Agoda recently announced a batch of new features aimed at giving travelers more confidence when planning and managing their trips. The updates include real-time flight tracking, a redesigned hotel browsing experience, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools built to help users pick the right property faster.
Travelers booking flights through Agoda’s iOS and Android apps will now get real-time updates throughout their journey. Once a booking is confirmed, the platform automatically sends alerts on flight status, gate and terminal information, check-in counters and baggage carousels, averaging two to three notifications per booking.
With notifications averaging two to three per booking, a natural question is where Agoda is sourcing this information and what happens if there’s a mismatch between what Agoda tells a traveler and what the airline itself communicates.
According to Ittai Chorev, chief product officer at Agoda, “Agoda’s flight updates are powered by established aviation data sources, with accuracy monitored on an ongoing basis so travelers can rely on the information they receive. On the rare occasion a discrepancy arises, our systems and processes are designed to catch it, and our 24/7 support is always available in the background if needed.”
On the hotel side, Agoda has introduced a new AI-powered feature that pairs hotel images with relevant guest reviews, so when someone looks at a room type, a pool or a restaurant, they can immediately see what other guests have said about that specific feature.
But what happens if a feature, say, a rooftop bar or a particular pool, gets removed from a property down the line?
“Both hotel images and guest review snippets are mapped, using AI, to shared topics, such as a specific room type, the pool or breakfast, so travelers see feedback that lines up with what they’re looking at. The AI helps surface the most relevant content to users. The system also stays current with changes in hotels over time,” Chorev said.
Chorev also confirmed the system is built to keep pace with changes at the property level: “The system also stays current with changes in hotels over time. When a feature is no longer part of a property, it is removed from that hotel’s topic set, so travelers only ever see information that reflects the property as it is today.”
Agoda’s multi-product booking engine now lets travelers book hotels, flights and activities in a single transaction, with everything consolidated under the “My Trips” section of the app and website. And it has also expanded language support for flight-related chat queries, adding Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Thai, Indonesian, and support for Hong Kong-based users—five additional languages in total.
Agoda’s decision to expand in-language support for this quarter wasn’t random, according to Chorev.
“[It] is part of Agoda’s broader commitment to meeting travelers in the language they’re most comfortable with. Additional language support will continue to be rolled out over time.”
With hotels, flights and activities now bookable in a single transaction, there’s a question of what happens when disruption hits just one part of that bundle. Does the customer have to sort out each piece on their own, or is there a unified process behind the scenes?
Chorev said, “Our multi-product booking experience is designed to make trip management as seamless as possible for customers. Through the ‘My Trips’ view in the Agoda app, travelers can see all the components of their booking in one place. If any part of their trip is disrupted, we have processes in place to help travelers navigate the available options for each component of their booking. We continue to improve the end-to-end trip experience for customers as part of our broader connected trip offering.”
Since Gallery View and the AI review-pairing feature launched on iOS first, the obvious follow-up is when Android users can expect the same tools and why iOS got the head start.
Chorev said, “As a data-driven company, we introduce new experiences in a way that lets us learn from real traveler feedback and refine them before rolling out more widely. Gallery View and AI review-pairing are a great example of that, and we’re looking at bringing them to even more travelers, including on Android.”
This story originally appeared on WiT.