Source: Uniguest
Source: Uniguest

New York and Warrington, U.K. - Village Hotels has selected Volara to voice enable all guestrooms and guest services in its portfolio of hotels across the United Kingdom with Google’s hotel solution. Volara’s conversation-management software and secure integrations hub will enable guests staying at any of the innovative hotel brand’s 32 properties to use simple voice commands to interact with the hotel and personalise their experiences, from making service requests and setting alarms to asking for local recommendations and or hotel information.

Together, this technology will enable Village Hotels’ guests to get what they want, when they want it, without lifting a finger. Further, frequent guests of Village Hotels can easily make their next reservation at any Village Hotels location — from Portsmouth to Bristol to London — by simply saying, “Hey Google, call reservations.”

Volara’s platform-agnostic software turns popular voice assistants into a hotel business tool that drives more efficient guest service, influences guests’ behaviour by promoting hotel amenities and guest activities, measurably improves net promoter scores by 20 percent, and helps hoteliers understand their guests better. Volara’s secure integrations hub connects hotels to more than 50 powerful technologies, including property-management systems, IPTV systems, work order-management systems, room controls, guest-engagement platforms, valet software, staff alert technologies and more. Volara is the only hotel-focused solution with an Alexa for Business Solution Designation. Volara is a launch partner for Google’s Hotel Solution, Google Assistant Interpreter Mode, and Alexa for Hospitality. Today the company provides conversation management software and secure integrations for 98 percent of the hotels using voice assistants across the globe.

“Village Hotels are designed to give travelers a truly immersive guest experience,” said Jon Davis, Village Hotels CTO. “That means giving guests a contactless way to talk to us. We want to answer their questions and fulfill requests quickly and accurately without a lot of staff interaction. To do this ― as well as to get to know our customers better and anticipate their needs on future stays at any hotel in our system — Village has become the first hotel brand to commit to voice enabling its entire portfolio with Google’s hotel solution customised, implemented, and supported by Volara."

“From a Google Nest Hub smart display set up in each room, we can specifically and immediately address guest requests on voice command,” he said. “Guests can make their stay more seamless by saying things like ‘Hey Google, set an alarm for tomorrow morning at 8AM,’ or learn more about Village Hotels’ exclusive offers and popular loyalty program by saying things like ‘Hey Google, how do I join the Booking Revolution?’ or ‘Hey Google, tell me about VWorks.’ With the best of Google and Volara, we know we are getting the most secure and flexible platform in hospitality. Both companies share in our commitment to maintain guest privacy and deliver truly brand consistent experiences.”

Village Hotel’s voice technology rollout began in 2019 at the Village Hotel Portsmouth, Village Hotel Bristol, and Village Hotel Basingstoke. Properties in London Watford, Farnborough, and Southampton Eastleigh have already been enabled with the solution in every guestroom. Over the coming months, the hotel brand will be bringing the solution to every guestroom at Aberdeen, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Chester, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Maidstone, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Solihull, Swansea, Swindon, Warrington, and Wirral.

“Village Hotels is the first hotel brand to commit to voice enabling its entire portfolio,” said David Berger, Volara CEO. “As Village Hotels continue to grow, our solution will grow with it. This leading hotel brand is raising the bar on guest engagement — driving satisfaction and loyalty one guest voice command at a time. Together we are delivering contextually relevant, totally awesome, conversational experiences at scale.”

About Village Hotels

From Aberdeen to Bournemouth and everywhere in between, Village Hotels has 32 properties perfectly placed for exploring all that the U.K. has to offer. With famous attractions, landmarks, and incredible leisure facilities for guests to enjoy, travelers are making their next break a staycation with Village. A comfy bed, great shower and nifty gadgets come as standard, but there is so much more to Village than its bedrooms. Head to the Pub and Grill to experience all day dining, great offers, and live sport. Don’t forget to pack your gym kit, because our pool and leisure facilities are too good to miss! We’re not talking about a pokey fitness center at the back of the hotel, here you’ll find an incredible range of fitness equipment, classes and large pool. Oh, and did we mention our extensive parking, super speedy Wi-Fi, Starbucks, and VWorks Shared Workspace. You have it all at Village. For more information about Village Hotels, visit www.village-hotels.co.uk.

About Uniguest

Uniguest is a global leader in providing connected technology solutions to enable those in hospitality, senior living, sports/stadiums, entertainment, retail, education, government, corporate, and enterprise to engage with their audience. Uniguest is highly focused on creating deep client relationships as shown by its most recent NPS (Net Promoter Score) score of 81. Uniguest supplies turnkey technology solutions that include digital signage, IPTV / enterprise video and engagement apps, professional services, system implementation, and 24/7/365 multi-lingual support. To learn more about Uniguest please visit www.uniguest.com and for the Uniguest partner program visit www.uniguest.com/channel-partners.

Barb Worcester
PRPRO
+1 440 930 5770