Collaboration between two homegrown Indian pioneers will deliver enhanced customer experience
New Delhi, October 5, 2016: OYO, India’s largest branded network of hotels has entered into a partnership with niki.ai, enabling users to book an OYO room using niki.ai’s bot - a unique personal assistant application powered by artificial intelligence. Consumers can now easily search and book OYO hotels using Niki chat interface.
Speaking on the API integration Anurag Gaggar, Head of Product, OYO said, “At OYO, we are constantly innovating with our product stack to add delight and offer convenience to our customers. Niki has developed the first of its kind chat-bot that understands human language contextual to products and services, and offers suggestions accordingly. As the travel industry propels rapid technology integration in aspects of research, booking and on-trip experience, it is hugely exciting for us to collaborate with homegrown Indian brands and create disruptive offerings. Rapid adoption of social and messaging apps has driven user preference for chat based interfaces. This partnership enables OYO and niki.ai's users to accomplish the task of searching and booking hotels seamlessly through a chat enabled interface.”
Sachin Jaiswal, CEO, niki.ai said, “niki.ai envisions providing consumers with the most natural, simple and intelligent mode of transacting online. We are very excited to venture into Hospitality segment with OYO as our partner. The OYO and Niki teams have worked closely in building the experience, which powers one of the most advanced language processing technology. Niki understands complex user filters during the conversation, and comes up with the best hotel recommendations for the user. The interface lets users search, discover, select and pay thereby booking their hotel, all within a single chat interface. ”
OYO’s recently launched a new feature that assures early check-in at hotels across the country. The company’s vision is to standardize and build efficiency into all forms of real estate such as budget hotels, apartments, guesthouses and resorts using technology and innovation. OYO is focused on bringing in standardization and consistency in every aspect of guest experience across all touch-points.
niki.ai, an AI technology startup based out of India launched their bot in October 2015. The bot utilizes natural language processing and machine learning to help users accomplish tasks like food ordering, phone recharges, cab bookings, bus bookings, bill payments etc. through automated chat interaction. Niki had recently launched the bot on messenger too thereby available to users on Android, iOS, Web and Windows platforms as well.
About OYO
Founded in 2013, OYO is today India’s largest branded network of hotels operating 6,500 hotels and 70,000 rooms in more than 200 Indian cities. These include major metros, regional hubs, top leisure destinations as well as pilgrimage towns. OYO is also present in Malaysia.
The company’s mission is to become the world’s most preferred and trusted hotel brand. OYO pioneered the industry-wide standardization of stay experience in India by providing AC rooms equipped with flat-screen TV, complimentary breakfast, free Wi-Fi and 24/7 support across its network. Travellers can book a room in three taps using the OYO app. Besides booking a room, the OYO app can be used to call a cab and locate nearby restaurants. To deliver a seamless, standardized experience to guests, OYO partners with IRCTC, Airtel, Samsung, Lenovo, Biotique, Cleartrip, Itzcash, FreeCharge, Mobikwik and Grofers.
Committed to delivering innovative offerings to travellers, OYO recently introduced ‘Sunrise Check-in’ – a global-first initiative at this scale. With this, guests can avail assured early check-in instead of the standard noon check-in – a universal pain point impacting travel plans. OYO has also introduced a ‘relationship mode’ in its app enabling guests to discover couple-friendly OYO hotels.
OYO has received awards including Express IT Start-Up of the Year award (2015) and was recognized by Business Today as among the Coolest Start-Up in India (2016). It was also ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top employee attractors in India. OYO is backed by leading global investors, including the SoftBank Group, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed India. For more information, log on to: https://www.oyorooms.com/