BOTS Advances
This is now evolving into voice-recogni- in artificial intelligence are a hot
topic in the travel industry at the moment – in particular, in the role chatbots can play in the traveller’s experience. It is something we covered regularly in these pages last year. Most major travel companies now have Facebook Messenger-style bots that speak to consumers to answer queries and retrieve booking details, although as soon as the request becomes too complex, the bot automatically passes it on to a human.
tion bots which could soon be used to book services such as flights and hotels. Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has
said voice recognition technology will become increasingly important in the future when booking travel. The travel- search giant has teamed up with Amazon’s voice-activated ‘personal assistant’ Alexa, and users can now ask questions about an upcoming trip, such as flight bookings and car reservations (see p24).
RANDEL DARBY, CEO, AIRPORTR Entrepreneur Randel Darby claims to have solved one of the major hassles of flying – transporting luggage to the airport. And it seems readers were suitably impressed, as he received a number of nominations for the Hotlist. His company, Airportr, lets passengers check in their luggage online at home or work; then
someone comes around to weigh the baggage, attach a tracking barcode, and then seal it in an ‘anti-tamper’ bag before delivering it to the airport. At the terminal, it is removed from the sealed package, passed through an X-ray machine and added to the airport’s normal baggage handling system. The service costs between £20 and £40 and is currently only available within the M25
area. The breakthrough for the company came in October when it signed a deal with British Airways, which lets passengers book the service through its app.
WANUP Wanup is Europe’s
first independent hotel
loyalty club and is billed as a sharing economy loyalty scheme. It has been created to address the needs of the independent hotelier who wants to offer guests rewards for their loyalty but lacks the diverse portfolio to do so. Guests will enjoy benefits known as
Wanup Winnings – these come in the form of travel cash, which can be redeemed immediately on future bookings, or as in- destination perks such as early check-in.
Members can also earn a reduced amount of Winnings when they book a partner hotel via a third party, such as an online travel agency. Hotels can join the scheme for free and Wanup will take an average of 6-9 per cent commission on any booking. There are four types of membership level
with the bottom tier reserved for those that book between one-to-seven nights, who will receive 3 per cent (of total booking cost) Winnings and 10 per cent off food and drinks.
KARL IAGNEMMA, CEO, NUTONOMY In 2016, motoring giant Ford predicted fully autonomous vehicles by 2021, while rival Volkswagen expects the first self-driving cars to appear on the market by as early as 2019. Whatever the predictions, it’s clear that driverless cars are going to be mainstays of the
ground transport sector in the foreseeable future. One company that is leading the way and could have an impact on business travel is Singapore-based Nutonomy. It has recently teamed up with Grab, the ‘Asian Uber’, to trial driverless taxis. It has also
started expanding its autonomous vehicle trials to roads in the US, after agreeing a deal with the city of Boston. The person behind the rise of Nutonomy is American research scientist Karl Iagnemma,
who has attracted fans in the automotive industry for innovation despite bigger rivals Google and Uber trialling similar products, and this year could see his profile elevated further.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM BBT January/February 2017 77
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