Booking.com partners with HiJiffy to simplify guest communication

The integration will include use of AI

HiJiffy and Booking.com have announced the two firms are joining forces to provide a streamlined and efficient communication experience between hotels and their guests. 

This new two-way integration enables hotels to manage and respond to guest inquiries from Booking.com directly within HiJiffy's Console. 

By centralising communications on a single platform, this integration makes it easier and faster for hotel staff to manage guest interactions efficiently with the help of AI.

Hotels can manage reservation-related messages from Booking.com within HiJiffy's Console. This doesn't include structured requests such as check-in/out, data changes, cancellation, parking, and bed preferences.

Hoteliers can initiate conversations with guests from the time of reservation until seven days after check-out, to help ensure guests receive timely and relevant information throughout their stay.

Following Booking.com’s guidelines, guests can contact the hotel up to 66 days after departure, and hotels have an additional 14 days to respond.

Agents will also have access to translate, expand, shorten, rewrite, change tone, and check the grammar of their messages before responding. 

Alternatively they can utilise saved message templates. This reduces hotel response times and allows for more personalised and engaging interactions.

The integration will allow hotels to directly engage with guests through targeted campaigns.

It facilitates communication from Booking.com to WhatsApp, offering a more convenient and familiar platform for guests to correspond on.

While the first phase of this integration does not yet support automated FAQ responses with AI due to API limitations, the solutions provider said it marks a "significant improvement" over traditional email-based interactions by centralising and managing communications in one place.

The HiJiffy technical team is said to be actively working on the second phase of the integration, where it will be possible to enable AI to directly answer guests' frequently asked questions automatically.

"If this first phase of this integration already brings substantial benefits to hotel operations by reducing the communication burden on staff and improving response times, I just can’t imagine how drastically we will be able to reduce the workload on the agents once our AI gets deployed”, said Tiago Araújo, CEO of HiJiffy. 

“We’re really excited. This can definitely be a game-changer not only for hotels but also for all sorts of accommodation providers of all sizes."

The new communication channel is already available to all current and new clients. 

HiJiffy has confirmed it intends to add other OTAs to its solution soon.