“ALICE cures chaos”
“We’re creating the global operations platform for the hospitality industry”

by Antonia Leopold & Diana Catalina Martinez

© ALICE

Imagine checking into a hotel, all the staff is happy and smiling at you and every operation during your stay is running extremely smoothly and you ask yourself why. Alice is the answer! The concierge is able to send you customized recommendations and booking confirmations, all done with a simple app or website function, allowing the guest to communicate his or her wishes more openly to the hotel and therefore receive better service. Customers wishes will be heard, analysed and fulfilled and will so recognize the effort and stay more loyal to the hotel, because they are more satisfied with their stay. The package management function is making receiving parcels easier, while never loosing track of their location with the lost and found tool. Operational functions enable the staff to communicate better with each other, simplifying teamwork. The preventative maintenance tool is allowing every employee to report problems and is so helping to ensure perfect conditions of hotel rooms and equipment, by constantly being aware of all necessary repairs. And the overall stay is made flawless by having the hotel room perfectly cleaned, whenever the guests wishes for this service. All this is what Alice can do (‘ALICE Suite’, n.d.).

Alice core value is taking care of people, they are a hotel staff’s best friend! Alice is a cloud-based software platform connecting the hotel staff and guests seamlessly to take care of the requests easier and better. The tool is connection teams of all departments with each other, simplifying communication and managing tasks (‘ALICE Suite’, n.d.).

Founded 2013 in New York, the three founders managed to expand their company enormously. After seven years, they have 150 employees working worldwide. They got awarded for the number one “Concierge Software” and one of the “Top 10 Best Place to Work in Hotel Tech” in 2020. Furthermore, they were able to get Expedia on board and to invest a total of more than $35 million over the years. They are working mostly in the American market with over 2.500 hotels worldwide, for example, Hilton, Hyatt or Marriott.  (‘ALICE Suite’, n.d. & Dickey, 2017).

Alice is offering its product as the package “Alice Suite”, which is divided into two categories. Firstly, the guest satisfaction side includes concierge service, guest messaging, guest app and website and logbooks. The second part of operational excellence incorporates service delivery, preventative maintenance, and housekeeping (‘ALICE’, n.d.).

© ALICE Suite

The cloud-based hotel operations software is providing a birds eye view overall processes and things that are happening in a hotel. All events, tasks, requests, and progress can be controlled and tracked. All back of the house operations as well as guest-facing tasks can be taken care of. Alice is creating customized reports, so requests and processes can be improved. Guest data can be accessed for additional information and higher customer satisfaction through improved services (Galatolo, personal communication, May 2020).

Alice is charging monthly fees for their service. They range from two dollars per room per month to upwards of nine to ten dollars per room, per month. The pricing depends on the size of the hotel and the type of solutions the hotel chooses from the Alice Suite Package. With the different types of solutions Alice is offering as well as their ongoing helpful customer support, they achieve a customer satisfaction of their clients of more than 90 percent (Galatolo, personal communication, May 2020).

Alice Suite, as a cloud-based platform, can be accessed from a desktop and a mobile phone or tablet, it is compatible with Android and IOS systems and integration of SMS messages is also possible. It is replacing old fashioned radio systems used for communication in hotels. Notes, calendars, reminders and tasks can be shared between all employees, making sure al guest requests are fulfilled. This clearer channel of communication is improving employee satisfaction at the workspace, making work tasks clearer. Hotel guests are able to communicate with the staff, ask questions and make bookings with Alice. They get the option of downloading the Alice App, which is a white-labeled solution having the hotel brands design. The real-time status of guests’ tasks can be followed which leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty (“ALICE, Frequently asked questions, 2020 & Galatolo, personal communication, May 2020).

In total, all that is needed is a stable internet connection to access Alice. The software is integrated into the existing hotel´s PMS, combining both functions. Alice has an open API, that can connect other apps and third-party devices such as chatbots, Alexa, Google Assistant that a hotel is already using. Making Alice stand out from its competitors, is its extremely user-friendly user interface, making it understandable and easy to use for the hotel’s management, staff, and hotel guests (Galatolo, personal communication, May 2020).

The future of Alice will be impacted by the current COVID-19 crisis. Hotels are not allowed to operate and will invest less money into their operations because less revenue is generated. But the tools of Alice will simplify a reopening by maximizing the efficiency of all tasks and the hotel´s operations. By reducing contact points guests and staff have in the daily hotel activities and introducing more technical ways of communication the health and safety measures necessary will be easier to implement. All this in mind Alice is planning to continue their success story and be a true partner to hotels, that the real need. They want to provide the hospitality industry with the newest technological innovations and simplify and optimize their operations, while continuing to increase the hotel guest’s loyalty and satisfaction (Galatolo, personal communication, May 2020).

References and Further Readings

• ALICE. (n.d.). Retrieved 2 May 2020, from https://www.aliceplatform.com/
• Alice. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved May 17, 2020, from https://www.aliceplatform.com/faqs
• ALICE Suite. (n.d.). Retrieved 5 April 2020, from https://www.aliceplatform.com/product
• Dickey, M. R. (2017, August 30). https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/30/expedia-leads-26-million-round-in-hospitality-startup-alice/. Retrieved 16 May 2020, from https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/30/expedia-leads-26-million-round-in-hospitality-startup-alice/

References of Figures

• ALICE Suite. (n.d.). Retrieved 17 May 2020, from https://www.aliceplatform.com/product