What are the advantages of using chatbots in hotels?

Using chatbots in hotels has several advantages. The younger generation, who grew up with messaging apps, communicates through these platforms daily. By offering this type of online interaction alongside traditional communication channels like telephone and email, hotels ensure they meet the demands of a young, digitally savvy target group.

Another significant benefit of chat communication is its low barrier to entry. Many guests find phone calls or emails too much effort. Chat provides an easy and hassle-free way for guests to contact the hotel. Additionally, chat communication in hotels is highly efficient because it can be easily automated: the short text format is perfect for AI. Frequently asked questions such as "How much does parking cost?", "Are dogs allowed in the hotel?", or "Can I have a baby bed in my room?" can be answered in seconds.

This results in a win-win situation: guests are pleased to receive quick answers, and hotel staff can reduce their workload since they no longer need to address every inquiry personally. Our chatbot ensures an automation rate of 90%. In times of staff shortages, employees are grateful to only need to respond to one out of every 10 guest inquiries, while the chatbot handles the rest.

What if the chatbot cannot come up with an answer?

If the chatbot cannot answer a guest’s question, it creates a hand-over-to-human process. The hotel receives a notification, and an employee then enters the live chat with the guest to take over the conversation.

“The result is a win-win situation: customers are happy to receive quick answers, and employees are relieved because they no longer have to handle every request personally.”

How do you keep chatbots up-to-date?

Hotels can make adjustments to the DialogShift chatbot in the backend. It is possible to edit existing answers to standard questions or add new questions and their respective answers.

Where does the guest get in contact with the chatbot?

The chatbot is available at various points throughout the guest journey. Potential guests can find the chatbot on Google and on the hotel’s website, enabling them to gather detailed information about the location and even start the booking process. On average, 60 to 80% of the questions asked to the chatbot on the hotel website are booking-related.

Additional touchpoints where guests can access the chatbot include popular messaging apps such as WhatsApp, as well as social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Once at the hotel, guests can interact with the chatbot via the guest app or by scanning QR codes, which will direct them to a WhatsApp chat that they can return to at any time for further questions. Through this system, guests can obtain information about hotel offerings, inquire about local excursion sites, and even make restaurant reservations.

How does the chatbot overcome language barriers?

The system is multilingual. Through integration with Google Translate, it offers real-time translation in 109 languages. This works not only for the automated chatbot but also for live chats.

What to consider for successful chatbot usage?

A strong online presence is essential. If a hotel offers a well-functioning website with high traffic, is easily discoverable on Google, and is active on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, the chatbot will see frequent use on these channels.

It is also crucial for guests to be able to easily access the chatbot in the hotel. The best way to achieve this is by placing QR codes in high-traffic areas. When guests scan these QR codes, they are instantly connected to the WhatsApp chat.

Additionally, one goal of using chatbots should be to reduce employee workload by automating communication. Therefore, the chatbot's automation rate should be as high as possible. DialogShift solutions achieve an automation rate of 90%.

How does the interface between hotelkit and DialogShift work?

By utilizing this efficient interface, employees receive a notification directly in hotelkit whenever a guest enters the live chat, ensuring that guests are promptly attended to.

Right now ChatGPT is on everyone’s lips. Could this AI also be used in hotels?

ChatGPT represents a new milestone in AI. A chatbot that can provide human-like answers, generate coherent texts, and seems to know almost everything. However, this poses a major problem: while it appears to know everything, it can convincingly provide incorrect answers when it doesn't know the truth. This is a risk that cannot be taken in hotel customer service, where consistent and accurate answers are crucial.

What is interesting for hotel chatbots, like ours, is the Large Language Model that powers ChatGPT. This allows AI to generate human-like texts, and we are currently working on incorporating this model into DialogShift solutions through an integration with GPT-3.