The hotel
Hotel Paris is a family business in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with around 30 years of history that Mariano Martinez inherited and runs today.
It has 35 rooms plus apartments, and combines direct sales with guests arriving through Booking and other OTAs.
Four or five years ago, before the pandemic, Mariano bet on WhatsApp as a channel because he saw it as the future compared to email and phone, and because he values having a written record of every conversation.
Today WhatsApp accounts for about 70% of his sales.
The challenge
Before WeSpeak, the hotel used a very basic menu bot that asked guests to press A, B or C and only redirected inquiries without resolving anything.
Messages arriving at 10 or 11 at night, or at 1 or 2 in the morning, were lost by the next morning.
This cost him reservations on several occasions, because while no one replied the guest ended up booking somewhere else overnight.
Mariano wanted something that would answer, take the reservation and pass it to the PMS, with payments integrated, to leave everything closed.
The WeSpeak solution
With WeSpeak he deployed an AI assistant on WhatsApp integrated with his PMS and with payments working end to end.
The assistant answers 24 hours a day, takes the reservation, records it in the PMS and handles the payment without manual intervention.
It also resolves guest questions during the stay, such as wifi or room service.
Mariano admits he was initially afraid of AI, but he was surprised by the quality and the level of the responses.
Results
The hotel now closes reservations at 2, 3 or 4 in the morning that used to be lost.
WhatsApp sustains about 70% of sales with uninterrupted service.
The integration with the PMS and payments leaves every reservation closed automatically.
Guest questions during the stay are also resolved without delays.
“Today WhatsApp is 70% of my sales. I am surprised by how artificial intelligence solves things and the level of response it has. If WeSpeak stopped working, it would be a step backwards.”
