Amazon Launches Alexa for Hospitality; Marriott Signs In

AMAZON EARLIER this week launched Alexa for Hospitality, a new experience offered by invitation to hoteliers that brings the simplicity and convenience of Alexa to hotels, vacation rentals, and other hospitality locations. Alexa for Hospitality is available to hotels by invitation, with Marriott International introducing the new Alexa experience at select properties in Marriott Hotels, Westin Hotels & Resorts, St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, Aloft Hotels, and Autograph Collection Hotels starting this summer.

Soon, Alexa for Hospitality will support the ability for Amazon customers to temporarily connect their Amazon account to the Alexa-enabled device in their room. Once connected, guests will be able to play their personal music from services including Amazon Music, Spotify, and Pandora; and listen to audiobooks with Audible. When a guest checks out, Alexa for Hospitality automatically disconnects their Amazon account from the in-room device.

 Jennifer Hsieh, Vice President Customer Experience Innovation, Marriott International commented on this partnership, “So many of our guests use voice technology in their home, and we want to extend that convenience to their travel experience. Guests of Charlotte Marriott City Center and Marriott Irvine Spectrum will be among the first to experience a curated list of Alexa for Hospitality features. We will be evaluating guest feedback and adoption to inform how we expand the skills, features, and functionality offered through Alexa in our hotels.”

Park Inn by Radisson IP Extension was the world’s first hotel to launch its voice assistant-enabled smart hotel rooms through Alexa. “We launched Alexa for hospitality with a private developer (Kamakshi Clouds) in India almost a year back when Amazon had not launched Alexa in India. We noticed the potential use of Alexa in guest rooms and integrated our back-end system to it. The mechanism was feasible for us to integrate Alexa as we already had a framework and system to service guests,” says Saurav Dutta, General Manager, Park Inn By Radisson. The hotel is consistently working on new innovations to stay ahead of time.

When looking at the market made up of Amazon's Echo, the Google Home, Apple's HomePod and the Sonos One, Echo acquires a decent amount of market share. The demand is also accelerating across all age groups. While it’s not surprising, millennials and Gen X households are among the biggest smart-speaker owners, there's an increased interest among both consumers in the 18-to-24-year-old range and those 65 and older according to a study released by comScore. “These devices might find way into homes but it will take time for them to establish the trust among corporates. We have been taking a notice of corporates outside India testing Siri, Google and Alexa simultaneously. Alexa appeared to be most efficient among all,” Dutta Commented.