These factors show a growing appetite for chatbot solutions and the possibility to gain more revenue.

Online travel agencies (OTAs) should understand new dynamics and focus on this new type of interaction with travelers.

This will demand OTAs alter the way they offer their travel booking services, share information and receive payments.

Travel chatbots are providing tools to help travel online businesses increase efficiency, build deeper connections with customers, inspire new clients and enhance customer experience.

Improve customer experience with chatbot technology

Driven in part by the rapidly progressing maturity of natural language processing (NLP) and the popularity of mobile devices, it is no surprise that chatbot technologies are on the growth path.

The customer experience is more complicated now than ever.

Consumers bounce between channels and devices, online and offline. Engaging with them at the right time and in the right place is not a soft thing.

Because chatbots are add-ons to messaging platforms that people use every day, they offer excellent opportunities for customer interaction.

Online travel agencies can build a chatbot solution that responds quickly to user/customer demands and improves the omnichannel customer experience.

By implementing chatbot solutions, OTAs can create and implement a personalized user interface in real time. Bots allow automating customer service while helping OTAs save time and money.

To better understand how exactly chatbots work, let’s first take a look at the steps of the customer journey when interacting with an online travel agency.

The online customer journey with online travel agencies

Users search for the destination by filling in the destination field, adding the check-in and the check-out dates, then selecting the type of traveling, adding some rooms and people who are going to travel.

How do chatbots deliver this experience? Let’s check out!

The online customer journey with a chatbot

They filter the hotel results by going to the property type and checking out a list of hotels based on their preferences. Then they sort through the hotels according to the top picks, the lowest price, stars, distance to the city center, review score. Users check out the hotel location, prices, look at all the room options available (non-smoking/smoking, rooms with/without private bathroom, the number of beds), and check the pictures for the accommodation. They book the room by filling in the forms with all the necessary information (name, email). Users manage the booking if there is a need to change any details of their trip from their account. They can also cancel the reservation online before their arrival if their plans change.

Below you can see a brief overview of some real examples of popular travel chatbots that help users on different stages of their customer journey.

1. Travel planning

Travel chatbots can provide you with simple flights and hotels overview based on customer-personalized options.

Travel assistant Mezi helps users find the most suitable place for their vacation.