Amazon announces new capabilities for Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality and Viator collaboration at HITEC 2024
At the 2024 Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC), Amazon announced a new set of Echo Show visual capabilities for Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality. We also announced a new strategic collaboration with Viator, the world's largest travel experiences marketplace with over 300,000 global tours and activities.
Many hotel operators currently provide custom Alexa-powered voice experiences in every guest room — including Reverb Atlanta, Circa Resort & Casino, the Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu in Quebec, The NH Collection in Spain, BWH Group Italy (Best Western) properties, Sofitel properties in France, Sapporo Stream in Japan, and The Wynn in Las Vegas, as well as select U.S. Walt Disney World Resorts. These properties use Alexa to engage their guests, empower their staff, and generate revenue — all through the intuitive use of voice and touch.
These additions to the Alexa Smart Properties portfolio deliver robust capabilities for engaging guests during their stays — deploying targeted communications and marketing, and establishing real-time feedback loops.
When hotels provide Alexa’s Echo Show devices in guest rooms, these new visual capabilities give them more control over how they connect and engage with their guests. Through the intuitive nature of voice-enabled Alexa interactions and the ease of touch, Amazon’s Echo Show devices allow guests better connections with the hotel and surroundings. These visual capabilities deliver three key features:
- Persistent Visual Alerts adds a new option for prioritized guest communications. These alerts deliver prioritized communications through a full-screen visual that appears on top of the current content on screen. Every alert has a visible dismiss button, and remains on screen until the guest dismisses it by voice or touch, or at a pre-set time. Critical hotel information (e.g. window washing during daytime hours) or time-sensitive offers (e.g. 30% off a same-day spa appointment) will have more timely visibility to guests than verbal staff reminders or printed materials that are often delivered out of context. In addition to prioritized communications, hotels can deliver mid-stay guest surveys as alerts to create real-time guest feedback loops. Instead of discovering a negative guest experience in a post-stay survey or a public review, hotels can now address concerns while they can still impact guest satisfaction.
- Full Rotating Card Panel (RCP) Composition gives hotel operators complete, customizable access to the composition of the rotating cards on the Echo Show devices in guest rooms. They can highlight property information such as restaurants and other amenities, provide recommendations on local attractions, weather information, or other content options with whatever content mix they choose.
- A Branded Shortcut (coming soon) will provide an on-screen touch-enabled shortcut on Echo Show devices that’s always visible over any screen content. Guests can more easily return to the property’s menu of custom Alexa skills — adding efficiency so they can focus on the reason for their travel. The hotel’s brand will be used in the shortcut to further build affinity with the hotel.
For properties that integrate Alexa with their property management system, these richer visual capabilities let hotels deliver persistent visual alerts to specific guests and groups of guests. For instance, when a group of people are visiting for a wedding, an alert can be sent to just the rooms with those guests to remind them about a rehearsal dinner that evening.
Alexa’s new collaboration with Viator provides a powerful way for hotels to capitalize on these new visual capabilities and generate additional revenue. With the Viator skill on Alexa, guests at participating properties will see popular local tours, activities, and excursions displayed on the Echo Show device located in their hotel room. These tours will be in rotation with other cards visible on the Echo Shows, and guests can also access them by asking Alexa — such as “Alexa, what sightseeing can I do in the area?” Guests can easily explore these experiences with voice and touch to help them choose what activity to book. A QR code on the screen takes them to an easy booking experience and they’ll be out enjoying the local area in no time. Hotels benefit, too — every tour booked by a guest using the on-screen QR code generates revenue share back to the hotel.
“Experiences are what make travel memorable. And while some like to book before their trips, many travelers prefer to leave room for spontaneity,” said Sarah Dines, chief commercial officer at Viator. “We’re thrilled to team up with Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality to bring Viator’s vast collection of travel experiences into guest rooms at hotels, resorts, and casinos around the country. This is a new way to plan and book experience – it enables more travelers to live in the moment, while broadening our operators' exposure to new and larger audiences.”
“This collaboration is helping our guests easily discover new ways to enjoy the Las Vegas area from the comfort of their room,” said Greg Stevens, Partner and Co-owner, Circa Resort & Casino. “With the Viator experience on Alexa, guests can rest easy knowing they have access to the best travel experiences the area has to offer, and focus more on enjoying every minute of their trip."
The Viator experience on Alexa is a pre-built Alexa skill that new and existing Alexa-enabled hotels can easily add to their Echo Show devices in guest rooms at no additional charge. This Viator experience on Alexa is available at launch partner Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, is currently available in the U.S. and will be made available internationally over time.
For more information about Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality, visit our website or contact us.
3 questions with Labinot Bytyqi, CEO and Founder of virtual healthcare delivery platform hellocare.ai
Learn more about Alexa Smart Properties
