Caesars Entertainment Las Vegas Resorts Elevate Guest Services with Mobile Tech
Caesars Entertainment is the world's most diversified casino-entertainment provider and the most geographically diverse U.S. casino-entertainment company. Service is at the forefront of everything we do at Caesars Entertainment. With 24,000 hotel rooms and suites across nine Las Vegas resorts, we continue to leverage technologies to enhance guests’ travel experience conveniently from their mobile device – from a virtual concierge to mobile ordering services to an app with one million engaged users.
In December 2016, we introduced a pilot program of Ivy, a 24-hour virtual concierge service, at the boutique Nobu Hotel inside Caesars Palace and The Cromwell at the center of the Las Vegas Strip. With additional rollouts to Caesars Palace and The LINQ Hotel & Casino last summer, Ivy is now live in more than 6,000 rooms within Caesars Entertainment Las Vegas Resorts, making us the first major gaming company in the city to offer a widespread guest text messaging program with built-in artificial intelligence. Ivy, the world's first automated guest engagement platform for hotels powered by IBM Watson, is expected to expand to Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in February 2018 with planned rollouts to the remaining Las Vegas resorts in 2018.
This technology has allowed us to achieve our goal of elevating the guest experience while improving speed and efficiency within our operations teams, resulting in increased guest satisfaction levels and seamless experiences for our guests. Ivy’s most impressive capability is service at scale, with the ability to handle multiple guests’ needs around the clock in seconds. Additionally, Ivy features the back-end capability to manage guest experiences through a combination of automated replies and people navigating the request queue to send personalized responses.
Guests who provide a cell phone number at check-in receive a welcome message from Ivy and can text her with any questions or requests for dining, entertainment and spa experiences, as well as housekeeping and maintenance. Ivy also surveys guests during their stay, allowing for quick recovery if needed. Additionally, guests can check out of their room immediately by texting Ivy, as well as obtain a copy of their folio or locate a missing item from home.
While Ivy is an automated artificial intelligence system, a human touch is incorporated when Ivy cannot provide a confident response. In addition to the hotel front desk agents, a specially trained universal agent team is available to provide around-the-clock coverage to address requests or inquiries. The average resolution time for manual guest text messages is less than one minute.
Guests who engage with Ivy rated their overall experience an average of five points higher in our post-stay survey than guests who knew about Ivy but did not engage. Since Ivy launched a year ago, Nobu Hotel at Caesars Palace has achieved an increase of 42 spots to no. 16 on TripAdvisor, and The Cromwell has seen an increase of 15 spots to no. 12 on TripAdvisor. Similarly, The LINQ Hotel & Casino has increased seven spots on TripAdvisor since Ivy launched last August.
Hear More from Michael at MURTEC 2018!
At MURTEC 2018, Michael Marino will present a 10-minute win where he will talk in more-depth with attendees on Caesars Entertainment's use of IVY and chatbot technology. Register today: www.murtec.com!
To further enhance guests’ experiences, Caesars Entertainment has also launched mobile food ordering services at nearly 15 locations throughout its Las Vegas resorts, including Caesars Palace, The Cromwell, Harrah’s Las Vegas, The LINQ Hotel & Casino and Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. With mobile food ordering via a customized website, guests have convenient access to on-property dining options around the clock without having to wait in any lines. The program has processed nearly 10,000 mobile food orders since it launched in early 2017.
Guests can get signature bites and drinks from select restaurants on property or in-room dining delivered directly to them throughout the resorts, not only to their hotel room but also to their exact seat at the bar, race and sports book and casino floor. Guests can text a designated keyword to view available menus based on their location. Guests can place their order and pay via credit card, cash or room charge.
Similarly, the free Play by Total Rewards app gives guests more – more offers, information and ways to explore Caesars Entertainment hotels, resorts, shows, restaurants and nightclubs worldwide. Guests can book shows, restaurants and activities through the mobile app. More than one million guests have downloaded and experienced Play by TR.
As senior vice president of loyalty and chief experience officer of Caesars Entertainment, Michael Marino leads the company’s Total Rewards loyalty program of 55 million members, as well as the brand, media and all guest communication channels. Marino also manages Caesars Entertainment’s digital business including Caesars.com, the company’s mobile app Play by TR and marketing technology including mobile ordering and Ivy. Marino’s previous roles within Caesars Entertainment include Chief of Staff to the Chairman, President and CEO, as well as Director of Marketing Analytics.
