The Post-Pandemic Revival for Iconic Hotel
Has Driven Nearly 20,000 Consumptions in Surrounding Businesses with Integration of AI Assistant
Opened in 2002, Farglory Hotel Hualien is the first five-star hotel as well as the only listed international hotel in Hualien. Together with the Farglory Ocean Park in eastern Taiwan, Farglory Hotel Hualien has always been one of the most profitable projects of Farglory Group.
In spite of such abundant natural and tourism resources it has, it still suffered a blow under the attack of Covid-19. Emily Liu, the general manager of Farglory Hotel Hualien, recalled that they had been receiving calls to cancel accommodation orders every day at that time. “The original average booking rate has suddenly dropped from 90% to single digits” said Ms. Liu.
Unlike other hotels, Ms. Liu positively believed that the pandemic was the best timing to make some changes. Farglory Hotel thus took advantage of the sluggish period of tourism business to renovate its property such as hotel lobby, restaurants, and over 300 guest rooms. Additionally, a new deployment featuring AI technology — Aiello Voice Intelligent Assistant, was also introduced to the hotel.
As Ms. Liu said, the guest expectation in travel and accommodation had become more diversified than ever, and the hotel should keep up. In the past, the hotel staff recorded all guest needs manually and answered guest inquiries by telephones. During the rush hour, it was likely for the hotel staff to miss guest demands due to busyness or human error. Yet, nowadays, through the AI voice assistant, guest’s demands or inquiries can be automatically converted into text, which saves the time spent on delivery and greatly improves service efficiency. Such a deployment can not only grant the hotel staff more time to interact and communicate with guests in depth, but also meet the needs of different groups of guests with various features built in.
With the confrontation of the pandemic, hospitality businesses and service providers regardless of size are all seriously affected. The integration of Aiello assistant thus became a solution for hotels since it is capable of improving the digital service process and boosting the surrounding tourism simultaneously. Ms. Liu reckons that as one the largest enterprise in Hualien County, the most meaningful and prior task for Farglory Hotel is to provide a promotion platform to 200+ local small holders and store owners through Aiello assistant. Guests can even scan the QR code shown on Aiello assistant to join the LINE membership system for more experiences and exploration in Hualien. Recommendations for attractions and food can be shown on Aiello assistant and be linked to LINE where provides coupons issued by local businesses or vacation tips or kits, etc. “In just a few months, we have added more than 2,000 new members and had nearly 20,000 coupons provided by surrounding shops downloaded, which is an experience that has never been seen before, and it makes the decision to deploy Aiello assistant very effective and worthy,” said Ms. Liu.
Farglory Hotel has never changed its belief that the pursuit of qualified service has no end. In the post-pandemic recovery, Aiello assistant makes it more convenient for hotels to proceed management, improves service quality, empowers guest experience, and enables hotels to get closer to the surrounding businesses by helping stimulate the consumption. In other words, with AI’s capability to strengthen data analysis and increase the information reach, the hotel services are no longer limited to the guests, the surrounding businesses have also taken part in the ecosystem for hotels to serve and cooperate with.
