IHG Hotels & Resorts Builds a New Travel Planner Powered by Google Cloud AI InterContinental Hotels Group PLC

We work with everybody — everyone you’ve probably ever heard of and probably some you may not have. We may not sign a contract, but we’re always discussing possibilities. Look, again, we meet a lot of advances, but I believe we are still in the very, very early stages of what the possibilities are down the road. And I’ll bet there some of the companies that are going to come, the big winners, haven’t been invented yet. For the listener, we can fall down a long rabbit hole of the CFAA, which we’ll avoid for now, but I promise it’s messy if you want to look into it. There’s other issues here, especially in the comparison to Google.

A thoughtful implementation strategy should include selecting the right technology partners, training staff to work alongside AI tools, and setting clear objectives for what the AI systems need to achieve. As it pursues its digital innovation strategy, Hilton has remained dedicated to creating exceptional online experiences for guests. To meet their ever-evolving and diverse demands, Hilton has been exploring different channels and platforms that can provide guests with a flawless online experience. Hilton began working with major OTA platforms in China to offer additional online customer services in 2017; launched the Chinese Hilton Honors app in 2018; and opened the Hilton corporate flagship store on Fliggy in 2019. The introduction of Xiao Xi now provides an additional online platform to provide exceptional services to guests. In the long term, Keller expects Penny and similar AI-driven platforms to evolve into true personal travel assistants, capable of managing complex, multi-leg journeys with ease.

Guests from the Gulf region and other Arab countries grew by 31 percent and 38 percent respectively. The Middle East and North Africa region is expected to witness a 36 percent increase in international visitors between June and August, according to travel data firm ForwardKeys. The surge in demand is likely to be led by Saudi Arabia, with a 475 percent increase in travelers compared to last year and a 56 percent increase from pre-pandemic levels.

Travel Stocks: AI As The ‘Ultimate Concierge’

The Ritz-Carlton Yachts enhance their luxury guest experiences with an AI system designed to customize the yacht environment. It adjusts various settings such as lighting, climate, and service offerings based on the personal preferences of guests, which the system learns over time. This personalized approach ensures that each guest’s experience is unique and luxurious, reflecting the high standards of the Ritz-Carlton brand. If you are a business that is still curious about how impactful AI is in the hospitality sector, don’t worry; we have got you covered in our next section. Here, we will dive into detailed examples from around the globe, showcasing how leading hospitality businesses are effectively using AI to enhance guest services and streamline their operations. These real-world examples will demonstrate AI’s practical benefits in improving the overall business efficiency from behind the scenes.

The goal is for AI to improve hotel operations and streamline workflows, allowing human staff to attend to other essential tasks. One example is using robots to take extra towels, toothpaste, or food and beverages to guestrooms. One of the wonders of doing an AI agent is that there’ll be no hold time — you’ll go right to the machine. And, by the way, the AI agent is never going to get angry back at the customer. Sometimes customers get really angry, justifiably sometimes, and they may say things that would upset the agent, and the agent may then yell back, if it’s a human.

The reason AI is so important to consider today is not that it will replace humans in our industry, but because of how essential human connection is to succeed. At a time when the rush for technological innovation has people afraid to lose human interaction, things like eye contact, a warm smile, and a cheerful “hello” at check in speaks volumes about the service that is to come. Therefore, it’s critical that the hotel PMS is intuitive enough to enable front desk staff to do these engaging tasks, rather than keeping their heads down and eyes glued to the computer screen. Personal service, trust, and old-fashioned “hospitality” still matter.

This predictive approach ensures that all hotel facilities are maintained in peak condition, preventing downtime and enhancing guest satisfaction. It’s a critical tool for maintaining the luxury and service standards expected at Kempinski properties. To quote an example of a single brand, the business achieved an 85% reduction in billing-cycle processing time by modernizing its loyalty program through AI technologies. This reduced the time required from up to 48 hours to just seven hours. Furthermore, the deployment of AI-enabled systems helped reduce missed or adjusted guest stays by 50% year over year within loyalty-member billing.

Hotels’ Performance, Priceline’s New AI and Klook’s Evolution

Accor said this will allow the assistant to accommodate guests with complicated needs, such as those looking to combine business and leisure into the same trip. The chatbot is meant to help users find rooms based on unique prompts. Beyond recommending rooms, Accor said the tool will also make special offers and make recommendations for other parts of a trip, like ticketed activities, wellness experiences, and food and beverage options. Incorporating Artificial Intelligence in hotels is stipulated to transform room services completely by 2025 through the process of creating personalized experiences that will incorporate individual preferences.

The machine’s never going to yell back, it’s always going to be nice, and it’s never going to come with a bad attitude because it had a fight with its spouse in the morning. It won’t come really tired because it stayed out too late the night before. I tell you, there are a lot of benefits to having an AI agent versus a human.

We’ll be appealing this, so it’s not over until it’s over on that one. One of the other interesting parts of the comparison to Google is where the results come from. Right now, I think a lot of people are reevaluating the deal Google gets, which is to index all the websites and then show the results, and then AI has made it so that Google might read the results for you. There’s just some recalibration about where Google gets its results on, what it’s allowed to scrape, and in particular, what the AI companies are allowed to scrape.

Once the company has identified its needs and goals, the next step is pinpointing the specific use cases for Generative AI. These could encompass anything from personalized marketing campaigns, email blast calendars, and guest sentiment analysis to trends analysis from analytics. By determining the use cases, companies can devise a plan for employing Generative AI to achieve their objectives. The ultimate purpose of an AI agent is to automate repetitive tasks. The benefits of AI agents include faster and more accurate task completion, increased efficiency, and improved customer experiences.

IHG Hotels & Resorts sees a future in helping travelers plan their entire trip, not just where to stay. Navigating challenges in guest communication, Leonardo Hotels leveraged HiJiffy’s innovative solution to streamline operations and foster seamless interactions. Through firsthand testimonials, discover how this partnership enabled Leonardo Hotels to increase service quality and efficiency, setting new benchmarks in guest satisfaction. Industry-specific and extensively researched technical data (partially from exclusive partnerships). Klook — Asia-Pacific’s largest online seller of travel experiences — is expanding into domestic travel and social commerce, among other areas.

While the guidelines presented here aren’t exhaustive, they are instrumental in striving towards excellence. By adopting best practices, stakeholders can ensure that guests embark on memorable journeys, all made possible through ChatGPT App the strategic implementation of technology. Adir Ron, chief marketing officer for Duve, said that some of the Easyway team is joining Duve. That includes one of the Easyway’s co-founders, the chief operations officer.

This ensures that Bard remains a versatile and reliable tool for users across various domains, languages, and creative endeavors. Jack Krawczyk, product lead for Bard, emphasises that user trust remains a top priority. Users have complete control over when and how Bard interacts with their Gmail, Drive, and Docs. The company ensures that personal data is neither used for reinforcement learning nor accessible by human reviewers. This approach aims to preserve user trust and privacy while harnessing the potential of AI.

Instead, the PMS is emerging as the one system, dashboard, and control panel they can rely on to provide necessary incites to drive hotel operations. While one might prefer live agents for business support, chatbots help answer commonly asked questions and address frequent traveler woes. In the near future, AI-powered chatbots will be able to recognize the tone and tenor of a conversation with guests and escalate it to operators when necessary. Hotels must ensure their PMS providers offer the essential features to support seamless switching between automated and manual responses, including the required alerts to inform operators of the context behind guest inquiries. “Our Navigators celebrate the culture, ideas, people and talents of their neighborhoods and provide their personal recommendations on what to see and do in their backyard. RENAI By Renaissance makes this even more accessible and inclusive,” said Schneider, adding that the technology helps “cut through the clutter” of information travelers have access to and personalize the guest experience.

While AI can’t replace the human touch in the hospitality industry, tools powered by AI can handle many of the tasks that are traditionally undertaken by staff. Many back-office tasks can be automated, thereby reducing human error, increasing efficiency and freeing up staff for other important work. Duve said it has acquired Easyway, a hotel tech company that had recently integrated AI into its software for hotels. One of the most frustrating parts of traveling to a new country can be trying to understand another language in real time — especially when navigating a new area. Only 29% of American travelers learn basic phrases in a country’s native language before visiting, according to a survey from Promova. AI-powered technologies can help streamline many areas of travel, such as airport operations and hotel booking.

By giving the tool some background into the target market, it can share feedback on your posts, offering the best time to post, which one of the five would be best for engagement, or coming up with a new idea altogether. A company like Booking needs to operate massive, scalable customer support phone lines or chatbots. You are the target customer for the OpenAIs and the Googles and the Microsofts of the world. And all of their investment and their current market caps are predicated on their products being sold to you in a way that works. So, I think it’s important to note you’re not ready to make that investment in their tech yet because you don’t think it works. But one of the things we’ll have to do is, we’ll have to continue to give more benefit to our customers so they still have a reason to book with us, and now, of course, we can match the price.

As it happens, I know that 1980s law that you’re talking about pretty well — it’s the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It’s the law that says you can’t access the computer system without permission, and if you do… The history of the CFAA is not cut and dry, and certainly, it does not always get applied well. Everybody would like customers to come to them directly and at no cost. Distribution’s a very important part about how you sell stuff, but the desire to sell directly has always been there and always will be there. So, I know there are going to be some soft times, there are going to be some great times.

Another way to say that is, the customer is just one click away from somebody else. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Yes, I’ll ask questions, and I’ll listen to the answer and see how confident that person is speaking, that person really knows what they’re saying, and that it makes sense what they’re saying. We’re having different groups have meetings across brands to ensure that all the companies are learning what’s working in one, what’s working in another.

• For online travel agencies such as Booking Holdings and Expedia Group, there is an opportunity to pair conversational AI with each company’s suite of booking tools.
• The growing wealth gap, the report notes both challenges and opportunities for the experiences sector, potentially necessitating a shift towards catering to the preferences of affluent travellers.
• Approximately 345,000 people work across IHG’s hotels and corporate offices globally.
• Like other companies, TUI Group is using generative AI products like Microsoft Copilot to make internal productivity more efficient.
• It’s the law that says you can’t access the computer system without permission, and if you do…

Well, look, it pays off when you start getting the simple things done, which we’re already doing right away. Because that means that I won’t have to hire as many new customer agents to handle as the volume increases. We won’t have to increase the number of CS agents at the ChatGPT same rate because the simpler cases will be handled by these AI customer agents. And at some point, gradually, gradually, gradually, it’ll get better and better, and we’ll have to need fewer and fewer, and it’ll be something that I think will be better for the customer.

Translation apps — such as Google Translate — can also use augmented reality (AR) to help translate text. When a device’s camera is pointed to a block of text, trained AI can quickly translate the words into the user’s desired language. Booking sites that use AI in travel booking might also see an increase in users. According to a survey from OliverWyman, 55% of leisure travelers would select a certain booking channel because it uses generative AI.

Preferred Hotels & Resorts unveils six Live Like a Legend experiences

​​IHG Hotels & Resorts is planning to release a trip planning tool powered by artificial intelligence from Google. The chatbot integration led to an impressive increase in direct bookings resulting from conversations with the virtual assistant. HiJiffy has significantly boosted the hotels’ direct online bookings. The future of hospitality lies in creating an environment where AI and human talent don’t just coexist, but actively co-evolve. By embracing the Blue Ocean Fair Process, hotels can navigate this paradigm shift, fostering a culture of innovation that permeates every level of the organization.

Drawing on metrics and reports from HiJiffy, matched with valuable insights from Leonardo Hotels, this study delves into the journey of enhancing guest experiences across multiple properties. Users can interact with its AI chatbot Penny by speaking or typing to search for hotels — but not flights or rental cars yet. The first version of Penny Voice went live on Tuesday, and the company said it has plans to unveil updates in the near future.

More than just a novelty, this feature taps into Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology, allowing Penny to provide real-time, data-driven recommendations. Google has enhanced its Bard generative AI chatbot with new extensions that provide real-time travel data for flights and hotels, directly challenging ChatGPT Plus. The latest Bard extensions integrate with various Google products, including Maps, Flights, Hotels, YouTube, and Workspace, offering users a more practical tool for travel planning.

I have no doubt that AI will lead to a complete overhaul of the hotel tech stack and help solving labor shortages in hospitality. The first version of the AI tool will focus on helping users with the “dreaming phase” of travel, according to Josh Weiss, vice president of guest digital products for IHG. The brand takes pride in its considerate and attentive approach to meeting guests’ wishes and needs, focusing on every detail to ai hotel chatbot ensure a truly exceptional stay. Whether it is tourists, business travellers, weekenders, or conference attendees, Leonardo Hotels warmly welcomes guests seeking to make the most of their experience. Klook is also leveraging social media for marketing and sales, with Fah attributing much of its recent growth in China to social media-driven sales. Popular chat and payment apps are increasingly letting influencers sell services.