Little Emperors has vowed to “never” use chatbots, warning that the erasure of human advisors would be an “outrage” to luxury travel.
The elite booking platform has been supportive of AI [artificial intelligence] since its 2010 inception, hailing the technology as integral to its success in this competitive market.
Advisors in its independent travel consultant programme, MyLER, have access to a highly streamlined booking system, as well as virtual training and content galleries.
It has drawn a line, however, at using chatbots to service clients, arguing that such a decision would undermine its role as a premium travel provider.
“You need to keep humans in luxury, they are irreplaceable,” Rebecca Masri MBE, founder of Little Emperors, told TTG Luxury. “We will never introduce chatbots. It would be an outrage to luxury.”
The former Goldman Sachs banker believes that chatbots alienate high-net-worth clients, who expect an elevated level of service when booking luxury travel: “People are not stupid. They’re going to know when they’re speaking to a bot.”
Masri’s stance on chatbots remains firm, but she is by no means against the use of AI, adding she has long embraced technology as a tool to improve Little Emperors’ 60 advisors’ relationships with clients by alleviating their workload.
“Our AI has taken away a lot of the heavy lifting that our MyLERs do,” she explained. “They no longer have to grapple with the admin of archaic systems, the fragmented pieces of technology, the GDS [global distribution system].”
Masri added that AI has been especially beneficial for quoting trips, a task which could previously have taken its MyLERs hours to complete.
“People are not stupid. They’re going to know they’re speaking to a bot”
“We now can give quotes in three seconds, and it will have everything from accurate, room-specific images to floor plans,” she said. “The quote will also include the advisor’s own logo if they have one.”
Another AI tool used by Little Emperors is a “rate scraper”, which can scrape the web to provide the best hotel rate for the client as well as the highest commission for the agent.
Having seen the power of this digital extractor, the company is now in the process of building “prompt automators” that scan hotel websites for updates and automatically upload them to its own website.
Marsi says these automators will eliminate “human error” that can often occur during the research stage, giving advisors more time and energy to focus instead on learning about new products and their clients.
“This technology empowers them,” she said. “The only concern I have right now around AI is whether another company is doing it better than us!”
