A hotel chatbot is a solution designed to simulate conversations between guests or potential guests with hotel team members. Chatbots use artificial intelligence and NLP (natural language processing) technologies to understand, process and respond to questions or requests.
Artificial Intelligence, or AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think, learn and problem-solve like humans. Essentially AI allows machines to do things that we would usually assume human intelligence is required to do.
Natural Language Processing, or NLP is a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling machines to understand, interpret and generate human language- essentially it enables computers to speak with humans in a way that humans naturally write or speak.
In the case of Altitude’s Chatbot, hoteliers configure the bot by uploading their compendium or hotel documents to the chatbot, then the bot will process the documents and formulate responses to FAQ’s and guest requests.
If a guest asks about information on a topic that is outside of the chatbot’s knowledge, the bot will hand over to ChatGPT for a response and add the question to its ‘unanswered questions’ list, used to further train the Chatbot. You can review responses, add to the knowledge list. Alternatively, the Chatbot can hand over to one of your team members to use Live Chat with your guests.
Where did it come from?
The concept of a chatbot has been around for decades, but has seen significant improvements over the last few years as technologies like AI and NLP develop. The launch of ChatGPT has opened up a world of possibilities for businesses to harness AI for anything from social media engagement through to experiences, support and more.
Where does a Chatbot fit?
In the last few years, operators have begun to take a serious look at automation in their hotels, with a quick win being communications automation with chatbots. A chatbot can form part of your omni-channel communications strategy and you'll see the benefits pretty quickly.
Common uses for a chatbot in hotels include:
General Information and FAQs
Guests often have a lot of questions or requests about their upcoming stay and can use the chatbot to get quick answers to their queries. Chatbots can use pre-loaded information from the hotel compendium and other documents to provide relevant and useful information. This includes processing requests like late check outs, restaurant bookings and more.
Personalised Recommendations
Chatbots can offer complementary and personalised recommendations to guests based on guest preferences.
Feedback and Support
Chatbots can collect important feedback from guests about their stay or services and offer these insights to hoteliers looking to improve their guest experience and offerings.
Within Altitude, the Chatbot can place requests on behalf of your guests, which then flows into Altitude’s operations task manager, allocating the task to the relevant team member and department for completion.
Why use a Chatbot?
If there aren’t enough hours in the day, if you’re tired of typing ‘check in is at 3pm’, or if you’re struggling to upsell the perfect red wine to go with a guest’s steak for room service, a chatbot is the answer for you.
...and why Altitude's Chatbot?
With our latest integration with ChatGPT, our chatbot is easier than ever to set up, available 24/7, cost effective and offers instant responses to your guests. The Chatbot acts as your first level support, solving guest problems quickly and shift operational pressure from your team.
While many chatbots on the market focus on specific areas of the guest experience, Altitude’s Chatbot is with the guest throughout their journey, from pre-arrival, through to during stay with our Guest App or In-Room App, and then post departure.
Our chatbot makes things easy with live chat hand-off, automatic response generation and can even place guest requests and generate these into tasks for your team to take care of.
It is up to you as to how you use AI at your property and how it impacts your guest experience. A Chatbot is an excellent answer to automate communications for your guests and your team without removing the human touch or feeling of personalisation. If anything, a chatbot enables personalisation by learning from and using the data it gathers and provides your guests with value each step of the way.
For us, developing leading solutions is our focus, so be sure to see exciting developments around our use of AI and machine learning in the future.
