Hotels.com Has a New Chatbot Trip Planner. Here's How it Works

The Hotels.com app is integrated with the chatbot in a simplistic way that makes it easy to use, but the errors don't help to set it apart.

The new Hotels.com AI-powered chatbot is simple to use, but the errors make it unlikely to be especially helpful at this early stage.

That's what our results showed after testing the updated Hotels.com app. Expedia Group last week released the AI chatbot on the Hotels.com app and a redesign that integrates the new feature.

It comes a few weeks after the company executed a brand relaunch for Hotels.com with a new mascot called Bellboy. It’s all part of a plan to grow Hotels.com after it and Vrbo saw a decrease in business during the company’s tech migration. Expedia also faced criticism from ardent Hotels.com users after scrapping its rewards program and launching One Key a couple of years ago.

The Hotels.com app — and the Expedia app — got a smart filter feature last week, among its updates. It’s meant to allow users to filter property searches specifying preferences, like a rooftop bar, to the chatbot in natural language. Booking.com released a similar feature last year.

Shilpa Ranganathan, chief product officer for Expedia Group, said during the annual Expedia conference last week that booking conversions have increased by 35% among those who have tested the smart filter.