Q&A: Avvio's Frank Reeves on AI's transformative impact on the hospitality industry

In October, Ireland-based travel tech firm Avvio launched a world first: a booking platform powered by artificial intelligence. It's called Allora and, according to Frank Reeves, Avvio's Co-founder and CEO, it promises to transform not only hotel bookings, but the hotel experience. Frank told us more about how the platform works, how it's already challenging Booking.com and Expedia's dominance, and why AI is something to embrace, not fear, for hospitality staff. "Allora's aim is to help hotels increase their direct bookings, by which I mean bookings from their own website. The biggest pain point hotels have right now is the dominance of online travel agents like Booking.com and Expedia – they drive the lion's share of direct bookings, and take commissions of between 15 and 25% in some cases. "Our platform, which optimises itself using AI, personalises not just individual guest experiences, but the outcomes of those experiences – so it can do a better job the next time around.