Sarah Feldberg
If you browse TripAdvisor reviews for the Cromwell in Las Vegas, a few subjects pop up again and again. There's the location, perched on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo at center Strip, the friendly staff and the boutique size (for a Vegas casino, at least). And then, there's Ivy.
"Ivy was our concierge, and she made sure everything was as we wanted."
"I really can't say enough great things about the host Ivy. Was in constant contact and went above and beyond to make my stay amazing."
"My stay at the Cromwell was awesome, and I had the best concierge you could ask for!! Her name is Ivy."
Only Ivy isn't a she exactly. Rather, she's a digital concierge from Go Moment, an artificial intelligence chatbot powered by IBM's Watson that Caesars Entertainment rolled out at the Cromwell and the Nobu hotel in late 2016.
"She's the first line of defense. She handles the first wave of questions," said Michael Marino, senior vice president and chief experience officer for Caesars Entertainment.
In mid-2016, Ivy expanded to Harrah's Southern California, and recently the digital concierge rolled out at Caesars Palace and the Linq Hotel & Casino. That means Ivy is now on call for 7,500 rooms. When Planet Hollywood comes online, the room count will top 10,000, and Ivy will expand to the rest of the Caesars properties in Las Vegas throughout the year. And she's not the only chatbot in town. Last January, the Cosmopolitan launched Rose, a sassy virtual concierge, and in May, the Venetian began offering "conversational commerce" room reservations via Facebook messenger.
At Caesars Palace, guests' first interaction with Ivy is a welcome text message that comes within 15 minutes of check-in, provided you give a cellphone number for your stay. Ivy introduces herself, and tells guests they can text her with questions or requests.
What time does the pool open? Where's the nearest Starbucks? Can I get more towels? Ask Ivy.
"She's like our triage," Marino said. "She answers all the basic questions and some of the medium and complex questions as she learns."
And Ivy isn't the only one learning. As Caesars Entertainment has studied the way guests interact with the chatbot, the company has had some new revelations, too.
"There was this impression that people would come to Vegas with a plan and it seems that's not the case at all," Marino said. Many people actually want help figuring out what to do.
Having a concierge available via text, means people ask different questions. Where guests might not pick up the phone to ask what they should wear to the club or how they should spend an afternoon, they'll type those questions instead.
"Ivy gets a lot of questions like, 'What do you think of the Celine show?'" And, of course, she's our bot, so she likes it a lot," Marino said.
If guests don't engage with the chatbot, it checks in three times during their stay. If they interact, she responds. And if Ivy can't provide an answer, the query gets bumped to call center agents who text back as Ivy. The Nobu and the Cromwell have their own staffs, while the Linq and the Caesars share a centralized call center to field tougher questions.
So far, Marino said, the company hasn't cut back on staff, but he anticipates lower staffing requirements as the centralized call center takes on more hotels.
"What it's done is it's reduced call volume 20% to 30%, but the number of engagements is way up. More people are actually engaging," Marino said.
The key, he added, is that Ivy isn't 100% automated. "We automate a lot of the easy stuff, and the more complex stuff we want to have a person help you. I think that balance is really important to give it that authenticity."
The proof is in how guests self-report their own satisfaction. Those who engage with Ivy rate the resort 5 to 7 points higher on key questions of experience, service and whether they would recommend it to a friend.
Plus, Marino said, "Ivy gets asked out on a daily basis."