Elavon is powering the payments behind a voice-activated system for the hospitality industry.
The global payments provider has signed a deal with Amazon-approved partner The Digital Line (TDL) to become the exclusive payments provider in hospitality, globally, for Audico, a system that uses Amazon Alexa to deliver voice-driven services, the companies said in a Wednesday (May 17) press release.
“Virtual assistant technology is the future of hospitality, and we’re thrilled to be powering the payments behind Audico,” Elavon Merchant Services President in Europe Hemlata Narasimhan said in the release. “This is all about improving the customer experience, and a large part of this is seamless payments.”
Audico has already been implemented at the Ascot Racecourse in southeast England, where it allows premium customers to use audible commands to make purchases from their private boxes, relays those commands to staff as a card-not-present transaction, and enables payment to be made using a predetermined account, according to the press release.
TDL and Elavon are also exploring using Audico in premium hospitality areas at other venues, for room service in hotels and for services in the healthcare industry, the release said.
“This partnership represents a unique opportunity for two recognized brands to collaborate on initiatives that will revolutionize multiple business verticals, including hospitality, venues and healthcare, delivering a level of digital transformation not seen before,” The Digital Line CEO George Vaughan said in the release.
As PYMNTS reported Monday (May 15), automation could fill an urgent need in the hospitality industry.
For one thing, both hotels and restaurants have been experiencing staffing shortages across the board in recent years.
In addition, customers are hungry for digital experiences when they travel, with about 3 out of 4 customers saying that they want to use their mobile phones to check in to hotels, pay and order food, and that they believe artificial intelligence (AI) could tailor individualized experiences and amenities for them.
Both customer-facing and back-end functionalities lend themselves to automation, with digital tools replacing many processes previously done manually, according to “Can Automation Solve Labor Shortages in the Hospitality Sector?,” the May edition of the “Hospitality Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and LS Retail collaboration.
