AI solution to improve guest satisfaction at the Dylan Hotel

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Dylan Amsterdam

The Dylan Hotel, named after the Poet Dylan Thomas is Amsterdam’s best kept secret. It is an independent luxury boutique hotel and member of The Leading Hotels of The World. 

Located where once stood the first theater of Amsterdam where the painter Rembrandt worked as a production assistant. It offers 41 refined and distinctly unique rooms combining historical features with contemporary design. It boasts a Michelin Star awarded Restaurant, a secluded garden and the hotel’s own private salon boat on the canal. 

We met with Jiska van Amerfoorst, the hotel Reservation Executive to talk about Quicktext and Thomas, their AI Hotel chatbot named after the eponymous welsh poet.

Some people said that AI powered guest relations are not a good match for luxury hotels which are all about the human touch.

What is your opinion?

It is a generational issue, older guests are all about human relationships but we see that the next generation of luxury clients, like the Millenials, grew up in the digital age and are avid users of tech. They need instant and accurate answers to their multiple questions and don’t like to wait.

Our team was very aware of this issue during the selection process, automating the repetitive and tedious parts of guest communication allowed us to shift resources and value where it matters: delight our guests during their stay.

However we wanted to design an AI virtual assistant that embodies the spirit of the hotel, this is why we called it Thomas, in honor of Dylan Thomas, we also gave it specific content to stay on brand. Quicktext allowed us to match the technology with the spirit of our hotel because they are both deep tech and hospitality experts which is quite unique in the industry…

Does Quicktext meet your business needs?  

Yes in terms of conversational AI; we have many American customers and they try Thomas at length when enquiring about the size of the rooms and amenities. Some of the sessions are quite extensive and long winded which Thomas, smartly, identifies as a better fit for human intervention…

It is also efficient for increasing direct bookings: we collect and therefore analyze more valuable data about the needs of our clients. We never had that type of “hot” information before and it helps us greatly in converting chat sessions into instant reservations.

We also see a new trend: guests who are already familiar with Thomas are using it during their stay.

Any wishes for the future?   

Adding more communication channels such as Whatsapp and Messenger now that we see guests using Thomas on premises, it would be even easier to send help on their favorite communication channels.

On my wish list, I would like to see a quick translation from languages we are not familiar with… Say a guest conversation handled in spanish by Thomas would get automatically translated in dutch, for our employees, once the session is finished.

On a scale from 0 to 10 what is your Overall Satisfaction with Quicktext?  

7,5/10

Due to our highly specific needs, the implementation took longer than expected…

Thomas performance in 2023

  • Conversations handled: 2292
  • Leads into booking engine: 290
  • Average lead value: 3779 €
  • Leads value: 1,1M €
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