New to chatbots? Learn how to book your next vacation using one
Chatbots aren’t a new technology — in fact, the first ones appeared in the 1960s — but they truly emerged as an interface for consumer interaction only in 2016. Talking to these new chatbots works just like messaging a friend. Businesses will take advantage of this natural form of communication to connect with people in an automatized way over their favorite messaging app.
Chatbots are not yet being used by the majority of people, but the expectations are high. Brands and companies main focus with chatbots will be to provide information and help people complete tasks — as machine learning allow chatbots to become more and more sophisticated. This means that on-demand information will be available 24/7 and companies’ services will be 1-click away in a more natural and conversational way.
There are already chatbots for all kinds of things, from weather updates to productivity, but travel companies are among the most active in the chatbots space, with many chatbots already released on Facebook Messenger and Slack. As we move forward in 2017 chatbots will become more and more present in people’s lives, particularly in the travel industry.
If you work in this industry, you may be asking how you can take advantage of these new technology. While most of these chatbots have yet to become viable alternatives to existing travel planning, it will be only a matter of time before people embrace booking by messaging. Maybe you haven’t yet tried a travel chatbot, but since chatbots represent the next digital shift in consumers’ behavior, it’s time to give them a try.
Start by choosing the flight for your next trip…
Like any interaction through messaging, the process begins by starting a conversation with the brand where you want to book your flight. You will then provide the necessary information to choose the best flight and book it.
Plenty of companies are understanding the potential of flight booking through chatbots, including the global metasearch engine for information Skyscanner and airline carriers as KLM and Icelandair. Airliners are using different approaches, though. Whilst with KLM you can’t actually book a flight with the bot (once you have booked the flight in their website you will have the possibility of checking in using Facebook Messenger and also receive the boarding pass and real time information on delays), with Icelandair you can actually complete all the booking process within the bot.
How to do it
To get a feel of what is like to book a flight through chatbots, we recommend to try Icelandair Facebook Messenger bot. For the time being, the bot only responds to queries in English.
1. Open Icelandair Messenger Chatbot in your mobile device or in your laptop (we recommend mobile, as the overall user experience is better);
2. Type ‘Book a flight’ or ‘Book a Stopover’;
3. The bot will guide you through the process — just answer the questions (cities/dates/class/number of people);
4. Once you’ve found one flight you like, you will navigate out of Messenger to a webview where you can complete the actual booking.
…and then book your hotel
Expedia was one of the first brands introducing a chatbot in Facebook Messenger, empowering people to book hotels in the same way they speak with their friends. By answering questions such as the destination, travel dates and how many nights you want to book, the bot help travelers finding “the best deals” and shows “five of the most popular hotels for those dates.” Travelers can then select a hotel, view all the details and complete the booking.
Other chatbot technology providers, as HiJiffy, are offering a white label solution for hotels so that guests can book the hotel in a direct way from the hotel’s Facebook Messenger branded page (you can try our demo here). The chat is not limited to booking, and offer other functionalities as mobile check-in prior to guest’s arrival, access to the hotels services during stay and mobile check-out.
How to do it
To check how you can book an hotel through bots, we recommend to try Expedia chatbot in Facebook Messenger. As with Icelandair, the bot only responds to queries in English.
1. Open Expedia Messenger chatbot in mobile or desktop.
2. Click “Get Started” and answer all the following questions (city / date / number of nights).
3. Choose the hotel you want.
4. Book the hotel using the Expedia webview inside Facebook Messenger
There are many more travel bots to try
Now that you have tried chatbots and are familiar with how they work, you can explore many more by yourself.
SnapTravel uses a combination of artificial and human intelligence to find you a hotel based on your budget and preferences via SMS, Facebook Messenger and Slack, searching in the process more than 100 sites.
Cheapflights will help you book your flights and hotels. They also have an “inspire me” feature in which the bot will suggest destinations to visit, based on the conversation you’re having.
Hipmunk travel search website launched a travel agent powered by A.I. on Facebook Messenger and Slack, that will also help book hotels and flights, creating fare alerts and get travel advice.
Kayak chatbot offers the possibility to book hotel, flight, car hire search and things to do. It’s also possible to get travel advice (e.g., “when is the best time to fly to Barcelona?”)
