The Metaverse is considered to be the next step of internet evolution. Many have heard of it and think it is not yet relevant to the hotel industry. In this article, we will explore the opportunities it brings for the hospitality industry and the role of artificial intelligence and data in accommodating the Metaverse.

What opportunities does the Metaverse bring to the hospitality industry?

The Metaverse is a virtual reality that merges social media features, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), online gaming, and crypto-currencies. The Metaverse is the next stage of the internet, providing interconnected and decentralized virtual environments.

In the future, many hoteliers are likely to overlook the Metaverse as it appears to be another fantasy. These hoteliers are probably the same people who thought no one would book a room via artificial intelligence...

Artificial Intelligence can help hotels increase direct bookings by 11%. In fact, in 2021 alone, Velma, the best hotel chatbot, generated nearly $140 million in booking requests for hotels...Reality is sometimes cruel.

The Metaverse offers users the possibility to gain access to the most prestigious hotels in the world, visit rooms, and even book one! This opens up a whole new sales channel for hotels.

But why would customers be interested in a virtual room? The answer is that they will be able to enjoy many reservation-related activities: a relaxation session held by a sophrologist, a salsa class or why not learn to bake.

As the hotel will provide the link, why not also take advantage of it to discover the best of its partners. For example, guests will be able to admire the hotel's decor and buy the objects they like (lamps, armchairs, paintings, etc.).

But above all, the metaverse will expand the customer experience. A customer who has booked in the hotel (the real one) will have the right, after his departure, to access all the hotel's services in the metaverse during a given period.

The existence of a hotel in a prime location in the Metaverse will generate business just like a great location in the real world. The virtual hotel will then be used for promotion, brand awareness, business lead generation, and virtual and real direct sales.

In addition, some hotels will generate more business in the Metaverse than in the physical world. The reason is simple: the number of guests in the Metaverse is unlimited, unlike the capacity of nonvirtual l hotels.

What are the prerequisites for a presence in the Metaverse? The proper use of artificial intelligence…

In the Metaverse, guests will interact with your hotel through a virtual assistant, aka the hotel avatar. The avatar, the keystone of the customer experience, will manage thousands of personalized interactions every day. Hotel avatars will be based on the cumulative experiences and interactions of chatbots. We are talking about third-generation chatbots for hotels, like Velma from Quicktext, based on an industry-specific NLU (Natural Language Understanding) linked to structured data and supervised by an experienced team to ensure proper learning.

The need for structured data

A hotel currently needs more than 1000 data points to answer frequently asked questions: parking height, restaurant dress code, airport shuttle, gluten-free breakfast, etc. However, in the majority of cases, hotels have little to no control over this data.

Today, this information is more readily available via Booking.com, Expedia, etc. It is therefore in the hotels' best interest to start using structured data now. Google's algorithms already favor these data in their search results. The importance of structured data is a current challenge that will only increase with the presence of hotels in the Metaverse.

Move to a new generation of PMS and booking engines.

Hotels will need to be able to offer a whole new range of products and services with constant change. The PMS of the future will need to be open in the cloud and extremely flexible, i.e. built on independent racks (microservices) based on open APIs.

The booking engines will also have to evolve significantly in the future to keep up with the development of current e-commerce systems. Consequently, some hotels will generate more revenue in the Metaverse compared to the non-virtual world.

A CRM for all types of customers.

Hoteliers are starting to use CRMs to accompany a customer throughout their journey (before, during, and after their stay). At best, a room rental, a restaurant reservation, a drink at the bar, etc... Imagine the power of a CRM for a customer who will use physical goods and digital goods (courses, shows, art, etc.). This increasing diversification of services multiplied by an exponential number of customers will force hotels to quickly improve their CRM to be ready for this revolution.

What types of transactions in the Metaverse

As soon as transactions are made, it will be necessary to use a currency, and what better than crypto-currencies? In each universe, an independent hotel or hotel chain could decide either to apply an existing crypto-currency or to create its own.

This currency will be associated with a title to prove the purchase of a good or service. This is where NFTs play their part, leading to the emergence of a virtual economy of digital goods trading in the hotel’s source of business (room, subscription). The owner of a particular room at a given date will be able to change several times. It is very likely that the person who bought the room is not the one who will sleep in it.

In this context, CitizenM will open a hotel in Sandbox and consequently issue NFTs with exchangeable rights to any of the group's hotels in the real world.

As you have seen, the hotel industry in the metaverse is much more than a simple digital double. It will be a new promotional tool, a new sales channel, but above all, it will be a whole new world of opportunities for those who take the plunge before others... You might as well get started right away. Later on, opportunities will be expensive.

This article is a summary of three articles published in the last three months.

About Quicktext

Quicktext was founded in 2017 by Daniel C. Doppler and Benjamin Devisme. More than 75 employees form its teams in 10 offices around the world.

Europe: London, Paris, Barcelona, Prague
Americas: New York, Mexico, Punta Cana,
Asia and Oceania: Guangzhou, Bangkok, Melbourne.

To date, more than 1400 hotels in 76 countries are already using Quicktext and Velma, its AI.

For further information:

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