The 369° Hôtels-Maisons group comprises nine 4- and 5-star properties in exclusive destinations across France and the Caribbean. This collection of unique locations is divided into three categories: mountain, sun, and green, embodying their commitment to the elegance, diversity, and excellence of genuine hospitality.
Noteworthy among them is the 5-star Hôtel Tartane Saint-Tropez, located just minutes from the bustling center of Saint-Tropez and the legendary Pampelonne beaches, and the 4-star Hôtel Ecrin Blanc, situated at the base of the Courchevel 1850 ski lift, offering the finest in skiing and après-ski experiences.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Angélique, Chief Digital Officer at 369° Hôtels & Maisons, about her experience with Quicktext, the hospitality AI super app.
Can you tell us about your decision to select and deploy an AI virtual assistant in your group?
“At first we wanted to find a basic solution to integrate into our website, so we researched AI based chatbots tailored for the hospitality industry, one that could also collect and analyze hotel data. Our parent company, HPC group, were already using Quicktext and gave us positive feedback. We sat for a demo and found the solution of a virtual assistant drawing from a deep and structured hospitality database particularly interesting and aligned with our challenges.
Despite this good impression we feared losing credibility in our ecosystem of exclusivity and rarity by asking our clients to talk to a robot…So we ran a controlled test with a sample of clients and they found Velma, the virtual assistant, engaging and helpful…
Encouraged by this first step, we decided to deploy Velma in one single property to extend its reach in a live and uncontrolled environment at Hôtel Ecrin Blanc. It is a large property in Courchevel inundated with basic daily inquiries from international, demanding guests.
We found that the integration of Velma significantly reduced the flow of requests through automation. The 24/7 multilingual feature proved to be invaluable, catering to our global clientele who appreciate using their native language for concierge services. This eased the burden on our reservation teams while maintaining high quality and reliability in guest relationships.
Based on this success, we deployed Velma in all our properties along with a training program to get the staff onboard. Part of this program is to ensure quality in the data with a biweekly check of all automated conversations to spot ambiguous or confusing answers that could hurt direct bookings…
Does Quicktext meet your business needs?
Automating tasks with no added value and feeding the AI model with fresh information has been transformative. It has introduced new ways to manage reservations, enhancing value at every client touch point and into our internal operations. Our hotel virtual concierge and call center have become more productive, even seasonal employees benefited from Velma data.
Because at the end of the day, the big prize is the data we collect that is feeding qualified commercial emails and conversations and soon will give us precious insights for creating seasonal offers and upsell.
Do you get a good return on your investment?
Based on our aggregated dashboard and considering that hotels were gradually onboarded in 2024, our AI assistant generated €2.2 million worth of booking requests, representing nearly 6,100 overnight stays from about 1,700 managed client conversations.
Add to that €70,000 in confirmed direct revenue and we see a very positive return on investment compared to the cost of our subscription. I also should mention that we added a new service called Q-SEO, based on guests Q&A to improve Google organic ranking above OTAs, which has significantly paid off.
How do you see the future of hospitality and AI?
I think in the future AI reservation agents will not only answer questions flawlessly but also embody the brand, offering differentiated experiences to different clients it could very well include producing a custom birthday card to be placed in the room on arrival . However, while fully AI-operated hotels may emerge, especially in budget hospitality, luxury will always place humans at the center.”
On a scale from 0 to 10, what is your overall satisfaction with Quicktext?
“Today, I would say 9 and we are eagerly anticipating the addition of new innovative services.”
