Brief:
- Red Roof, the hotel chain with more than 500 properties in the U.S., introduced a skill for Amazon Alexa that lets people ask questions about making travel plans, including "can I bring my dog?" or "do you have any deals?," according to a press release by the company.
- The hotel company plans to add travel booking to its Alexa skill in the future and will add additional information based on the upcoming response from consumers, per the release. The Red Roof skill is available for free from the Skills hub in the Amazon Alexa app.
- Red Roof plans to roll out an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot and Quickbook feature for its website to help ease the process of booking a hotel. Last year, the brand redesigned its website into a mobile-first platform to better connect with on-the-go customers who often use their smartphones to browse while traveling.
Insight:
Red Roof is among the brands that aim to strengthen their relationships with customers on voice-enabled platforms like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple's Siri. The hotel brand cited Google research showing that 72% of digital assistant users engage with devices like Amazon Echo or Google Home on a daily basis.
Two of out five people (41%) said using the voice-enabled systems feels like talking to a friend, per the study of 1,600 people reported by Fast Company. The research found that 52% of voice assistant owners are interested in learning about deals or sales via the hands-free device, 48% would seek personalized tips, 42% want to hear details on upcoming events or activities, 39% to get business information like store locations or hours and 38% for customer service.
Amazon wants more brands and publishers to get on board with developing skills for Alexa. The e-commerce giant yesterday introduced a test version of a redesigned Alexa Skills Kit Developer Console that voice app developers can use to more easily create skills for their customers. The new console is focused on making developer workflows better, per TechCrunch, and now has distinct sections for "build," "test," "launch" and "measure." The changes allow developers to more easily create skills, test how they perform, push them live and track consumer responses, TechCrunch noted.
