It’s time for BOTA! – Twissen Season Report Winter 2017

Robots are increasingly being developed in other sectors, too. Recently, eMarketer realised a survey in the USA and UK, discovering that more than 90% of respondents thinks that being able to chat with the hotel is very useful. Perhaps this is the reason why, in February, Mercure launched a BOT for Messenger, following Expedia, Kayak and Skyscanner, which has also signed an interesting deal with Skype.

There are many new startups, such as SnapTravel, HelloHipmunk, Mezi, KimKim, Pana or BoltFare… and the list would be longer than this.

Many groups of users, especially the youngest ones, think that chats are a very immediate and efficient tool, and we can expect that their usage will be unrestrained. In fact, it is perceived as quick, discrete (if compared to voice assistants) and, in particular, it fits into the mobile trend, which definitely became the most used tool for online researches and will soon become the preferred one for booking.

We are already observing new distribution business models based on chatbots, actual mobile-focused OTAs, namely chatbOTAs… that we are going to call BOTAs! In fact, in spite of the consolidation phase which saw the rise of integrated colossus in the USA, such as Expedia, Priceline and Aribnb and in China, such as Ctrip and Alibaba, technology and a good dose of creativity can create room for new solutions and, in particular, new brands.