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Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott transforms vacation home search with generative AI

The new tool revolutionizes travel planning through emotional needs.

Publicis Sapient partnered with Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy to revolutionize the way travelers find their ideal vacation home. Leveraging Microsoft's generative AI, they have developed an innovative search tool that uses natural language processing to match travelers with the perfect home and destination based on their preferences and emotional needs.

The Imperative for Change

Finding the right vacation home can be a daunting and time-consuming task. Travelers often have to sift through countless listings, trying to match their preferences with available properties. Marriott wanted to create a more intuitive and efficient way for consumers to find the perfect vacation home.

The Transformative Solution

Publicis Sapient and Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy collaborated to conceive, design, build, and test a transformative search product. This tool leverages the GPT Large Language Models (LLM) within Azure OpenAI Service to understand natural language search queries and offer a curated list of properties from the over 150,000 available vacation rentals on the Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy platform.

Travelers can include as little or as much detail as they’d like in their search, and the tool will suggest destinations and identify specific properties that meet the criteria entered in the search bar. The results also include useful information like weather and things to do at the location based on the criteria. 

“Building on our deep focus in understanding how customers think intuitively about finding the right vacation home combined with the power of generative AI changes the game in search for vacation rentals. The long-term collaboration with Publicis Sapient has been instrumental in innovating and building the Homes and Villas by Marriott Bonvoy platform. Together, we are revolutionizing search enabling our guests to find the hidden gems within our over 150,000 curated homes and villas worldwide.”

Peggy Fang Roe , Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at Marriott International

The Impact

Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy’s new generative AI search tool marks a significant shift in the travel industry. It goes beyond location-based searches, allowing customers to explore destinations based on their preferences and emotions. Imagine discovering a hidden gem that perfectly aligns with your desire for relaxation or adventure – that's the power of this innovative tool. This personalized and intuitive user experience not only increases booking potential but also generates valuable customer data through natural language text input. These insights will further empower Marriott International to tailor travel products to ever-evolving customer desires.

40,000+
searches guided marketing for next seasons.
1 year to 3 months
Gen AI product rollout for other brands cut from 1 year to 3 months.
Visits from search
at all-time high since Jan 2023 (March 2024 vs. Jan 2023).
2x
Users saving properties doubled with AI Search.

Stuck in the generative AI prototype phase?

 

Most generative AI projects stall before launch. This guide reveals how to overcome common challenges and get your prototypes to production faster. 

Jagdish Ghanshani
Jagdish Ghanshani
Senior Vice President and Managing Partner
Ed Vanga
Ed Vanga
Head of Product, Travel & Hospitality, Publicis Sapient

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