Premier Travel Inn UK Deploys ScanSoft's Speech-Based Booking System
PEABODY, Mass. and GHENT, Belgium - Premier Travel Inn, a UK hotel company formed by the combination of Travel Inn and Premier Lodge, has deployed a ScanSoft® speech-based reservations system, called TINA (Travel Inn Now Automated). The application enables Premier Travel Inn customers to book a room in any of the company's 460 hotels via a room-booking management system.
TINA will play a critical role in the company's plans to expand its business via increased room bookings. At the same time, the company is striving to increase levels of customer care by optimizing Web investments.
TINA is based on speech technology and professional services such as application development and UI design from ScanSoft's SpeechWorks® solutions division and is built on VoiceGenie's voice platform. Premier Travel Inn's new automated booking system enables its customers to check room availability at any one of Premier Travel Inn's hotels in the UK and then make and confirm a booking. The automated call can take as little as three minutes to make a hotel reservation. Once a reservation has been made, customers can ask TINA to send a confirmation text message (SMS) to their mobile, which arrives as the customer is completing the phone call.
The system can recommend different locations if the desired hotel is fully booked. Testing showed that 89 percent of the callers who stayed with the automated booking system completed their reservation, with almost three out of four saying that they would rather use TINA than have to wait in a call-line to speak to a CRS agent. Travel Inn acknowledges that there are times when callers may need to speak to a live agent, and at any time during the call, they may ask to be transferred directly.
Trevor Elliott, development manager at Premier Travel Inn said, "Premier Travel Inn is very proud of TINA. In supporting our expansion plans, our expectation at the moment is that the system will grow over the next 12 months to handle up to 750,000 calls per year, and will generate approximately 200,000 hotel bookings." He added: "Feedback indicates that TINA has been well received by our customers, with many commenting on the time it saves when making a booking, the naturalness of TINA's voice, and the effectiveness of its natural language platform."
Premier Travel Inn's automated booking system can be reached in the UK at 0870 242 8000.