Building Resilience For The Long Run
Christopher Hovanessian, CEO of Whistle Messaging Inc., joins David Solomito, Head of Global Marketing, AWS Travel & Hospitality, for a broad-ranging discussion about the recent disruption faced by travel and hospitality companies – and his company’s response to that disruption.
This Executive Conversation is one of a series of discussions held with industry leaders, where we seek to learn more about their resiliency, tenacity, and capacity for innovation. The series follows the publication of the AWS Travel and Hospitality Ebook: “ Building Resilience For The Long Run .” Filled with strategic observations, hints, and tips, the E-book provides guidance for building a more resilient organization, potentially serving as a useful resource as travel and hospitality companies address both current challenges and those yet to come.
David Solomito: Describe your company, the types of travel and hospitality work you do, and key travel and hospitality clients?
Christopher Hovanessian: Whistle supports over 10,000 hoteliers in 15 countries and 50 states with its top-rated guest messaging software. We believe that guest messaging platforms are a win-win for both travelers and hotels—especially with many Whistle clients touting the benefits of this technology including enhanced customer experience and improved operational efficiency. Clients love instant communication, the ease of sending automated messages via a real-time chat interface, to-and-from a guest’s preferred app or SMS.
David Solomito: Many companies across travel and hospitality have been managing through a period of unprecedented disruption. What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced during this recent period and how have you helped clients managed through them?
Christopher Hovanessian: With all the uncertainty, our contactless messaging platform has actually helped keep many hotels' doors open during the pandemic. By moving to digital communication, hotels can minimize the risk of COVID transmission while saving time through automated replies, simplifying registration with e-signatures, and getting real-time analytics to increase guest satisfaction. We make it easy for hoteliers to respond or triage incoming messages from guests whether through online reservations, check-ins, upsell requests, and contactless payments.
David Solomito: It’s been an incredibly difficult time for travel and hospitality companies, but we’ve seen many companies investing for the long run. With all the uncertainty, why has your company chosen to invest in travel and hospitality at this time?
Christopher Hovanessian: It is our mission to help hotels quickly adopt a contactless messaging solution and provide a huge competitive advantage. We are excited about the future of travel and hospitality because we know the power of key partnerships and integrations will continue to make it easy for guests to use their preferred messaging app to make any request at any time.
David Solomito: In the face of the current disruption to the travel and hospitality industry, we’ve observed incredible innovations coming from across the industry. How has your company innovated through these challenging times on behalf of your customers and what are you most proud of?_
Christopher Hovanessian: Whistle is proud to be one of the first APN Partners to achieve AWS Travel and Hospitality Competency status. Our platform’s quality, innovation, and pace make it a great product. We don’t want hoteliers to miss an opportunity to engage with your customers in a contactless world.
David Solomito: The travel and hospitality industry is incredibly resilient. As you look toward recovery, what role does technology play for your company moving forward? How do you see technology enhancing the customer experience and improving operational efficiency?_
Christopher Hovanessian: Whistle looks forward to being a key to its recovery. As things continue to shift, so does the platform’s 100% cloud-based technology. We are continuously finding new areas to innovate and optimize our Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) features to better understand guests’ questions and requests, or ‘guest intents', and prompts with the appropriate response. Moving forward, Whistle is looking to expand its offering primarily focused on Artificial Intelligence and streamlining operational workflows for guests and staff.
David Solomito: How does building on AWS allow you to prepare for whatever the “new normal” in travel and hospitality will look like? How does the new AWS Travel and Hospitality Partner Competency help companies do the same?_
Christopher Hovanessian: AWS provides Whistle with the necessary tools and infrastructure to rapidly deploy new, innovative functionality, and to scale reliably. Whether it's new technologies or workflows, we are excited to provide an invaluable tool for hospitality, especially post COVID-19.
David Solomito: What makes you excited for the future of travel and hospitality? As a traveler or guest, where are you looking forward to visiting next?
Christopher Hovanessian: While the threat of COVID-19 is still very much real, the adoption and focus on digital makes this an exciting time for all. Looking ahead, we can envision a travel and hospitality experience that has been optimized for both operators and guests. Digital will transform the mundane, allowing human capital to once again provide confidence in travelers.
About Whistle Messaging, Inc.
Whistle is a hotel and guest engagement platform that is 100% cloud-based. It helps tens of thousands of hoteliers and millions of guests by streamlining communications and hotel operations. Messaging has quickly become the preferred channel of communication for customer service in hospitality and is a crucial part of travel during the pandemic.