Just a few weeks ago, Marriott International began testing search using artificial intelligence tools on its Homes & Villas website.
The initiative is based on natural language search and allows users to describe what they want for their vacation. The tool is currently in a testing phase, and the hotel giant plans to use lessons learned from this small part of the business to eventually roll it out more broadly across the group, including its main sites.
“AI is obviously a big topic and it's going to transform so many things, so that's something we want to experiment with,” said Drew Pinto, executive vice president and chief revenue and technology officer at Marriott International.
“We have something called. [generative] The AI incubator we established is a place where we can try out proofs of concept and organize all the ideas companies have about how to use this technology. One of the top things was search. How can you make your searches more effective, targeted, and engaging for your customers? ”
The AI search tool is still in its early stages but has been well-received, Pinto added, but customers still need to enter their destination and dates when using the natural language-based search.
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“It's too early to talk about conversions, but I'm sure people are trying it and I think this is an indication of what's to come. We'll take the good and the bad from there. We're finding out here, and I think a lot of people in the industry are learning the same thing, and it's unlocking a lot. I think it's also very difficult to implement. There's a lot to learn about the demand for these languages, the cost of it, the security and privacy parts, and we're excited to do it. But we're going to be very careful about how we enter this space.”
Pinto said the launch-and-learn approach is a bit unusual for the company. In the past, we would often complete something new before putting it in front of employees or customers, but now that the risk is perceived to be lower, we're happier putting it out into the world and evaluating feedback.
Another example is the recently launched Global Dining Portal. It brings together the company's collection of bars and restaurants and allows customers to search across its services again using natural language.
“This brings all the disparate content that would otherwise be hard for customers to see in one place, making it much easier to discover.”
How you think is important
Pinto admits it may be a little rough around the edges at the moment, but it's part of a change in philosophy.
“I think this reflects our new attitude. If it's an area of our business where we think we can tolerate some level of risk, then we'll give our customers and employees the pros and cons. Let me know what you think. And then we'll adjust as needed and really improve. I think it's going to be a reflection of my vision. , to be the best-in-class travel retailer.”
Pinto has been in the newly created role within Marriott for 14 months, combining revenue and technology functions.
“At least in the 20 years I've been here, I've never had a role like this,” Pinto said. “The idea behind it was to integrate all our commercial functions with the digital and technology areas. We have a head office and a continental structure, and we've brought it all together and combined it with leading companies.The increasingly important delivery points are, of course, digital and technology.”
He added that feedback over the past year has been good. “We feel like we're having very commercial conversations, and we especially feel that our digital and technology teams are becoming more integrated into the business strategy. So we're learning as we go. But I think it was a really good idea.”
However, the development of AI, travel retail strategy, and Pinto's broader remit are part of a larger technology transformation with an eye toward replacing three core technologies: property management systems (PMS), central reservation systems (CRS), and loyalty platforms. It is also part of.
Similar to the message many travel companies are currently communicating, he added that it all starts with making the customer experience more digital. He also promised to take into consideration the company's employees, creating more efficient processes and freeing up employees for other tasks.
“Guests who book with us or stay at our hotels expect us to have similar features to assist them in their daily lives and with the purchase of other products. We were in a position to make some of it happen, but not all of it, and certainly not at the speed or scale that we would like. So the reality is that our investment is recognition. It's not so much that we have this big technology project, which is true, but that we're going to invest more time, focus, energy, and of course financial resources into these areas going forward. is.”
I think it reflects our new attitude. If it's an area of our business and you think you can tolerate some risk, ask your customers and employees to tell you the good and the bad. Then adjust as needed and actually improve.
Drew Pinto – Marriott International
Clearly, this transformation has spilled over to the top of the organization, with Chief Financial Officer Reenie Oberg commenting earlier this year that Marriott would be investing more heavily in technology than usual. “Full-year investment spending could total $1 billion to $1.2 billion,” he said when announcing full-year 2023 results in February. This includes an additional year of technology investments, greater than the past year. ”
“This is a really clear commitment,” Pinto added. “This is a new way of thinking, and it is so important to our business that it has no beginning and end,” he added.
New partners, modern platforms
And in parallel with the large-scale replacement of CRS and PMS, the company is working with technology providers such as Amadeus, Agilisys and Oracle to improve its infrastructure to ensure the platform “reaches the latest scalable cloud-based standards.” We are also making changes. Everything you see and read about the right way to build a sustainable and flexible technology platform for tomorrow's demands is part of the plan. ”
Development on the loyalty side is still in its early stages. Bonvoy Loyalty It's surprising that Marriott wants to modernize its platform, as its program's membership grows and its associated app will increase the company's room nights by 22% year over year in 2023. Not.
“It's really early days. We don't know all the vendors. At its core, our loyalty platform runs on systems on mainframes. It's been around for years, and we don't know all the vendors. We have some great ideas and are looking for features that would allow us to customize the loyalty program for Bonvoy members, making it more personalized and more streamlined. Some are actually on the market. There are many others on the shelf that are facing limitations in what they can and cannot do with older mainframes.”
With such a significant technology transformation underway, Pinto believes that the complexity of it all is the biggest challenge, in addition to having to deal with the rapid pace of technological change, especially when it comes to AI. I think there is.
“We have a lot of things we're working on at the same time, but we realize that this is definitely one of the largest technology transformations ever done in our industry in the history of our company. So I think it's just making sure that we're working very diligently on program management, vendor relationships, scope, prioritization, etc. I'm very confident that we're going to be successful with this setup.” Tony [Capuano] That obviously reflects in our structure and our oversight of it. The board is very involved and supportive. It's just a big undertaking. We've decided to make some pretty ambitious plans here, and we're OK with that because we know what it's capable of for us and our customers. We just need to manage that complexity. ”
