Chatbots help you convert anonymous visitors into direct bookers. So, using hotel chatbots for increased direct bookings is a good idea.
Most front desk human agents are smarter than any hotel chatbot will ever be. However, chatbots deliver correct answers instantly. Such fast, mostly correct answers in the customer’s language get your hotel more direct bookings – more than your staff could have handled but wouldn’t have answered in time.
When we started Quicktext we only had a platform to manage different communication channels in one place.
We, however, didn’t have a chatbot to offer. We noticed that our hotel users were able to catch some requests on the fly, but most remained unanswered. This is because potential customers won’t wait for you. Also, the 2 min 30 seconds that they spend on your website is a very short time for your staff to react, especially when they are already busy with check-ins or helping in-house guests, or not available at night.
As soon as we launched our first chatbot that was able to handle conversations 24/7 in 8 different languages, the volume of conversations increased 10-fold overnight. The information customers were sharing evolved from “Hello, are you there?” to a full customer profile with name, email, phone number, dates of stay, interests, etc.
Most often, the conversation is perfectly handled by the chatbot. Customers just want to ensure that the chatbot fully understands what’s important for them. Or, they might need some help to enter your conversion funnel. Hence, there is a set of 200 questions that the chatbot must get right, and you’re ready.
Chatbots are an excellent engagement tool. Of course, some conversations will require a human follow-up. But the big thing is that a chatbot takes the urgency away by obtaining all the data. So, you can get back to the customer in your own time and still make the sale. Somehow, after interacting with your chatbot, the customer is much more likely to respond. Probably because he has already started to invest in the relationship with your hotel through your chatbot.
Most hotels can easily capitalize on the engagement power of their AI hotel chatbot to convert at least 25% of conversations easily. It’s quite logical when you think about it. If a person visits your website, you know that he/she is going to travel to your city. The only question they are trying to answer is if they should travel with you or your competitor. If you manage to engage this person, you get the business.
