Marriott makes more room for chatbots to enhance guest experiences

The world's largest hotel chain was an early user of Facebook Messenger and Slack. Marriott International is building on its early use of chatbots to enhance guests' experience through Facebook Messenger and Slack by adding WeChat and Google Assistant as additional channels. The travel and hospitality firm announced in September the ChatBotlr, a chatbot for its Aloft hotel brand that uses artificial intelligence to handle a variety of guest requests via text message. Its existing chatbots, meanwhile, which it developed and manages via tools from New York-based mobile messaging firm Snaps, have provided stay-related customer service to 44% of Marriott Rewards members this year across 4,700 hotels through Facebook Messenger alone. This could include changing reservations, answering questions on how to redeem points or checking an account balance.