A Team of Students from FER and EFZG Developed a Digital Assistant in Hospitality

As the hardest-hit sector during the pandemic, tourism craves innovative solutions to improve service quality. One such solution is offered by the Neolight.ai student team, whose invention of a concierge chatbot will be a fast and reliable source of all information for hotel guests.

This software communicates with hotel guests instead of humans and assists them in ordering room service, reserving restaurants, or organizing sightseeing. Guests can also check in using it, and all they need to do is send a message via SMS, using applications like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, or web chat from any device.

Less Work, More Profit

The Neolight team considers user experience to be the most important aspect that modern businesses must master, especially in tourism.

– The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that both guests and hospitality service providers are significantly advancing in digitalization; 71 percent of customers want less physical contact with staff, and 73 percent of hotels want to implement ‘self-service technology.’ Our technology allows for a reduction in unnecessary contact between guests and hotel employees, informs guests about COVID measures and recommendations, and provides an opportunity to explore the destination without a tour guide and large groups of people, thus reducing the risk of infection – explains Ante Bilić, co-founder of Neolight, adding that their chatbot also facilitates data collection and processing for hoteliers, reduces workload, and increases the potential for additional revenue.

They believe that the best way to enhance the overall tourist experience is through personalization enabled by artificial intelligence. Thanks to natural language processing (NLP), the chatbot understands what the user is writing and behaves in communication like a real person, not a robot. Through conversation, it learns about the guest and becomes increasingly intelligent.

– In the interaction between the chatbot and the guest, our system allows for a more accurate prediction of the user’s personality model and greater potential for upselling, thereby directly increasing revenue for hotels – adds Bilić.

Preparation is Half the Work

Guest satisfaction is the main goal for all hotels, and this was the guiding thought for these students when researching possible technical solutions. Before creating the chatbot, the team sought to thoroughly investigate the situation on the ground, specifically how hotels operate in Croatia. To understand the problems they face, they took the time to visit numerous hotels and travel agencies along our coast.

– The entire process lasted several weeks. We started in Istria and then moved down the coast. While planning this entire endeavor, we slightly miscalculated, thinking this was an opportunity for a ‘vacation.’ Soon we realized how exhausting it is to have several lengthy meetings a day that are not just sales opportunities but attempts at active learning and understanding other people’s problems. Fortunately, we worked as a team, so we quickly got into the groove, and everything went well, if not excellently – says Bilić.

Recognition and Awards are Pouring In

Such a dedicated approach to work is explained by the so-called Lean startup methodology, of which the members of the Neolight.ai team are strong advocates. By using the Lean methodology (Build > Measure > Learn), they strive for improvement and respect for people.

In less than a year since its founding, Neolight.ai has already received numerous industry awards. It can particularly boast of being among the top thirty teams in Europe at the ‘EU-Startups Summit 2021.’ Recently, it also impressed the jury of the ‘Students DIGI Awards.’

They are currently utilizing all the benefits of the BIRD and Spock incubators to successfully complete the first version of their chatbot, which they hope will be found in Croatian hotels this season.

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