In order to support customers throughout their online journey with the brand, the American hotel group has developed a partnership with the conversational platform iAdvize, a messaging solution that combines bot and human interactions and strengthens the conversation and customer relationship.

After noticing that most of the reservations were made on specialized websites (OTAS), the hotel chain decided to collaborate with the start-up iAdvize since 2018 in order to improve and digitalize its customer relationship. This partnership is in line with the group's objectives to strengthen its customer experience strategy and attract more visitors to its own e-commerce site.

The partnership has therefore allowed to create a more fluid and interactive customer experience, to better meet the needs of Best Western Rewards loyalty club members and to reduce low value-added requests. In order to further strengthen the customer-site relationship and make it more personalized, Best Western Hotels & Resorts has been testing the asynchronous chat version of iAdvize since April 2019, which allows visitors to be engaged even if no advisor is available and cannot answer immediately. So far, the tool has increased the number of requests and exchanges, reduced customer service e-mails and significantly reduced the loss of contact opportunities.

To find out more about hotel groups' strategies for direct booking and digital customer itineraries, consult our report on Direct Online Hotel Distribution, Review and Prospects.