Joint solution will launch in the US, Europe and Asia, creating a powerful hotel business tool from popular Amazon Echo hardware.
NEW YORK, NY – Volara, the voice-hub for the hospitality industry, and Knowcross, the global leader in providing software solutions for hospitality operations, announced an integration that will turn the Amazon Alexa into a powerful hotel business tool – driving efficiencies in guest service that are measurable and significant. The combined solution aims to seamlessly connect guests to hotel staff and services by voice command.
The integrated solution will be available to hotels across the world in early 2018.
Volara provides an easy, fun way for guests to request items, get recommendations, and generally engage with hotel staff and services without the hassle of picking up the antiquated landline telephone still found in every hotel room. Hotel guests can ask questions typically asked of a hotel concierge, valet, housekeeper or bellman.
“Alexa, ask the hotel to clean my room.”
“Alexa, ask the hotel to bring me a toothbrush.”
“Alexa, ask the hotel to replace the light bulb in the bathroom.”
Interactions like these will be integrated seamlessly with Knowcross and immediately dispatched to the appropriate hotel staff.
Through a seamless integration with a hotel’s Property Management Software (PMS) system, the Knowcross platform helps in automatically assigning jobs, managing room cleaning and enabling quick service recovery. This allows hotels to manage operations more efficiently and thus deliver an enhanced guest experience.
While the Volara-Knowcross integration will enable more efficient guest service, the solution will also provide insights from an aggregated interaction data that the hotel staff can use to improve guest services.
Volara, which leverages the Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Alibaba Genie platforms, engages guests today in leading branded properties including Westin Buffalo, Alexis Hotel by Kimpton Seattle, TheWit by Hilton DoubleTree Chicago, as well as boutique hotels including Acme Hotel Chicago, Inn at the Pier, Marina Del Rey Hotel and Hotel Walloon, among others.
“Volara’s integration with Knowcross will make a demonstrable impact on hotel service,” said David Berger, CEO of Volara. “Guests will get what they want, when they want it. And staff will be able to serve those guests more efficiently. Guests can make requests just by talking in their room and their requests are routed directly through Knowcross to the appropriate member of staff for fulfillment.”
“While the Volara-Knowcross integration will enable more efficient guest service – seamlessly routing requests prompted by voice command – the solution is also a lot of fun for guests to use and requires no additional training for the housekeeping staff,” noted Nikhil Nath CEO and Founder of Knowcross, “The future of hotel guest engagement is voice and Knowcross is excited to join Volara’s voice hub for the hospitality industry and offer this integrated solution to many customers.”
Angelos is the news editor for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). His role includes to monitor the hundrends of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skim the most important according to our strategy.
He currently studies Communication, Media & Culture in Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens.
