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Best Practices and up to the minute news on Customer Experience Management and Service Excellence
Best Practices and up to the minute news on Customer Experience Management and Service Excellence
It seems you can’t go anywhere without hearing about the possibilities (and fears) associated with Artificial Intelligence.
ChatGPT – the most talked about language processing development in AI – has made waves as a chatbot serving up content for whatever subject one can imagine. Developer OpenAI continues to add application plugins, creating extra ways to enhance the user experience.
A new AI-powered app has arrived, and it could change the game for hotels.
Up-and-coming platform PolyAPI enables hotels to generate plugins, integrate APIs – or application programming interfaces – to work intelligently with other apps, and all around benefit from AI’s advanced streamlining capabilities.
In other words, PolyAPI is set to take the hospitality world by storm.
Right around the company’s commercial release, founder and CEO Darko Vukovic, along with COO Jake Dreyfuss, share their insights with GEM Journal Today on the future of hospitality.
It’s imperative that hotels foster communication between applications and across user interfaces. PolyAPI elevates this exchange by enabling a hotel’s plugin to work with its existing applications, connecting guests through various avenues.
“With Poly, it’s VERY easy to create integrations to messaging services like WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook Messenger, etc.,” Vukovic says. “So these AI agents can now be exposed via messaging channels as well.”
Dreyfuss adds: “Wherever you want to meet the customer, that’s up to the hotel.”
Because AI is operating from the hotel’s own data, customers only see what hotels want them to. Same goes for employees. Out-of-date information from old applications is easily omitted.
AI also opens up communication through natural language processing.
With PolyAPI, guests and employees can use their own language to ask questions, make requests, or have a full blown conversation. No need for an interpreter.
“Regardless of where the hotel is, or where the guest is from, now they can use their own natural language to have a conversation with your brand,” Dreyfuss says.
AI portals now make booking trips a piece of cake.
A hotel’s plugin can take care of the entire reservation. Eventually, AI portals will learn guests’ booking habits and make suggestions, so one day guests may not need the plugin for tailored results.
Simplifying the reservation process is only the beginning.
Cutting out the middleman could be next. Hotels might become the primary booking source – not only for reservations, but for travel, too.
It’s not uncommon to book travel and hotel at the same time. Hotels lose money when guests use third-party websites. PolyAPI encourages hotels to be that central point, projecting a future where everything is booked through the hotel.
Guests won’t have to juggle multiple reservations through different companies. Everything stays in-house.
It also means extra income in the form of referral fees.
Dreyfuss stresses the importance of leveraging brand loyalty, describing hotels as a potential “booking engine” for airlines, rental cars, and other activities: “It’s a big paradigm shift.”
Guests often have a favorite place to stay, especially frequent travelers like Dreyfuss. Since the majority of time is spent at the hotel, not on a flight or in a rental car, it only makes sense to capitalize on hotel loyalty in the overall booking process.
One of the most exciting things AI can offer is unparalleled customization. Many businesses operate with a limited staff, which usually means sacrificing service.
This is where AI steps in.
High-end service is usually reserved for the glitziest of places. Now, thanks to PolyAPI, budget hotels and mom-and-pop establishments can provide the same. The platform allows hotel staff to access data and respond quickly. The investment is small compared to the return.
Dreyfuss describes how the ordinary act of dropping off fresh towels can be extraordinary: “When I’m delivering those towels, it’s not just a knock on the door and leaving on the ground.”
Staff can use available data to refer to guests by name, offer a perk to rewards club members, and personalize interactions like never before.
Additionally, streamlining tasks leaves time to invest in staff training.
The concern over AI replacing human jobs is not one that PolyAPI shares. Instead, they say the AI revolution is providing a much-needed upgrade. Being aware of a guest’s name, where they’re from, or that they just came in from a 10-hour flight can turn an average stay into a memorable one.
AI learns from habits, responds to queries, and alerts staff of anything from how hungry a guest is to their temperature preferences. Imagine getting ahead of potential complications like never before.
Less time fixing problems means more time creating magic.
AI does not replace the human experience. It enhances it. AI can increase guest satisfaction, improve day-to-day functions, and make employees’ lives easier in the process. Even brand developers won’t have to sift through hundreds of lines of code anymore – it will be as simple as them asking a question to get the answer they’re looking for.
Platforms like PolyAPI set a precedent for a new level of working.
Streamlining isn’t as costly as hotels might think, and there’s no cost to guests other than a ChatGPT subscription (which could change). The organization and efficient use of data is worth the investment.
As Vukovic prepares for his appearance at a major conference featuring programming pioneers, the world continues to embrace AI.
Hospitality is on the cusp of a technological movement. The launch of PolyAPI (now an official partner of Oracle Hospitality – a company providing operating solutions to thousands of properties across the globe) signals that AI integration is only going to grow.
It makes sense to get on board. Hotels that don’t will miss out.
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