Ireland: Avvio has collaborated with Imperial Hotel Cork to secure a user experience (UX) award shortlisting for its guest-focused website and booking engine.
The four-star hotel in Cork has been nominated for the Innovation in UX Award at the inaugural UX Awards for its use of Allora – Avvio’s artificial intelligence (AI) powered booking engine – which has driven a 30 per cent increase in direct booking revenue year-on-year.
The award category recognises a project undertaken by an organisation specialising in UX that best demonstrates innovation whether in the form of a new product, packaging, use of technology or a strategic partnership.
In 2018, with close support from Avvio’s team, Imperial Hotel Cork transformed its website and booking engine to create a smoother and more responsive user journey, tailored to each individual customer.
With full AI capabilities, the booking engine can track and learn behaviour from every website visitor, adapting the booking journey to suit their needs.
This has resulted in the hotel reducing its reliance on online travel agents (OTAs), seeing a 30 per cent increase in the process in direct booking revenue and a 26 per cent increase in voucher sales year-on-year.
The hotel is competing with organisations across a variety of sectors that have implemented innovative UX projects. The winner will then be announced at Dublin’s Ballsbridge Hotel on 20 June.
Bastien Peyraud, general manager at Imperial Hotel Cork, said: “We’re thrilled to have been shortlisted for this prestigious UX award after working so hard to improve our online customer journey and boost direct bookings.
“In today’s world where most customers book online, a hotel’s digital interface must strive to offer the same levels of personalised customer service that our staff provide.
“Working with Avvio and using Allora has resulted in dozens of improvements to our website, this is what we have sought to do, and the results have been fantastic,” he added.
Avvio launched Allora, the world’s first AI-powered booking engine in October 2017 and has continued to refine it ever since. The AI constantly learns and develops its offering with every customer interaction that takes place.
Allora uses machine learning along with a networked intelligence data insight tool and its recommender engine to help deliver an unrivalled booking experience for guests.
Imperial Hotel rolled out the AI technology across its hotel booking system from July 2018 as part of its drive to create a better guest experience from start to finish. By using AI, the hotel’s booking engine can now offer relevant information, deals and discounts dependent on customer geography, browsing history, timing, interests and more.
Una Murphy, customer success team lead at Avvio, said: “We’re really proud of the results that our technology has bought to Imperial Hotel.
“This is an example of a really fantastic partnership between the property and our team who have worked together closely throughout to ensure the best possible set up for the hotel’s target customers.
“The results show what a huge difference it makes when you design a website and booking engine focused on guest experience,” she added.
