Dive Brief:
- Travel technology company Sabre debuted Lodging AI, an AI-powered enhancement designed to help travel agencies improve hotel attachment rates, create further revenue opportunities and personalize lodging options for travelers, the company announced Monday.
- The new product uses Sabre’s Travel AI to analyze property attributes, customer trip segmentation and traveler and agency preferences to generate lodging options that travelers are most likely to book.
- The “very powerful tool,” according to Sabre Chief Product Officer Garry Wiseman, removes friction from the travel booking process and helps meet guests’ increasing desire for personalization.
Dive Insight:
Sabre launched Lodging AI with two micro-services and plans to continue growing and evolving the product. Available via Content Services for Lodging APIs and Sabre Red 360, the Alternate Properties micro-service shows up to 20 relevant lodging options with similar attributes if a property is not available for a particular date. The Cross-sell micro-service identifies air bookings or itineraries with no lodging attached and presents suitable lodging options to complete the trip.
According to Sabre, Lodging AI will increase traveler value for agencies, improve duty of care and reporting for corporate travel managers with more trip components inside a PNR and present travelers with better, more customized travel options.
Lodging AI uses Google technology as part of the companies’ 10-year strategic partnership, which launched in 2020. Wiseman called Lodging AI “the next evolution of intelligent retailing capabilities supported through our strategic partnership with Google.”
“Lodging AI brings more personalized results to enable agents to be more efficient in their workflows and to ensure travelers obtain the most relevant options available,” Wiseman said in a statement.
According to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when they don’t occur. When it comes to hotels, AI can personalize a guest’s experience before they even book their stay, Kurt Weinsheimer, chief solutions officer at travel marketing platform Sojern, previously told Hotel Dive.
McKinsey reiterated the importance of personalization in its recent “hotel of the future” report, which noted that, in the 2030s, hotels will use data to offer “highly customized” experiences for guests.
