Emerging technologies hoteliers can leverage now: Chatbots, augmented reality, location beacons and more

It’s an exciting time for hoteliers. New technologies are enabling deeper understanding of guests and providing a host of opportunities to enhance operations, service and support. Our recent webinar, “Emerging Technologies Redefining the Hotel Experience,” provides a window into how and why new developments will impact guests’ expectations and hoteliers’ ability to leverage technology to streamline and enrich the guest experience. The webinar uses research from Sabre Labs, our travel and technology innovation lab, to introduce three technology trends and show how hoteliers can start to leverage the technologies behind these trends in 2017 and beyond: Connected Intelligence – Bots, location beacons and other technologies can help hoteliers make data-driven decisions. Data gathered from today’s location sensors can show hoteliers ways to improve flow as well as forecast when and where to move staff to help avoid bottlenecks. Conversational Interfaces – Voice and message based interfaces show immediate promise for improving service and support, whether human-powered, bot-powered or a combination of the two. And by opening up communication with guests via conversational interfaces early in the shopping process, hoteliers can enable post-booking engagement and build a rapport with guests that may lead to greater loyalty. Digital Realities – Virtual and augmented realities are changing the travel landscape. Videos and photos in VR are able to inspire travelers and travel professionals to experience locations around the world in a more immersive way. VR also offers compelling business cases for showcasing premium experiences to travelers and for creating immersive training experiences for staff. Augmented reality provides opportunities for unique traveler experiences and greater guest engagement. Click here to watch the recorded presentation. And if you haven’t already done so, download a copy of the full Sabre Labs report, Emerging Technology in Travel 2017, with over 40 specific takeaways for hoteliers and others in the travel space.