An interview with Frank Reeves, Chief Evangelist at SHR Group, discusses the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the hotel industry and how it leverages consumer data to personalize the booking process and improve overall We took a deep dive into how to improve guest satisfaction.
Reeves provided insight into the origins of Allora.ai, tracing back to the founding of Avvio.com in Ireland more than 20 years ago. Avvio.com initially focused on allowing hotels to enhance their direct channels and brand their websites, with the aim of effectively competing with online travel agents (OTAs) such as Booking.com and Expedia. was placed. Recognizing the need for personalized e-commerce solutions in the hotel industry, his Avvio.com launched Allora.ai, the world’s first AI-powered booking engine, in 2017. Avvio.com was acquired by SHR in 2022.
Understand the guest journey
Reeves highlights the important shift from traditional conversion-focused strategies to AI-powered personalization. He emphasized the need for hotels to understand guest journeys beyond just conversion rates, and that a hotel website needs to be more than just a digital brochure.
“Your Netflix is different from mine. Your Amazon is different from my Amazon. The world is progressing, but hotel websites are just brochures with nothing dynamic about them. Why are we still clinging to the concept that it has to be something personal? Nothing personal, just a brochure. It’s a digital brochure with a plug-in booking engine, and it’s a hotel at the time. The strategy seemed to be inviting everyone to book directly.”
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Through Allora, hotels gain unprecedented insight into guest behavior, enabling dynamic engagement tailored to individual preferences and stages of the booking process.
“What you need to do is get a deeper understanding of what the typical guest journey is like and ultimately tailor your book to the guest journey rather than shouting the book directly at everyone. and designing ways to engage guests with the best of both worlds.”
From tracking visitor origins to predicting bookability and making content more relevant, Allora leverages massive datasets to identify subtle patterns in guest behavior and help hotels respond accordingly. Allows us to adjust our services.
Through a live demonstration, Reeves demonstrated Allora’s ability to create personalized guest journeys. The AI-powered recommender engine employs real-time data analysis of visitor behavior, preferences, and demographics to understand the guest journey and provide personalized recommendations and marketing strategies tailored to individual tastes. From personalized room rates in their preferred currency to targeted reviews and promotions, Allora provides guests with relevant content and offers that foster deeper connections and drive higher conversions. It shows the importance of promoting rates.
Predictive analytics for cancellation management
One of the key challenges for hotels is managing cancellations effectively. Reeves explained how his AI-powered predictive analytics within Allora allows hotels to assess cancellation risk. Reeves recognizes that flexible cancellation policies are an industry-wide challenge, and with AI-powered risk profiling, he explores how hotels can effectively predict and effectively mitigate cancellations. will be revealed.
By analyzing multiple data points such as guest demographics, booking history, and market trends, Allora identifies high-risk reservations and helps hotels proactively engage high-risk guests with targeted offers and incentives. reduce cancellation rates and maximize revenue opportunities.
“To acquire guests, you need to engage and book in a very personalized way, but you also need the flip side of that opportunity: the ability to predict and reduce cancellations. We’ll be able to do much more than competing hotels that are just listed on the website,” Reeves said.
AI-powered hotel ecosystem
Mr. Reeves outlined the future trajectory of AI in the hotel industry, highlighting a comprehensive approach where AI will be seamlessly integrated with a variety of hotel technologies, from internet booking engines to customer relationship management (CRM) systems and revenue management platforms. We are envisioning an ecosystem. He highlights the synergistic potential of his AI-driven enhancements across the hospitality sector, promising forward-thinking hoteliers unparalleled guest experience and revenue optimization.
Allora not only helps you personalize your internet booking engine, but also offers a comprehensive suite of products. Reeves believes that AI has great potential to improve operational efficiency in the hospitality industry, and Allora is enabling this through its interconnected platform.
One area to focus on is revenue management. AI-powered systems like Allora’s Revenue Management System (RMS) can optimize pricing strategies to maximize profitability. Reeves says Allora has achieved an impressive 98% acceptance rate among hotels for recommended pricing, highlighting the potential for AI to streamline the decision-making process.
Future trends and challenges
Reeves points out that AI could disrupt the currently cumbersome and time-consuming travel planning process.
“I think there’s a lot of room for AI to disrupt travel planning, which is a completely different aspect of hospitality that hotels actually have to deal with.”
By leveraging AI technologies like ChatGPT, travelers can receive personalized recommendations, streamline the booking process, and create a more efficient and user-friendly experience.
Additionally, advances in AI-generated content are reshaping search engine algorithms, creating opportunities for hotels to increase their online visibility and attract more guests. Reeves cited the dominance of online travel agents (OTAs) in search results because they have richer content, and better algorithms ultimately make them more relevant to users. They pointed out that hotel websites that provide a high level of information are now preferred. He argued that hotels can compete effectively in this environment by offering consumers competitive rates and direct booking incentives, thereby mitigating the risk of OTA dominance.
“It wasn’t listed on the hotel website.” [in search] Because every OTA has thousands of pages of content and you were just one hotel. So what happened over time in the competitive market was that when better algorithms started to actually feature hotels, those algorithms took over and hotels started winning,” Reeves said. said.
While the adoption of AI in the hospitality industry is gaining momentum, Reeves acknowledges that challenges and risks exist. He says hotels are increasingly recognizing the importance of adopting AI technology, but emphasizes the need for continued education and understanding among industry players.
“We’re at a point now where hotels are fully understanding this wave of disruption and the need to start by understanding things like ChatGPT, generative AI, and what prompts mean in this entirely new system. I think it’s in the world.”
Mr. Reeves outlined the future trajectory of AI in the hotel industry, highlighting a comprehensive approach where AI will be seamlessly integrated with a variety of hotel technologies, from internet booking engines to customer relationship management (CRM) systems and revenue management platforms. We are envisioning an ecosystem. He highlights the synergistic potential of his AI-driven enhancements across the hospitality sector, promising forward-thinking hoteliers unparalleled guest experience and revenue optimization.
