Want Personalization and Engagement? You Need Voice Tech + Translation

Personalization was the hospitality industry’s mantra in 2018, and it is showing no signs of waning in 2019. One of the best ways to personalize the hotel experience and engage guests is through frictionless voice technologies. Inbound tourism has typically been strong for the U.S. travel industry, yet Deloitte is reporting in its 2019 U.S. Travel and Hospitality Outlook that “competition for the lucrative international travel segment is rising — and the United States is feeling the pressure.” Therefore, it’s more important than ever that hoteliers find ways to extend personalization and engagement protocols to global guests. Leveraging voice technology that is well-tailored and integrated into the hotel can help in a big way. 

In January, Google introduced live translation technology covering dozens of languages. Called Google Assistant Interpreter Mode, the new technology has tremendous hospitality applications for improving the quality of interactions between hotel staff and guests from around the world. The result will be better communications and higher value guest service. Dream Hotel Group is among the first hotel companies to roll out Google Assistant Interpreter. Through its partnership with Volara, multi-lingual travelers staying at Dream Downtown in New York are now asking questions of hotel staff in their native language by speaking requests to one of three Google Hub devices at either registration or the Concierge desk. 

When global travelers approach the front desk, for example, they are prompted to say, “Hey Google, be my Chinese interpreter.” Then real-time translation begins. Complementing this translation functionality is Volara’s (https://volara.io) software that enables Dream Downtown guests to ask the Google Assistant for hotel information, concierge recommendations or services — each resulting in seamless, personal, and powerfully curated responses from the hotel.