Custom Chatbot: A Saviour for Travel Businesses

Tell me if you are not amazed by Siri’s intelligence and her witty replies and her smart responses to our given commands. These smart bots have become the buzzword of innovation technology. It is a service, powered by rules and sometimes artificial intelligence, that you interact with via a messenger or a chat interface. Travelling is one of the most exciting things that most people enjoy. The purpose of travelling may differ from exotic vacations to business trips. But travel is travel, irrespective of the purpose or the motto behind it. Isn’t it? This has made the travel industry   one of the fastest-growing sectors globally.

Gone are the days when we had to visit our local travel agents to book flights/trains/buses and investigate for a suitable hotel. Due to the diverse range of people knocking on the doors of travel agencies, the tourism industry constantly faces pressure to come up with innovative solutions to entice its customers and cater for the industrial demand. No matter if it’s Virtual Reality or Artificial Intelligence, none of the technologies have been left untouched when it comes to giving customized and innovative solutions. 

AI-powered chatbots have been so massive that it helps the travellers for the travel arrangements and transforming the business by simplifying the business techniques.

Several travel portals are already relying on the Chatbots and using them internationally for growing their business across the globe as chatbots.org has listed as follows :

• Expedia Facebook Messenger Bot: An experimental hotel search chatbot
• KLM on Messenger: A polyglot travel bot that delivers boarding passes
• CheapOair: Flight Facebook Messenger Bot showing 10 cheapest flights
• Kayak Slack Bot: A quick search bot for flights, hotels, and ground transportation
• Claire: A B2B travel bot and travel management solution
• Sofia: A smart chatbot answering questions about TAP Portugal flights

One of Expedia’s research states that “On an average, customers visit 38 different sites for planning their trips”. But going through a pile of content to find the best fit plan is no easy task. A custom chatbot is one of the best solutions that is adopted by a majority of travel companies to satisfy their customers with a streamlined user experience that can deliver personalized solutions. This opens up a wide range of opportunities for travel industries to leverage the potential of such technologies.

Relationship between Chatbot and Travel Industry

Consider yourself as a hotel owner, you decide to implement a Chatbot in one of the most popular applications i.e. Facebook Messenger. Wondering how this chatbot would function?

1. Your chatbot will be your client’s assistant

It would help your client to know about the availability of the hotel rooms, their price list etc (One do not have to attend the reception now). Moreover, customers are provided with a facility to book a room and even pay for it via Messenger. Won’t it speed up the decision-making process?

2. The bot can act as a reminder 

Customers can never miss out on their breakfast, lunch or dinner (hotel) timings. All thanks to your bot. It can also remind the customers about a variety of events happening at the hotel such as conferences, musical events, comedy shows, etc.

3. Bot can improve the communication within the hotel staff 

Wanna order something in the room? Customers can simply use this bot. Client, on the other hand, can solve all their problems with a few clicks and now they no more need to use the room phones.

4. Bot can be turned into your entertainment assistant 

A person might get bored by staying in the hotel alone or if they have no plans for few hours. The bot can advise the travellers about the places to visit nearby.

The above-mentioned functionalities are not the limit of Chatbot and can vary depending on the problem you’d want to cope up. The benefits of chatbots can be summarised in the following manner:

• It will improve customer service main component of a B2C business.
• All the above — bot will make the name of your business worldwide known.

Top use cases of Travel Chatbots

• Reservations agent
• Disruption and customer care manager
• Online Travel Agency
• Local insider

Why a Custom Travel Chatbot is Needed?

• Ensure security
• Choose one skill
• Support AI with a human
• Prepare full experience
• Stay connected
• Eliminate the language barrier
• Bring extra value to the table

Final Take Away!!

Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence are not only improving the customer’s connectivity to retailers but also transforming the way the world is going to communicate in the immediate future. As per a study carried out by Twilio, 9/10 users prefer to connect with the brands via messages. So, this is high time to implement the chatbot for your travel brand. We’re looking to make it happen for you by developing a customised chatbot catering to your business services and their needs. We are so excited to see the success that our chatbot would bring to your business. 

Want to know more about custom chatbot development? Get in touch with experts now to unlock everything you want to explore about the AI & ML, Chatbots, and other automation solutions IndiaNIC can provide depending upon your business needs.