Amazon’s Alexa ‘Checks In’ To Marriott Hotels

In an effort grow its presence in the hospitality space, Amazon has partnered with Marriott International to bring Alexa to the company’s hotels. The popular voice assistant will help guests with tasks, such as ordering room service or asking for housekeeping, without the need to pick up the phone, Reuters reported.

The partnership will kick off in the summer at certain Marriott properties. According to multiple reports, Marriott had experimented with both Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. Though Marriott did not comment on Apple to Reuters, the hotel company noted that it has “great relationships with a number of technology companies and is always open to exploring opportunities to innovate and better the guest experience.”

The news comes as Voicebot, the voicebot technology company, found that 19.7 percent of adults in the U.S. have access to a smart speaker, up from under 1 percent a mere two years ago. According to the Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report, Voicebot found that among smart speaker users, men are more prevalent than women, with a 58 to 42 percent ratio. What’s more, Voicebot said the 19.7 percent translated into 47.3 million U.S. adults who have access to a smart speaker, either by owning one outright or living in a home equipped with one.

“Most mobile devices have a single user, whereas smart speakers are communal devices used by entire households,” wrote Voicebot in the report, noting that it only took three years for smart speakers to hit close to nearly 50 million users. By way of comparison, it took 13 years for televisions, four years for the internet and two years for Facebook. Though smart speakers are actual hardware devices, they are growing at a rate that is almost as quick as the adoption of a social media app. What’s more, Voicebot found that users of smart speakers don’t typically purchase just one. On average, there are 1.8 devices in each household.