBM’s talking mirror is an example of this.
By: Tumelo Mojapelo
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Abou
t Tumelo
Tumelo Mojapelo is a silent force behind the scenes at Flux Trends, and steers the direction of the content created by the Flux Trends Team. Her interest in trends analysis emanates from her desire to want to give people opportunities to do, think and act better – to make better decisions because they understand the connections between seemingly unrelated factors and phenomena.
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Image credits: Cargo Collective AND Butlr AND Tech Crunch AND Gustaffo
Video credits: ALICE AND Panasonic Newsroom
