Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality Launches in the UK

Today we are excited to announce the launch of Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality in the UK. From today, solution providers and UK properties can start integrating Alexa’s world-class AI into valuable end-to-end experiences at scale. Alexa Smart Properties simplifies tasks for guests like playing music, ordering room service, calling the front desk and even checking out.

Mercure Hotels, part of Accor, will introduce the new Alexa experience across select properties in collaboration with Hotel Cloud. You can check out the experience at Mercure Hyde Park Hotel, a 72 room luxury hotel in central London, today! 

Using Alexa in their room, guests can control and adjust compatible in-room devices such as lights, thermostats and blinds, or play music from popular services. Many exciting Alexa Smart Properties features — such as music and smart home controls — are available out-of-the-box, though hospitality providers may also choose to develop custom skills to further personalise their guests experience. For example, guests can ask Alexa for information like the Wi-Fi password or fitness centre location, request hotel services like housekeeping (“Alexa, I need towels”), call the concierge, and more.

Additionally, hoteliers and property managers have the option to enable skills from the Alexa Skills Store on the devices they manage so that their customers can check airport wait times, play games, get a quick guided workout, play sleep sounds to help them fall asleep, and more. Alexa’s Skill selection includes popular skills like Audible Stories, BBC News, BBC Sounds, Sleep Sounds, and many more. 

Guest’s use of Alexa in their room is optional, Echo smart speakers have a Microphone Off button that electronically disconnects the microphone. With Alexa for Hospitality, guests use Alexa without connecting their Amazon account to the Alexa enabled device and voice recordings are not saved. For more information on privacy visit www.amazon.co.uk/alexahospitality/guest.

Mercure Hyde Park

“Alexa Smart Properties has brought a lot of excitement to all the team members at Mercure Hyde Park, especially during Covid-19 where staffing levels are strained. Alexa arrived at the perfect time to help our teams by answering many of the common guest queries, along with a potential to increase room service revenue, simply due to the convenience provided by Alexa for ordering hotel services,” said Edward Wilcock, Director of Revenue, Mercure Hyde Park.

“One unexpected yet welcome gain has been the improvement in efficiency throughout the property. Housekeeping and maintenance staff can tell Alexa when they’ve cleaned or fixed a room, which immediately updates the property management system. This saves a significant amount of time and rooms are turned around and ready for new guests much faster.”

Hotel Cloud

“At Hotel Cloud, we use the latest technologies to optimise and enhance each part of a hotel’s management strategy: from revenue, through to marketing and guest experience,” said Amit Popat, CEO, Hotel Cloud.

“That’s why we joined Amazon’s Alexa Smart Properties  programme, which is a perfect fit in the Hotel Cloud ecosystem. With Alexa and Hotel Cloud, properties can provide a rich, personalised experience for their guests, using our simple and intuitive platform. Furthermore, we can deliver cost savings and relieve pressure on staff by managing guest requests in a seamless and unified system, supporting reception, housekeeping and maintenance.

Combined with our advanced hospitality AI, we help to deliver the right recommendations to the right guests at the right time, increasing guest satisfaction and creating upsell opportunities.

The Alexa Smart Properties launch arrives at a critical moment for the hospitality industry; enabling hotels to connect with customers in a touchless and convenient way, driving revenue and costs savings whilst delivering on the great experience guests are looking for.”

Alexa Smart Properties is currently available in the United States, United Kingdom, and is coming soon in France. 

Hoteliers and property managers can visit https://www.amazon.com/alexahospitality to learn more. Contact us to onboard to Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality. We can’t wait to see what you build.