Booking.com has announced the pilot release of its new Booking Experiences product which is designed to enable travellers to discover the best a destination has to offer, all through a mobile device.
Booking Experiences is a first-of-its-kind, highly curated, mobile-led experience that will ultimately harness Artificial Intelligence technology and powerful machine-learning to predict individual traveller intent and create a truly convenient, personalised in-destination experience—all on demand, with hassle-free payment and priority queueing. Booking Experiences is available on both the Android and iOS versions of the Booking.com app for Amsterdam. The pilot launches for Booking Experiences Paris, London and Dubai will go live at the end of this month, with New York city set to go live in the autumn of 2016.
Unlike other experience-seeking tools, Booking Experiences is managed entirely within the Booking.com app without having to rely on or redirect to 3rd-party websites. Once travellers have booked a stay in one of the first cities to offer Booking Experiences, via a single QR code in the Booking.com app a traveller can get instant booking access to all of the participating venues and attractions in that destination. Booking Experiences eliminates the need to book in advance or wait in lines to buy tickets— simply show up to the attraction you’re interested in, scan the code from your smartphone and enjoy. The QR code is automatically linked to your credit card of choice.
Travellers can view the full list of available things to do and visit for their destination in advance and/or simply explore on the go once they arrive. Booking Experiences provides the ultimate in flexibility and convenience, as travellers only pay for those experiences they choose to take advantage of, with the freedom to decide on the go and the peace of mind knowing that there’s always a spot reserved.
Booking.com has leveraged insights from its millions of travellers about what they liked (and didn’t like) about various destinations and the experiences they had there. Combining this endorsement data with a customer’s previous travel preferences, where that person is at the moment in a specific destination, as well as third-party data like the current waiting time at the most popular museum, the Booking Experiences technology will eventually learn over time to provide a traveller with increasingly personalized, relevant and timely suggestions to personalize the in-destination experience.
“With Booking Experiences, our passion for data-driven insights, our deep knowledge of travel and our ambition to smartly infuse Artificial Intelligence technology into our product are all coming together to create a new, uniquely mobile travel experience that’s curated, seamless and personal,” said David Vismans, Chief Product Officer at Booking.com. “The technology behind Booking Experiences will continuously learn from your travel preferences, as well as other travellers like you, to eventually present you with increasingly curated options that are just right for you. Our ultimate goal is to keep you inspired, regardless of whether it’s your first—or fifth time visiting a particular location.”
