With Alexa for Hospitality, Marriott adds Amazon to the guest experience

According to a recent article on HotelManagement.net, Amazon is coming to a Marriott guestroom near you.

Nearly seven months after announcing Alexa for Business, Amazon has launched Alexa for Hospitality, a new program that provides hoteliers with an Amazon Echo to act as a voice-activated virtual concierge in each room.

“Alexa for Hospitality is a set of tools that will let hotels build immersive experiences with Alexa right into the hotel context, the brand context and the guest stay,” said Amazon VP Daniel Rausch at a New York preview of the program’s functionality. The platform offers integrations with back-office systems, housekeeping, the concierge and front desk—all services that hotels are already offering, he said—and making them accessible through voice interaction.

Over the last few months, Amazon quietly installed Alexa devices in a few hotels like the Wynn Las Vegas as part of a pilot program to gauge guest feedback, said Rausch. “It’s given us some data to know that we should lean in even more and double-down,” he said. According to Rausch, almost 90 percent of customers that have used an in-room Alexa rated it between “good” and “excellent” on feedback surveys, and more than 70 percent of guests said that when booking hotels in the future, they would choose Alexa-enabled rooms if they were available. The guest feedback was then used to develop the hospitality-specific program for a broader scale, and the updated platform is ready to roll out.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON HOTELMANAGEMENT.NET

Volara and Amazon Alexa’s collaboration

According to a recent article on hospitalitytech.com, during the keynote address at AWS re:Invent, a learning conference hosted by Amazon Web Services for the global cloud computing community, Amazon’s Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels examined the potential of Amazon Alexa in the enterprise and highlighted the measurable business impact that Volara’s Voice Hub for the Hospitality Industry is already having at hotels across the country.

Volara has been collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) over the past year to deploy and manage Amazon Echo Dot devices in hotels across the country. The devices leverage the just announced Alexa for Business and run Volara’s software – which enables local management of the voice-based interactions engaging guests and seamlessly integrates those interactions into the leading technologies operating in hotels today.

Volara – in collaboration with AWS – has put hotel services conveniently in front more than 400,000 guests. Volara is deployed today at hotels across the United States, including those under all of the major flags.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

The Westin Buffalo becomes first New York State hotel to install Amazon Echo devices in each of its guest rooms

Global hospitality company Delaware North today announced the installation of Amazon Echo devices in each of the 116 guest rooms at the company-operated Westin Buffalo hotel.

The Westin Buffalo, a luxury lifestyle hotel located within Delaware North’s global headquarters in Buffalo, N.Y., is the first hotel in New York State to deploy the guest-servicing Echo devices in each of its guest rooms, and just the 12^th hotel in the United States to do so. The devices are managed by software developed by Volara, the leading provider of custom voice-based solutions to the hospitality industry.

The Amazon Echo devices provide an easy, fun way for guests to request services, get recommendations, and generally engage with hotel staff and services without the hassle of picking up a telephone. Guests at The Westin Buffalo will be able to ask “Alexa” questions typically asked of a hotel concierge, valet, housekeeper or bellman. The interactions are integrated with existing hotel software and immediately communicated to staff.

The Amazon Echo devices will also operate in tandem with “Chip,” the hotel’s fully-autonomous Relay robot butler, who works with hotel staff to deliver amenities and room service to guest rooms.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE