Amazon Alexa Echo speakers have emerged as a mainstream consumer product, serving as a way for customers to control their ‘smart’ devices and appliances from a single place. More recently, Amazon have also brought the technology into hotels and resorts, with the launch of a dedicated Alexa for Hospitality service.
In this article, you will learn more about Amazon Echo speakers and their current and future roles within hotels.
Alexa for Hospitality is a version of Amazon’s virtual assistant technology, which has been designed specifically for use within hotels and hospitality businesses. The hospitality version of the service was launched in June 2018 and has already been adopted by a number of major hotel companies, including Marriott, Autograph Collection and the Wynn. It can be integrated with existing smart devices and allows those in the hospitality industry to offer a more personalized guest experience.
The Alexa for Hospitality offering has the potential to improve the customer experience in a number of exciting ways. The service can be tailored to each individual location, enabling it to be connected to things like room service offerings and restaurant booking processes, and allowing guests to order food or book a table just by speaking.
Moreover, the device can be connected to controls within the room, such as the lights, heating, ventilation and air conditioning. This could mean that a simple voice command like: “Alexa, turn off the lights” will allow the lights to be turned off from anywhere in the room, including from the bed.
Amazon have also already announced intentions to expand the technology further, allowing hotel guests to connect their own Amazon account to the Amazon Alexa Echo speakers.
For customers, one of the major concerns related to Amazon Alexa Echo speakers is the question of privacy, and with the Alexa for Hospitality service this is even more important, because multiple guests will be using the service. However, Amazon have taken steps to reassure hotel owners and their guests of safety in this area.
Recordings of commands given to the Alexa for Hospitality device are automatically deleted every day, and hotel owners are unable to access either the recordings or the responses from Alexa, guaranteeing privacy for guests. Furthermore, once the feature is available, the account link-up will automatically disconnect upon check out.
Hotel owners are able to manually reset devices for the next guest, and can use some data for analytics purposes, such as engagement levels associated with specific services. However, all voice communications are encrypted.
Customers who are extremely concerned about privacy can also press the microphone on/off button to turn the device off. When it is turned off, the Amazon Alexa Echo speakers will no longer listen and will no longer respond to the wake up command, until such time as the microphone is turned back on.
Visit https://www.homekit.ae/alexa-for-hospitality for more information.
Comments