Skift Take
Voice has tremendous potential to transform the vacation rental or private accommodation experience as we know it — but are we there yet? And if not, how do we get there?
There's been plenty of anticipation — and coverage — of the possibility of using voice technology in hotels, but when it comes to vacation rentals, the theoretical power of voice has the potential to be truly transformative for an area of hospitality without staff to provide certain services.
"The promise of voice in vacation rentals is amazing, in theory," said Alex Nigg, co-founder and CEO of Properly, a cleaning management platform for private accommodations. "It's amazing because if you look at how vacation rentals position themselves against hotels, it's more about the product: more space, kitchens, interesting neighborhoods. But you miss the service overlay of the hotel, and a voice system can replace a lot of that. That promise is compelling because it brings vacation rental product up to par of what a hotel offers."
Not only that, but as more consumers purchase and use voice assistants for their homes, their familiarity with the product has grown. Research released earlier this year by Voicebot.ai estimates that approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population, or 47.3 million U.S. adults, has access to a smart speaker.
Both Nigg and Dave Berger, CEO of Volara, a voice-based software provider, are Airbnb Superhosts themselves, and they said they've seen a number of their guests intuitively use voice assistants when staying in their respective homes.
"Guests loved it and they made less requests of me using the messaging app on Airbnb, and then I implemented some promotions from local businesses," Berger explained. "This was the genesis of Volara. I saw an opportunity for voice assistants to provide guest services."
Current Applications
While there's great promise and increasing consumer familiarity with voice technology, the applications — for now — remain somewhat limited to the following categories: providing guest services; serving as a sort of virtual guidebook; creating a "smart home" environment; and enabling communication among guests, vacation rental staff, and the property managers.
Simple guest services that mirror what a hotel front desk normally handles are easy enough to program into today's voice assistants. They include things like helping guests figure out the Wi-Fi password or where the remotes are located, or perhaps even allowing guests to order groceries via Amazon Prime or Whole Foods.
"Where are the extra towels? How do I operate the washer and dryer? These are things that hosts are asked all the time
