“AVA allows us to interact with our in-house guests more frequently, collect, collate and process their feedback and requests more efficiently, plus analyze user data. We feel this helps us understand the guest better, strengthening their connection with us,”
Daniel Kerr, Chatrium Grand Bangkok General Manager
We had the opportunity to sit down with Daniel Kerr, General Manager of the newly opened Chatrium Grand Bangkok luxury hotel and get his insights on the future of the Thai luxury hospitality industry, the importance of innovation, and Chatrium Grand Bangkok’s pioneering role as the first luxury hotel in Bangkok powered by Aiello Voice Assistant (AVA).
The way we embrace technology at Chatrium Hospitality is to give employees and customers the tools they need to get their information quickly and efficiently. We automate wherever we can, but at the end of the day, the most essential thing about hospitality is human relationships. Our tools are here to support and enhance those relationships, not replace them. AVA allows us to interact with our in-house guests more frequently, collect, collate and process their feedback and requests more efficiently, plus analyze user data. We feel this helps us understand the guest better, strengthening their connection with us.
Chatrium Grand Bangkok is a flagship property for Chatrium Hospitality. Therefore, what we’re looking to do is built on what we are known for, which is the tagline of ‘Feel the Remarkable’. What we envisage to do is provide people with experiences that are memorable and also utilize technology, space, and location to be able to give guests a wonderful, rounded experience.
We believe that hotel technology should be simple and intuitive so that guests can have an enjoyable stay. We also believe that technology should be as unobtrusive as possible so that guests don’t have to worry about whether they’re getting the best service. Chatrium’s vision is to have one seamless system managing the front and back of the house. That way, employees can focus on customer service rather than data entry and other routine tasks. Voice AI offers a smoother customer journey with reduced customer care costs and is also available round-the-clock. Other benefits include possibly more conversions through data-driven recommendations and improved end-user experience.
For us, I think we’re always looking at ways we can better connect with our guests and understand what it is that they are looking for. So, it comes really in two parts for us. And the first part is obviously to provide our guests with seamless experiences connected with technology. Guests these days have expectations that technology plays a large part in their stay and also in their daily lives. So, to be able to connect with our Chatrium Connect App and also with our team means that we can better cater to what our guests are looking for. From an analysis perspective, it gives us a great opportunity to understand what our guests need, what our guests want, how can we adjust our offering to better cater to the needs of our guests. I think that is a very critical part of building better guest experiences and the collection of data that we can get from having such a system in place.
The exciting part for us is when we do the room introduction for our guests. Then we show our guests our rooms, explain and have the welcome message coming from AVA, there’s immediate excitement from them because it is something that is new and cool. So, this is the exciting part for us. Being able to have that ease of connection between our team and our guests is a great benefit for us right from the start.
The feedback so far has been very positive. We have guests from many countries coming to visit us. So, we traditionally have face-to-face language barriers, misunderstandings, and miscommunications, and these systems help to reduce those and also allow us quicker reaction time to be able to provide for our guests. I think as we move forward and collect more data, then it will also be better for our guests to understand more about Bangkok and Chatrium Grand Bangkok. We are looking to implement functions to increase our ancillary sales as well, from food and beverage restaurants and things like that.
Well, from our side, it’s very good to be the first. I think that looking back to the feedback from our guests and also the information that we’ve collected thus far, I feel that it’s a wonderful technology that hopefully won’t catch on too quickly because it’s nice to have this story from a Chatrium point of view, but I can see that it will be utilized more and more, and I think quickly as well. So, for our side, the benefit comes from being the first. We can be collecting and building this data to help our guests and increase our level of service before those within our competition.
Aiello is a pioneering force in the hospitality industry, consistently advocating for bold and innovative hotels. Across Taiwan, Japan, and other countries, hotels equipped with AVA share Aiello’s vision of what luxury hospitality should be and how innovation and technology can help to achieve it. We are proud to see Chatrium Grand Bangkok leading the charge in embracing Voice AI and driving innovation in the Thai Hospitality market.
(Photo credit: Chatrium Grand Bangkok)
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