Amazon’s Alexa Checks Into Marriott Hotels

Just a few months ago, Hilton Hotels introduced the world to their high-tech “connected room” (If you missed this announcement, you can find a complete roundup here.) The important takeaway, though, is the latest technology has begun to transform the hospitality industry–more specifically, hotel rooms. In the hyper-competitive hospitality industry, we were expecting major hospitality brands to follow Hilton’s lead with their own high-tech rooms, and we were right! Hotel giant Marriott answered, bringing a household name to the in-room experience: Alexa.

Marriott will soon begin rolling out Amazon Echos in their hotel rooms. With the voice assistant, Marriott guests can complete a number of everyday tasks including ordering room service, turning on and off lights, setting an alarm, calling the front desk, and more. Rollout of this program will begin this summer to a select number of Marriott brands.

With Alexa’s ability to customize the guest experience to the specific hotel property, Amazon has dubbed this initiative Alexa for Hospitality. This collaboration between Marriott and Amazon uses technology that guests are already using in their own homes to transform the typical hotel experience into a personalized, more convenient stay.

It’s easy to see how this move will pay off big time for Marriott, with adoption of smart speakers still steadily increasing in homes across the country. Marriott’s move to integrating a high-tech device like an Amazon Echo into the guest experience will not only compete with Hilton’s “connected room,” it may very well outshine it. Only time will tell, but either way, guests win with more convenient, personalized stays thanks to emerging technology.

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