Google Nest Partners with Booking.com to Encourage Hosts to Get Smart Speakers
Google is offering free Google Nest Mini smart speakers to anyone in the U.S. who reserve accommodations on Booking.com through January 20 as part of a new year-long partnership between the tech giant and online travel arranger. The free smart speakers are the first of several planned incentives for encouraging Booking.com hosts to offer access to Google Nest products and making the devices something that travelers look for when figuring out where to stay.
Google Nests for Every Trip
While Booking.com is best known for its flight and hotel arrangements there are more than 6.2 million houses, apartments, and other private homes listed on the site. Booking.com has data showing a growing interest among both hosts and travelers in homes with smart devices and wants to leverage its partnership with Google to get integrate Nest devices into the homes of both groups. Devices like keyless locks and thermostats can be added to the equation easily enough once the initial device is in place. The free Google Nest Mini, acquired by using GOOGLENEST as the promo code when checking out, sets the stage for future promotions and offers from both companies.
“Booking.com and Google have been strategic partners for many years and we are delighted to deepen our relationship further with such an integrated partnership that will help build an even more connected guest and host experience on Booking.com,” Booking.com CMO Arjan Dijk said in a statement. “The partnership will not only provide consumers with incentives to book a stay on Booking.com, but will also provide our partners with access to product and installation services that include Google Nest devices, to help their property deliver an amazing experience for Booking.com guests.”
Smart Homes and Hospitality
Hotels have been gradually adding voice assistants to their features over the last couple of years. Marriott ran a successful pilot program with Alexa and is now working on bringing the voice assistant to many more hotels. Then there’s the Westin Buffalo, which became the first hotel to offer to link its smart speakers to the personal Alexa accounts of guests. Meanwhile, Baidu has partnered with InterContinental Hotels Group to bring AI-powered smart displays to suites in several hotels in China, while SoundHound is integrating a version of its Houndify platform into JBL smart speakers at hotels around the world.
Google has made it clear it wants to bring Google Assistant and Nest products into as many aspects of people’s lives as it can. Extending that effort to home hospitality makes sense, especially in light of recently released creations. The new, lower-cost Nest Mini, the Nest Wifi router with Google Assistant built-in, and other smart home devices can create an entire Google-centric ecosystem. The same goes for software features. Nest devices recently added the ability to transfer audio and video between them via a request to Google Assistant, including the newly integrated SiriusXM streaming channels for Google Nest devices. Even if someone doesn’t own a Google Nest smart speaker or smart display, they can turn a growing list of Android phone models into a kind of smart display using Ambient Mode when they are plugged in. Someone who has Google Nest devices in their own home will likely be very comfortable using them during a stay in someone else’s place, cementing Google’s central position in their lives even more.
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