TOPICS: Chatbot for Travel    Chatbot Optimization   

Hotel Chatbot - Today’s Biggest Challenges for Small Hotels (solved with chatbots)

Market forces and consumer trends affect businesses of all scales and proportions, but their impact is considerably larger on small enterprises. In the realm of travel and hospitality, it is the small hotels that feel the pressure of changing traveler preferences and expectations. Staying relevant despite the competition from larger hotel chains, and attracting leads that turn into returning guests, asks for focused and consistent online marketing efforts. Building hotel chatbots has proven to be an efficient and cost-effective solution for small hotels on account of the following reasons:

1. Small hotels have limited resources.

Small hotels do not have the time or the resources to become online marketing experts, especially considering the ever-changing nature of the online marketing landscape. However, by choosing to create a hotel chatbot for their websites, they can free up the resources that would have otherwise been invested in handling repetitive administrative tasks. This in turn allows them to concentrate their efforts on improving their web presence.

2. Technological systems are becoming increasingly complex.

Large hotel chains can afford to stay abreast of the latest advancements in communications technology, and update their online systems and services to impress their tech-savvy guests. But small hotels that are more focused on guest services and a personal touch, can be intimidated by the increasing complexity and sophistication of modern technological systems. Chatbot for hotels development allows these hotels to strike a strike a healthy balance. By building chatbots on their websites, they are able to accept bookings on multiple devices, and remain connected with their customers through custom chat scripts that address the specific needs of their business.

3. Hotel websites receive valuable data on a daily basis.

Every hotel website, however small, has a wealth of data flowing through it that can be harnessed to drive profits. The hotel website’s visitors are the source of this data. By building hotel chatbots, small hotels create a direct line of communication with their visitors. This not only has the potential to boost a hotel's bookings and market demand, but also serves a means to collect visitor feedback and monitor and optimize the performance of the website for greater revenue.

4. The search experience on hotel websites has largely been sub-optimal.

The search functionality on hotel booking sites or mobile applications tends to leave travelers unimpressed. They are required to manually set filters and sift through multiple pages of hotel listings, in order to shortlist those that fit their preferences. Hotel chatbots are now making these searches simpler and more intuitive. The best chatbots for hotel websites are able to process the requirements that visitors type in their natural language, to return relevant search results that are tailored to every visitor’s individual criteria. Small hotels benefit the most from this process, because they can now show up on a customized list of recommendations, instead of losing out to better-known names during a conventional search for hotels.

5. Millennial travelers are mobile-oriented.

Finally, small hotels need to build their marketing and sales strategies around the needs of a mobile-first audience of millennials, for whom instant messaging is the default choice of communication. Building chatbots allows these hotels to offer round-the-clock support in the familiar format of instant messaging, thus keeping millennials engaged and interested in booking with them.

Get more insights on hotel chatbots development through our blog, and feel free to reach out if you need help with building the best chatbot for your hotel website or other business.