2017 New Era of Voice?

A new era of voice assistants could soon be redefining the current forms of SMS-based chat. While discussing the future of online travel, most of the major OTAs present at the recent Skift Global Forum 2016 were pretty convinced that the era of automation is likely going to change soon. Giving rise to the voice search which is could soon be transforming the way customers browse and book hotels.

Several travel brands are already making use of artificially intelligent chatbots to provide customers with a quicker and faster, streamlined interaction. In a bid to provide customers with easy communication with the hotel, Booking-com recently launched its own chatbot.

This marketplace which appears to be fiercely competitive in nature still continues to drive quality innovation despite existing limitations. These are some of the recognizable potentials that OTAs is seeking to exploit. Unarguably, the way and manner people browse and book trips will soon be replaced by voice search, as technology advances.

Travelers also are not left out as they can easily search for flights and hotels based on availability, price, and date, thanks to the recently voice-based cloud service launched by KAYAK on its home device Echo. By integrating with Amazon’s Alexa, the company was able to launch its own voice-activated service.

As part of efforts to allow developers tailor the platform to their own unique needs, plans are already on the way to make Viv available to third-party integrations. No doubt, the current OTA experience will soon be transformed when similar platforms like the voice-controlled software – Viv are harnessed in the near future.

In the past year, the use of voice search and virtual assistants has risen to over 40 percent. While functioning as a streamlined form of interaction, it is evident that voice-based search will become very helpful in the near future.

The idea of tapping keyboards and swiping screens will become inefficient by comparison in the not-so-distant future. OTAs already know that the future of travel is getting revolutionized with mobile-based, voice-activated search and so they are replacing tapping with talking so as to be able to provide the increasing numbers of last-minute bookers and business travelers with a better user experience.

Obviously, customers will experience a more efficient way to search and book trips through this far more streamlined process. This will also bring about a radical transformation in the online travel sector just as it did during the transition to mobile.

So, hotels will just have to make some adjustments so as to be able to adapt to these new booking scenarios.