The Modern Hotelier#233: Improving the Front Desk Experience for Guests & Staff at Noble House | with Steven Marais
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Steve Carran: Welcome to another episode of The Modern Hotelier. Today we are joined by Steven Marais, Vice President of Rooms of Noble House Resorts. Thanks for joining us, Steven. How you doing today?
Steven Marais: I'm doing great. How are you doing?
Steve Carran: Good. So Steven, what were some of the most pressing issues that your front desk faced across Noble House especially in your high-end resorts like Argonaut before implementing EHVA?
Steven Marais: Yeah, well, Argonaut's it's a very popular property. It's right in the middle of Fishermans in San Francisco. So there's a ton of foot traffic, there's tons of guests and both guests that are staying, guests that are going to the Blue Mermaid, which is the restaurant that come to the front desk and ask questions. And I think one of the biggest challenges was definitely the phone call volume. 
Phone call volume was always very, very tough. And believe it or not, you know, especially as you talk about some of the younger generation coming in and they don't like to call or talk on the phone, we still get as much phone call volume as we have in the past. And it's 'cause people want to talk, they wanna know about the property and it could be anything from what time is checkout to, can you help me plan this, this trip to San Francisco? So phone call volume was always very tough for our front desk agents because they weren't, you know, they would be on the phone and then they would be talking to someone, they have to put someone on hold. And so delivering on those Forbes service standards, it was always very difficult because you basically have to be a master, multitasker at the front desk in order to do that. So that was always tough. It was always stressful for the front desk, and it was always hard for us to execute those service standards with the phone call volume.
David M.: Sure. So you heard about EHVA on our podcast? Which is great. So what made it stand out from other automation and guest communication tools? And what's happened since you've implemented it? 
Steven Marais: Yeah, so funny story on that. So we were actually vetting a conversational AI, like six or seven different companies and by the time we got to the fifth one, we found out that just there was tons of latency, right. It just really sounded like a robot still. It sounded like a touch tone, you know? Phone. It didn't really sound authentic. It didn't sound real and it wasn't fluid, you know, and that guest experience is, you only have one shot when you're introducing AI to introduce it to the guest experience.
So the moment they think it's a robot, they're gonna press zero, they're gonna wanna talk to a person, and they're gonna want to bypass the whole entire system. So by the time we hit our fifth one, fifth one that we were vetting, we could tell that they were just querying some sort of LLM or whatnot, and there was so much latency that it just sort of gave up. So I was actually listening to your podcast on a run in San Francisco, and I was like, oh, here we go. Here's another one. And I was running through Golden Gate Park, and I remember specifically hearing EHVA speak, and I stopped on a park bench and I was listening to you guys on this podcast. I said, wow. And of course, you know, me being a Hotelier, I'm super skeptical, right? I'm like, yeah, let's see if this actually is true. Or they're just dubbing it. So it sounds like she sounds great. And so that's when I reached out to Ryan and then Ryan reached back out to us and you know, the rest is sort of history.
Steve Carran: So I have a question. One thing that we talk about is siloed technology on the podcast. How does EHVA integrate with other systems like Actable and Core Park that you all use? 
Steven Marais: Yeah, we're independent luxury, mostly all of our properties are independent and we're very, very specific about the partnerships that we choose. And EHVA specifically, one of the other reasons that we continue to go down this path of development with them on developing this technology is that they were open-minded to plug into others API and vice versa. Right. And that's it's always tough to get. Sometimes it can be very challenging to get different technology partners to play nice in the sandbox, per se. And that's what from us, from a consumer standpoint, from a customer standpoint, that's where it gets frustrating on our end. So, we're very specific about the partnerships that we have.
So like actionable, for example, we've been a long-term partner with them back when they were Alice, I think we had hotel number six of Alice way back when, and then Core Park two, they're just very forward thinking and very open-minded. So we wanted to get someone else and we, uh, that was also open-minded and able to plug into other technologies and at least have the conversation, and that's why we continued to work with Ryan and Ava be because of that, because they wanted to improve. Prove it. And they saw that there is a long-term play for this.
David M.: Implementing new technology can always be a challenge. Yes. Was it in this case?
Steven Marais: No, it wasn't actually. Implementing is usually can be pretty challenging. Sometimes it can be easy, but then it's just the follow up and the follow through. Right. You adoption is like probably the second KPI that we really just, a lot of people don't know, they don't pay attention to.
So it was very easy, and part of it was that follow up and follow through. I think, you know, with Ryan's technology, him and his team actually look, listen to EHVA and look at all the transcripts and see what the guest is saying, and see what the guest is doing and where it might be hallucinating and so on and so forth, that part was key and, and so implementing was actually a lot easier than some of our other technology installs that we've had in the past. 
Steve Carran: So, EHVA is handling a hundred percent of the calls at the Argonaut, and there's a rumor that 80% of them are being handled without any staff involvement at all. How has this impacted, you know, your staff with labor shortage and also the guest experience?
Steven Marais: You know, it's been quite impactful. In fact, it's been very impactful and not just from a guest perspective 'cause the guest is obviously, being serviced a lot quicker and a lot more promptly than maybe front desk agent that might be not answering the phone 'cause they're busy during a busy check-in time. It has really made a difference from a staff quality standpoint. Like their quality of work at the front desk is a lot better, a lot less stress, a lot less, you know, just worrying about picking up the phone and putting 'em on hold and hitting the service standards, they can focus more just on the guest in front of them than having to worry about the phone calls.
And the thing about that 80% too, is what we found out is we've learned a lot from the guest is. You know, as a Hotelier you give 'em the stat of 80%, but all that stuff is all just very redundant que request, request for towel. My toilet's not working. What time's checkout? What's the wifi password? All of them are pretty much in the same 80% group. The other 20% are the nuance, like what time does Alcatraz close? You know, things like, things like that. But there's even like examples with EHVA where she will go into Google Maps or she'll look into her, her knowledge base and she'll let a guest know. The closest CVS is two blocks down and that CVS opened like three months ago. So she's pretty intuitive and pretty smart. 
David M.: So what has the collaboration and the work relationship been like with Ryan and the EHVA team? 
Steven Marais: It's been incredible and really what we look for in a partner is, is some something that it's a two-way street and so Ryan is learning much about our industry from us as much as we're learning about him and his industry, and I think in his background with call centers has really helped that as well.
He is learning a ton about the hotel industry and how quirky we can be sometimes and how guest requests, just sort of the darnedest things. And he reads that and he sees that. And so he is learning a lot about how our industry operates. And we're learning a lot about just that AI space, which is what I think everyone's trying to do, is trying to figure out this AI trend.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. So I have to ask, what does your staff think about Ava and how it sounds and reacts with customers? 
Steven Marais: They love her. They love EHVA. Anything that can remove some of the pressure from, like, again, phone call volume stress at the front desk and, and really just improve the guest experience. It's all been super, super, super positive and it's been positive too. And most of the front desk agents there, you know, they're Gen Z, they're millennials, so they're very forward thinking when it comes to sort of technology. So they're happy to see that, hey, we're actually doing something with AI. We're not just saying that we're using it or we're we're actually doing something and they believe in it. So it's been widely adopted by our teams. 
David M.: Looking ahead, how do you see EHVA evolving within Noble House's broader technology and service strategy? 
Steven Marais: Very good question. We have tons of great ideas and tons of great use cases that we have, that we keep talking to Ryan about and talking about partnerships. Ryan is a really good partner, the EHVA team, incredibly great partners when it comes to being open-minded about our feedback, right? Because again, it's one of those relationships where he is learning about us as much as we're learning about him. So, I'll give you one that we're really, really excited about, that we're trying to work on, which is room service orders.
And so, what we're trying to do is we're trying to put an integration in with our POS partner and EHVA. So EHVA can take room service orders. So traditionally, and you know this Yeah. There used to always be a room service attendant. Right? Room service, you know, boy, they would sit down, they'd sit by the phone, wait for it to ring, they would put the order in, and then they would bring it up to the room and that was it. It was a full time position. Right. 
And then as time went on, it became more, the food runner does it. And then as more time went on, maybe someone will answer the phone. Maybe the host will host or hostess will answer the phone and put that order in. But it really, it really caused a lot of friction with the experience. And like I told you, like a lot of the genera younger generation doesn't like to talk on the phone, especially calling, you know, room service, they'd rather just order it on a tablet or something like that. So when they call room service and the room service attendant's not answering because um, they're clearing trays or they're busy running food or something like that, they don't call back and that's missed revenue, right?
So we're super excited about this 'cause one. It really just improves the guest experience, right? Somebody answers right away, they take your order, they get it right, they put it in the system, and it's just less friction for that experience. And it's also best for the team too, because then they'll see, all right, this order came in. Now I can just run this food and focus more on this, the service touch points when delivering it. So we're really excited about that. We have a bunch of other stuff in the pipeline that, of course we've been throwing at Ryan and his team, um, and they've been trying to figure out. But again, it goes back to just having the right partners that are gonna be open-minded to it. And I think Ryan is one of those leaders that in the tech industry that's super open-minded to just plugging into anything. 
David M.: That's great. That's great. Well, that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier Hospitality's Most Engaged Podcast. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and thanks for joining us.