Since February, HotelTonight, the on-demand booking app, has been prototyping a local virtual concierge service.
Users will be able to query a "local expert" about their destinations, such as where to grab a good coffee, and request hotel amenities, such as ask for an extra toothbrush.
A pilot program for Aces kicks off at last on Thursday in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a few cities in California, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Only a limited set of users will participate during the trial, the WSJ said.
A virtual assistant service for travelers who book high-end hotel rooms might be an effective tool for upselling bar and spa services at those hotels. Yet scaling up a high quality, call center-type virtual operation could be tricky to execute and expensive relative to the return on investment.
No doubt this San Francisco startup will do as it has done before and practice a lot of intensive market testing and data-based analysis.
One thing's sure: It's doubtful the concierge will be as helpful as the lobby boy in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Note: The image above comes from an earlier protoype of a HotelTonight concierge messaging service and may not reflect the final version.
How to pull back the sheets on HotelTonight and its performance
NB: Image via The Grand Budapest Hotel