[Festival] Hotel industry 2.0 with Alexa, home automation, chatbots and others

[Stephanie]

Picture: Mr. Pepper, the digital concierge, in action.

This is part of the CC Festival of hospitality, original topic created in the German speaking Community Center, by @Veronica & Richard and translated below.

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Meaning and purpose (motivation)

The hospitality industry is not exactly known for modernisation, but there are some good approaches to optimisation and initial experiences.

In this article I will give an overview about digitisation, automation and chatbots... in the accommodation industry.

Because this article is only the short version, the full version is worth-reading and accessible in this link.

The content is essentially taken from forum contributions in the German-speaking Airbnb Community Center and enriched with practical examples.

The aim of the use of digitalisation in the hotel industry (as well as the availability of language assistants, chatbots and modern home automation) is to better recognise and serve the needs of guests. It is also to minimise and automate the processes and overheads of the accommodation (personnel and budget savings).

The use of digital application may increase the occupancy rate of smaller hostels and private accommodations, but these days hotels are usually already fully booked so can only improve cost-saving through automation. Such considerations include personnel costs, income through additional services and improved customer satisfaction & loyalty.

Definitions

The terms like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Chatbots are voice or text activated software applications that can be connected to software and the internet. You can find out more from Wikipedia.

The worldwide spread of language assistants is enormous; in early 2019 Amazon announced that it had sold over 100 million Alexa devices so far.

Innovation is also progressing well in the hospitality sector, with numerous documents published in major hotel magazines. 

Also, in retirement homes and student residences, the innovation rises by leaps and bounds and is supported by large companies such as Amazon, Google, and Apple and strongly promoted.

We make exhaustive use of automation in our detached house which has received much astonishment and recognition from our guests. We’ve never seen a bad reaction!

Concerns

It’s often warned of the "tracking" of personal and private information by language assistants, plus there is also talk of getting digital "virus’" into the accommodation. However, you can also just turn them off and the host is actually legally obliged to do this should the guests request as such.

Information knowledge of the Airbnb CC

Through the CC at Airbnb, many people with an affinity for technology have their thoughts, and bring up-to-date and very informative aspects of modernisation into the discussion.

There are no comparable communication platforms anywhere in the hotel and accommodation industry: Airbnb is a beacon for other platforms!

In the long-form of this article, you will find coverage of the following topics:

- Advantages of modern technology

- Our home automation at home in your home of trust

- Automation and digitization in hotels

- indoor navigation

- language assistants

- chatbots

- Digital Concierge

- The future of emergent tech

- Beacons

- Google Maps

- 3D printer

- Door locks, access systems

- Heating, temperature, heating control

- Lighting, Smart LED

- entertainment

- IFTT

- NINA Storm Centre

- Fire detectors, air quality control

- information

- style guide

- extra services

- communication

- robots

- Artificial Intelligence

- Alexa

- Safety and security

- issues

- device binding

- future prospects

An example of our guest information with Alexa as information provider, animated by Fish Big-Mouth-Billy-Bass:

"Alexa, where's breakfast?"

Link: http://www.zur-fledermaus.de/mov/alexa-fisch.mov

Humanity

After all that, I want to remind you that innovative technology is not the be-all and end-all but exists to help people, bring them more joy to their lives and, of course, to serve security and save costs. 

And it must never be forgotten that the guest as a person is the centre of attention - and not a hindrance to your technological fun! :-).

Veronica and Richard

[Miloud0]

Salute, 

Thank you very much for sharing with us this interesting topic. 

Thanks, 

Miloud

[Helen427]

@Veronica-and-Richard0  thank you for sharing your Alexa Home automation chatbox, your fish video clip is enlightening.

How long did it take you to master such technology?

Did you make the fish yourself?

All the best.

[Veronica-and-Richard0]

Hallo, @Helen427 , smart home can start in small pieces;

today i sam a bitcom review that 31% of the german households use smart home tec.

I am system programmer and smart home and automation is my hobby and i make smart home several years and make more and more enhancements - technology grows.

My actual explorations are homebridge and node-red that make it possible to SIRI act with the smart elements, ...

In sum i have ~ 100 smart home devices and several tousend of configuration and program lines to use these.

Clearly this big amount is nothing for an old grandma to configure but smart home things get more and more easier to be handled by persons without tec background.

Much success

[Helen427]

Wow, 100 smart home devices.

LOL the old Grandmas of this world are getting Tech savy as well, some smarter than us younger folk.

Now that's something us ABB CC folk can do, guess what your Smart Home Devices are.

I'll start the ball rolling and guess @Veronica-and-Richard0 

Mr Pepper

Alexa Fish
TV
Mobile phone

Microwave

Internet

Window opening and closing

Curtain/ blinds opening and closing

Bed adjustments

Computer

Stove

Kettle/ jug

Toaster

Vacuum cleaner

I'll leave the rest to @Stephanie @Miloud0  and the all others here in the International Community Centre to add to as this is about all of us wherever we are from in the ABB community.

Tick which ones we are all correct in guessing!

[Stephanie]

HAHA @Helen427 

I could even begin to list the tech in my house but I'm a proper geek. Needless to say, I found @Veronica-and-Richard0 super interesting. My Alexa is going to be controlling my outdoor lighting before you know it.

[Veronica-and-Richard0]

to be honest, i dont have Mr. Pepper at home, is too expensive (>>20000 EUR)

I know that after his official release all th 1000 exemplars were sold within 1 minute

Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_(robot)

[Veronica-and-Richard0]

@Helen427: i looked deeper in my config and found 180 smart home devices, +18 smart lights 🙂

[Miloud0]

Salute @Helen427, 

From my side i usually prefer to show my guests the things which could be new for them like traditional things. 

Thanks, 

Miloud

[Elizabeth935]

I have my Alexa programmed to give info on local food and activity recommendations.  Additionally, it is programmed to Welcome the guests.   I love the advantages of pre-programming these skills has created.  It saves lots of texting back and forth with the guests as they can just ask Alexa for most of the questions. 

[Veronica-and-Richard0]

Hm, i wrote how i can Alexa let speak in 7 languages and 28 different voices,

see https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Gastgeben/Alexa/td-p/381519/page/23

and i let Alexa become a chatbot to give info to the guests,

see https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Gastgeben/Digitale-Sprachassistenten/m-p/1025424

(sorry, is in german)

[Rishabh10]

This is an awesome tip!!! Thanks a lot for sharing. 

[Maria-Clarissa0]

Thank you @Veronica-and-Richard0 for the useful tips regarding fully automation!

Just curious, whilst these are definitely very convenient amenities for guests, how do you teach how to use them?

I do not provide much electronics in my space and yet I constantly get messages from guests asking how to operate basic facilities such as the elevator and turning on the portable wi-fi. I provided a print out of detailed instruction on operating the device in my room in two languages and of course, guests never really read them.

So, I am wondering how you managed to ensure guests can utilize the automation effectively.

[Veronica-and-Richard0]

Hallo, @Maria-Clarissa0 , we give in our house some single rooms for guests, kitchen, bath, living room are shared with them.

The rooms dont have much electronical devices, only water boiler for tea 🙂

And TV; which is simple to use and if they have problems they can ask us:-)

The rest is automated:

the heating has a temperatur list for each half hour (18:00 21 degrees, 18:30 20 degrees ...)

If they want to get more or less degrees they have to tell me, temperature is centralized.

If the window is open (sensors), heating is degraded to 10 deg.

If is to hot, the ventilator will turn off.

You see, they dont need to know about the things.

One of my plans is tp design a seperate intranet site for each room with info of the room,

descriptions of the TV, where things are (like iron, ...) and where they can controll the temperature they want by themselves.

All other electric things, cables, ... should not be touched by the guests.

And no, at moment we dont have Alexa in the rooms; maybe later.

1 year ago i planned to install 3-dimensional navigation in the house, with beacons,

lookfor beacons in the german CC.

I placed beacons at the door of each room, the hosu entries, ...

But it showd thast these beacons are not accurate , especially when the rooms (and their doors)

are only 1-2 meter distant.

For the house rules and info you can take a look at

http://www.zur-fledermaus.de/mu.html

Ok, ask if you have more question!

Best Regards and much success

[Maria-Clarissa0]

Hi @Veronica-and-Richard0 !

Thank you for your kind reply.

So basically your home heating system has a smart system that is so user friendly, the tenants do not have to do anything. Your smart home plan is very interesting indeed, I think the intranet site can be useful and should be the way forward for all future homes.

Thank you for sharing I will definitely keep that in mind (user friendliness) whenever I want to install new technology in my space.

Also your website is very cute. 🙂

All the best with your hosting experience!