AI-powered hotel concierge app aims to Dazzle guests

AI-powered hotel concierge app aims to Dazzle guests

Dazzle is integrated with Facebook Messenger and Amazon Alexa. Continue reading

The latest hotel concierge app has been built to integrate with Amazon’s voice-activated Alexa personal assistant and Facebook Messenger.

Dazzle has just signed its first customer – which it is yet to reveal – after a pilot with Marriot County Hall in London.

It uses artificial intelligence via chat bot and voice to contact hotel staff so they can answer guests’ questions and offer recommendations on request. It can be used to order taxis, extras like toothbrushes or irons from hotels, ask for wake-up calls or change check-out times.

Linked directly to partner hotels, guests can ask Dazzle questions through Facebook Messenger or in their room using Amazon Echo.

Dazzle’s parent company Lola Tech believes today’s hotel customers are “prone to ask more of a digital interface than a human”. The app is designed to enable hotels to “empower staff” and engage with customers “in a way they are familiar with”.

Charles Cadbury, co-founder at Dazzle said: “Voice-activated personal assistants will become as ubiquitous in hotel rooms as the TV now is. We’re trying to empower people, allow them to have another communication channel with guests. It’s not always automated responses, it’s designed with a ‘humans-in-the-loop’. Computers aren’t going to be the answer, it’s only a hybrid approach that is going to help the system learn faster and deliver a dazzling experience.”

Hoteliers can use the data gleaned by the app by analysing the number of requests per room or individual guest to understand what time of day they are interacting with the system and evaluate overall engagement. Staff can oversee customer requests in a dashboard.

Dazzle won the Marriott testBED accelerator programme in 2016, which led to a two-stage ten-room pilot in the Marriott County Hall, London. It won ‘Most Innovative Pitch’ at a Travel Tech Labs event and was runner-up in the 2017 Start-up and Innovation in Travel Awards at the eyefortravel Europe event.