Connecting guests to hotels through Messaging Apps

Project Information

HiJiffy

Grant agreement ID: 782509

DOI

10.3030/782509

Project closed

EC signature date 6 July 2017

Start date 1 August 2017

End date 31 January 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

HORIZON BEHAVIOUR LDA
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HiJiffy (Connecting guests to hotels through Messaging Apps)

Reporting period: 2017-08-01 to 2018-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

HiJiffy rised from the need of decreasing OTAs commissions for hotels while driving more revenue, reducing friction in customer communication and improving overall service for hotels.
We want to provide hotels with a tool where consumers are able to access the hotel’s Facebook Messenger and check rooms prices and availability. After this, they are able to complete the booking process within Facebook Messenger. Hotels are already investing in social media marketing for brand awareness, to promote our solution they just need to redirect a portion of the marketing spend within social media advertising to messenger where they will have our chatbot implemented. The major advantage is that they never lose the guest to other third parties websites, having an open channel of communication with them.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Our solution offer hotels a tool where consumers are able to access the hotel’s Facebook Messenger and check prices and availability. After this, consumers are able to complete the booking process within Facebook Messenger.
As a conversational tool, we wanted to validate that we know all the implications in terms of privacy data; the market is interested and prepared to start using such an innovative solution and that it’s possible to integrate our solution with current technology providers for hotels. With these goals in mind, we performed three main tasks:
1) We have worked with a law firm with renowned data protection specialists to understand data protection issues, taking a hands-on approach;
2) We made a survey to hotels to understand what channels are hotels using to drive bookings; how are hotels communicating with guests before, during and after their stay; and what are the biggest challenges hotels are facing in terms of technology;
3) We have made a survey to guests to understand how guests prefer to communicate to businesses, in particular with hotels; what are the main difficulties felt while booking a hotel room and what are the biggest pains felt while in a hotel.
We conclude that our idea is viable and that we will pursue the project. The action proved to be of vital importance to redefine our vision and show us the path we should take.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

After analyzing the surveys of guests and hotels, we have come to the conclusion that our messaging solution should be only focused for now on helping travelers make hotel reservations. This has shown us that our target customer are not only hotels, but also OTAs and Travel Agencies. We will positioning ourselves in the pre-booking phase of the guests journey, with a conversational tool that increases the reservations of our clients. Since customer care is a big concern for hotels, a customer service platform should be one of the pillars of our solution - something that had not been contemplated until now.

Consumer using HiJiffy to chat with the hotel and book their stay.