Dive Brief:
- IHG Hotels & Resorts is partnering with Google Cloud to build a generative AI-powered travel planner that will launch in the second half of 2024, the company shared.
- The travel planner, which will be available to guests via the IHG One Rewards mobile app, will respond to both broad and nuanced requests with recommendations and travel information.
- IHG sees investment in its mobile app and loyalty program technology as “critical” to growing customer loyalty and engagement. The company is the latest in a growing number of hospitality players to experiment with applications of generative AI in travel.
Dive Insight:
IHG said its travel planner will be able to respond to requests as complex as, “Give me four late-night dinner options near the InterContinental London Park Lane," or "What jazz shows are happening near the Holiday Inn Express Manhattan Times Square South the weekend of October 12th?"
Jolie Fleming, IHG’s chief product and technology officer, said the goal is to make “trip planning easier and more interactive for prospective travelers.”
IHG sees investments in its One Rewards app and other tech that supports its loyalty program as “critical parts of IHG’s efforts to grow customer loyalty and engagement,” according to the company’s release. Choosing Google Cloud as the company’s AI innovation partner will allow it to “move quickly to deploy features loved by guests,” it said.
Google Cloud’s AI platform Vertex AI and Google’s Gemini AI models will be used to develop the travel planner.
"This implementation of generative AI combines Google’s technical expertise with IHG’s commitment to service, raising the bar for how the hospitality industry thinks about guests’ digital experiences,” Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud’s CEO, said in a statement.
IHG first tapped Google Cloud as its cloud provider in 2022, when the company migrated some of its data to a serverless data warehouse. It decided to deepen its relationship with Google Cloud for AI innovation based on the tech provider’s suite of consumer products and services that IHG believes will further personalize the traveler experience.
The hotel company also pointed to Google Cloud’s cybersecurity, data governance and privacy approaches — as well as its ethical stance on AI — as key advantages of the partnership.
Last June, Google Cloud partnered with Priceline to build an AI-powered chatbot that will help travelers search and book hotels and flights, as well as access customer support. And last week, Marriott announced its Bonvoy loyalty program was testing an AI-based search function intended to personalize travel planning.
Increasing demand from travelers is pushing more hotels to embrace generative AI, Minwoo Lee, associate professor and director of hospitality analytics and innovation at the University of Houston, previously told Hotel Dive. The technology can be applied in areas as diverse as strategic management, hotel operations, hotel marketing and human resources and talent management, Lee added.
According to Deloitte, generative AI travel agents will grow in popularity in coming years, with travelers turning to the technology to book trips that are optimized for pricing, loyalty memberships and cancellation policies.
