As the industry looks to innovate to address changing demands in the face of COVID-19, Amazon has launched the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Travel and Hospitality Competency designation to help customers of every size and segment—including airlines, airports, ground transportation, travel services and sellers, restaurants, lodging, entertainment venues and casinos, cruise lines, and technology providers—find highly specialized partners with proven customer success and technical proficiency.
AWS Travel and Hospitality Competency Partners “provide technology products and services to accelerate the industry’s modernization and innovation journey from behind-the-scenes operational efficiencies to guest-facing customer experiences,” including “a 360-degree view of customer and operational data, digital engagement with customers, connected experiences with smart assets, and modernized core travel and hospitality applications,” according to the program’s website.
Volara, the voice hub for the hotel industry, is among the 27 inaugural AWS Partners announced this week. “Volara has a proven track record of helping travel and hospitality companies transform their business on AWS and we’re delighted to welcome them in the launch of the AWS Travel and Hospitality Competency Program,” said David Peller, managing director, Travel & Hospitality, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “We look forward to seeing them work with our customers to create game-changing innovations that will impact and improve the way we fly, stay, eat, and experience our world.”
“Volara is proud to be one of the first AWS Partners to achieve AWS Travel and Hospitality Competency status,” said David Berger, CEO, Volara. “Our team is dedicated to helping our clients achieve their business transformation goals using our proprietary technology and leveraging the agility, breadth of services, and pace of innovation that AWS provides.”
Volara provides real-time conversation management and secure integrations atop Amazon Alexa for the hotel industry. It is currently the largest manager of Alexa devices in the hotel enterprise, recently surpassing 10,000 devices under management. The company’s Alexa-enabled technologies include workorder management systems, IPTV solutions, room controls, energy-management systems, safety systems, and guest engagement solutions.
“The better we understand our customers’ business objectives, the better we can tailor our technology solutions to achieve those objectives,” Berger said. Volara’s recent collaborations include working with the Motif Hotel Seattle to build a staff-facing set of interactions that enable hotel staff to do their jobs more efficiently; collaborating with Fairmont Scottsdale Princess to enable live interactions between VIP guests and hotel staff; and partnering with the Westin Buffalo to bring guests’ personal music playlists to the guestroom.
“Volara is eager to continue bringing personalization to hotels across the globe working with AWS,” Berger continued. “Over time, Volara’s voice interfaces to Alexa—burnished by proprietary technology that layers on protections for guest privacy and hotel data security—will become commonplace. Compliant contactless guest engagement is of paramount importance to hotels in the post-COVID-19 pandemic world, which is why we have prioritized this above all else.”
