AI-powered holographic front desk interactive avatar that greets and checks in guests, answers questions and more, launches at CIC Hospitality's Aiden by Best Western, as part of BWH Hotels vision to elevate guest experience
[Amsterdam, 23 December] — Mews, a cloud-native hospitality management system, Holoconnects, a leading technology provider of 3D holographic solutions, and CIC Hospitality, a hotel operator in the Nordics, with 13 Aiden by Best Western hotels in its portfolio, today announced the launch of an AI-powered holographic front desk avatar. The avatar helps hotel guests check in or out, generate a room key, book additional rooms, make dinner or spa reservations and answer their questions. The collaboration offers hotels a new way to ensure customer satisfaction and elevate the guest experience.
The AI greeter was first launched at the Aiden by Best Western Lolland in Denmark on November 21.
The AI-powered holographic avatar, developed together with RAVATAR AI Avatar Platform, engages with guests in real-time through natural, human-like conversations while being operated inside a Holoconnects’ Holobox, which creates a lifesize and lifelike, immersive experience through a 4K high-resolution 3D holographic visualization of a person, product or logo. The front desk AI avatar is integrated with Mews to handle hotel bookings and check-ins.
“This launch underscores CIC Hospitality's commitment to leveraging innovative technology to transform guest experiences. We are excited to collaborate with Holoconnects and Mews to explore how cutting-edge solutions like this holographic front desk avatar can enhance the hospitality landscape,” said Matthias Tanski, CEO of CIC Hospitality.
CIC Hospitality, Holoconnects, Mews and RAVATAR will use the launch to gather feedback from visitors and industry professionals and find areas for improvement. Guests can use the live connection and speak live immediately with a lifesize, 4K high-resolution 3D hologram of a CIC Hospitality employee (located in Oslo) should the holographic avatar fail to answer their questions or check-in as needed. The feedback from the launch will help to increase the feature set, reduce response times, and improve the user experience, reflecting CIC Hospitality's ability to be an early mover with technologies that integrate human-centric and automated experiences.
“The launch of a virtual avatar greeter is an exciting new step forward for Holoconnects and the hospitality sector as a whole. We believe it will ultimately elevate and improve the guest experience and overall hotel customer satisfaction,” said Holoconnects co-founder and CEO André Smith. “Our partnership with Mews, CIC Hospitality and RAVATAR has the potential to change the face of modern hotels. We plan to use this first deployment to learn as much as possible and work with Mews to make the front desk virtual avatar greeter and check-in experience better and more helpful.”
“At Mews, we are dedicated to building the right solutions that provide remarkable experiences for guests, no matter where they stay. This revolutionary front-desk avatar, in collaboration with Holoconnects, has the potential to transform the hotel reception experience as we know it,” commented Matt Welle, CEO of Mews. “We are delighted to have launched this at Aiden by Best Western Lolland in collaboration with CIC Hospitality, Holoconnects and RAVATAR. It is already freeing up front-desk staff who now have more time to deliver a truly personal experience for each of their guests.”
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About CIC Hospitality
CIC Hospitality is a hotel operator in the Scandinavian market. Behind CIC is a team of owners, board members, and employees with extensive experience and key expertise in the hospitality sector. CIC aims to challenge established hotel concepts by focusing on technology, sustainability, and employee satisfaction. Guided by the values Caring, Inspiring, Creative, CIC strives to "care to inspire and create experiences," delivering innovative and memorable stays for its guests.
About Aiden by Best Western, a part of BWH Hotels
A new generation of hotels for the smart and informed guest that seeks convenience and effective solutions while traveling. Self-service, gaming areas and holograms are just some of the things you can expect when you check into an Aiden hotel. It's easy-going, relaxed and unpretentious.
About Mews
Mews is the leading platform for the new era of hospitality. Powering over 5,500 customers across more than 85 countries, Mews Hospitality Cloud is designed to streamline operations for modern hoteliers, transform the guest experience and create more profitable businesses. Customers include BWH Hotels, Strawberry, The Social Hub and Airelles Collection. Mews was named Best PMS (2024) and listed among the Best Places to Work in Hotel Tech (2021, 2022, 2024) by Hotel Tech Report, as well as World's Best Hotel PMS Provider (2023) and World's Best Independent Hotel PMS Provider (2022, 2023, 2024) by World Travel Tech Awards. Mews won the Top 250 Golden Scaler Award in 2024, given to the fastest growing company in the Netherlands, and most recently, was awarded the Tech Hero 2024 Award at CIODAY. Mews has raised $335 million from investors including Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Kinnevik and Notion to transform hospitality.