Volara, iHeartRadio Bring Holiday Music to Hotel Rooms by Voice
It is predicted that 115.6 million Americans will be traveling from Saturday, Dec. 21, through Wednesday, Jan. 1, for the 2019 holiday season. Whether they arrive at the hotel by car (104 million are expected to drive) or plane, Volara will be ready to entertain these travelers with holiday music on voice command via its integration with iHeartRadio. If the hotel features Amazon Alexa devices powered by Volara, holiday travelers can ask “Alexa, play iHeartChristmas” or “Alexa, play North Pole Radio.”
iHeartRadio is a free all-in-one digital music, podcasting and live streaming radio service, offering users thousands of Live Radio stations from across the country, personalized custom Artist Radio stations, and the top podcasts and on-air personalities available everywhere listeners are. The app is available across more than 250 platforms and 2,000 devices including smart speakers, digital auto dashes, tablets, wearables, smartphones, virtual assistants, TVs, gaming consoles and more.
“We are thrilled to be working with Volara to spread holiday cheer to hotel guests across the country during the most bustling travel season of the year,” says Jessica Jerrick, executive vice president of business development and partnerships at iHeartMedia. “From North Pole Radio hosted by Santa Claus himself to iHeartChristmas Classics, iHeartRadio has the perfect station to bring the spirit of the season to travelers near and far.”
Viceroy Hotel Group is all in with Volara and iHeartRadio. The lifestyle hotel brand began enabling voice-based conversations with its guests in 2018. Today, the Viceroy L’Ermitage Beverly Hills and the Hotel Zetta in San Francisco, among other Viceroy properties, are bringing holiday music to guests via the Volara-powered Amazon Alexa solution seamlessly integrated with iHeartRadio.
“Music is very important to our guests,” says Darren Clark, vice president of technology for Viceroy Hotels and Resorts. “We give the option for the guest to stream their own music content to the in-room smart speaker, ask Alexa to play from a multitude of music stations we have built into Volara through iHeartRadio, or listen to our own property curated playlists. Reports show the iHeartRadio holiday playlists are in high demand in our hotels this season.”
The most popular iHeartRadio holiday stations include:
- North Pole Radio
- iHeartChristmas
- iHeartChristmas Classics
- iHeartChristmas Country
- iHeartChristmas Rock
- iHeartChristmas R&B
- iHeartChristmas Jazz
As of 2019, Statista reports an estimated 3.25 billion digital voice assistants being used in devices around the world. Forecasts suggest that by 2023 the number of digital voice assistants will reach around eight billion units – a number higher than the world’s population.
As a voice hub for the hotel industry, Volara is turning the consumer voice assistant solutions into hotel business tools by providing cloud-based, real-time, multi-property conversation management tools. No matter what guests are asking Alexa for – whether it’s to play music, ask housekeeping to bring more towels, request to turn the lights on/off, or make reservations in the hotel restaurant – Volara’s patent-pending accuracy engine aims to ensure guest requests are properly handled the first time, every time. More importantly, Volara’s software enables additional layers of security to ensure that guests’ privacy is protected, and proprietary hotel data is secure. Volara is the only provider of voice-based solutions to the hospitality industry that has the Alexa for Business Service Delivery Designation from Amazon and is a launch partner of Alexa for Hospitality.