Dive Brief:
- In a bid to elevate the owner and guest experience, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has officially rolled out its Wyndham Connect guest engagement platform across North America, the hotel company announced Monday.
- In addition to engaging guests, the AI-driven platform was designed to drive revenue for owners by elevating their service and making their day-to-day operations run more seamlessly, according to Wyndham. The platform first launched in September at Wyndham’s annual global conference.
- Wyndham Chief Commercial Officer Scott Strickland said the platform will help franchisees “manage their businesses more efficiently and curate guest experiences to make stays more meaningful,” resulting in “happier guests, higher chances for repeat business and money in franchisees’ pockets.”
Dive Insight:
As of Monday, nearly 2,000 hotels in North America have started using Wyndham Connect, powered by hospitality tech provider Canary Technologies, Wyndham shared.
The platform offers benefits including AI-assisted messaging, which hotels can use to respond to common guest questions via text message before, during or after their stay.
The platform also enables mobile check-in and checkout, helping to speed up the arrival and departure processes and verify guest information in advance. The feature can help protect hotels from chargebacks and allows owners to notify housekeeping staff when rooms are available, according to Wyndham.
Wyndham Connect also includes integrated mobile tipping, allowing guests — increasingly carrying less cash — to leave tips for staff. Strickland, formerly Wynhdam’s chief information officer whom the company recently appointed as chief commercial officer, previously told Hotel Dive that mobile tipping has the ability to significantly increase staff’s overall pay.
According to Wyndham, the engagement platform was “designed to increase profitability” for owners — and it’s already working for some.
Ajit Patel, a Wyndham franchisee, said in a statement that the relationships he’s able to build and grow with guests through Wyndham Connect have resulted in “hundreds of dollars a week that I’d otherwise miss out on.”
Over the last six years, Wyndham has invested nearly $325 million into sales, marketing and digital innovations aimed at elevating the owner and guest experience, the company detailed in the Monday release.
Wyndham’s tech strategy focuses heavily on AI, with the company adopting AI at call centers, incorporating natural language AI into its systems and using the tech to analyze and forecast rate and occupancy optimization opportunities, according to the company.
Other hotel players like Marriott International have begun prioritizing AI to boost the guest experience as well. And experts told Hotel Dive at the beginning of the year that generative AI will be a leading technology trend in the hospitality industry in 2024.
