Highlights of the recommender engine functions
In this video you will see how the recommender engine functions in use on a website:
The Recommender Engine features
In the steps below you will know how the recommender appears to a particular customer:
The basis of a recommender engine is that it learns from a user's behavior on a website and makes recommendations based on their interactions with the website.
An example of an internationally known recommender engine is Netflix. It makes recommendations on what to watch based on what you have previously watched.
The recommender engine learns from how the user interacts with the hotel website and the hotel booking engine and presents content based on this.
The content presented can depend on which stage of the booking process the customer is at. The content can also be based on the customers country of origin.
Scenario 1: Has visited the site once before and searched a date on the booking engine. Recommender engine: Rates and packages available for the dates searched.
Scenario 2: Visiting the website for the first time and the user is based in the United States. Recommender engine: Content tagged as US IP address will display, for example, if set up in the back-end to display stay and save rate for the US.
Scenario 3: Visited a content page on Valentine’s day. Recommender engine: Valentine’s package, tagged as romance is presented on the recommender engine.
Scenario 4: has made a booking on the Hotel’s website and is coming to stay. Recommender Engine: Rates/prices don’t need to be shown as the user has already made a booking. Cards are presented based on pre-stay path, for example, upgrade your room, directions to the Hotel, make a dinner reservation.
Scenario 5: First visit to the website. Recommender engine: Soft lead booking path. Doesn’t present all rates in the cards - present information about the amenities at the hotel/destination.
Enable the recommender engine
In the step below you will learn how to request the recommender engine to be enabled:
A request will need to be sent to the support team [email protected] requesting the recommender engine to be activated.
⚠️ Important: The support team will need to ensure the correct cookies is enabled on your website. Private label must be enabled also before activation.
Set up the recommender engine basic configuration
Follow the steps below to start building your recommender engine basic configuration:
Click the CRM tab.
On the left hand side hover over recommender engine.
Click basic configuration.
Display:
Enter your brand colour. Decide if you would like to display the recommender engine as expanded, minimised or folded.
Widget position, the widget can show on the left or right of the screen depending on the layout of your website.
Margins:
Desktop margin bottom specify the number of pixels from the bottom of the screen that you want the widget to appear.
Desktop margin: Left or right depending on the widget position, specify the number of pixels from the left or right hand edge of the browser window to position the widget.
Mobile margin bottom: On mobile devices or screens width of less than 480 pixels, specify how many pixels from the bottom of the screen to display the widget.
Margin top: The recommender engine in the expanded state will fill the space from the bottom margin to the top margin. This field can be left blank in which case the recommender engine will determine its own height based on content and viewport size.
Recommender engine footer:
Book now action: Specify what action to take when the user clicks on the book now link in the footer of the Recommender Engine. Options include:
Hide Booking Link: The book now link is not displayed.
Go to Main Booking Engine: The link triggers a page redirect to the full booking engine.
Popup Search by Rate: The link triggers an inline popup with the results displayed by rate then room. This option is only available for single-site implementations.
Popup Search by Room: The link triggers an inline popup with results displayed by room then rate. This option is only available for single-site implementations.
Newsletter sign up message:
Specify what promotional message should be displayed when the user clicks on the signup newsletter link at the bottom of the recommender engine. If no message is selected, the sign up link will not be displayed.
Widget Icon: If you are not uploading a custom brand icon, you can use one of the pre-defined generic icons. Optionally upload a 68x68 pixels brand icon. If an icon is uploaded, it will be used instead of the Widget Icon.
Greetings: Select any of the tone-of-voice greeting types that you want to use when greeting guests. Greeting messages can be further personalized to the guest based on their previous interactions with the website.
Press save changes.
Set up the recommender engine storyboard
Follow the steps below to start building your recommender engine's storyboard:
Click the CRM tab.
On the left hand side hover over recommender engine
Click storyboard.
Click create default storyboard settings button and the recommended information will populate for you.
Click save changes.
Intent levels on the recommender engine
In the points below you will know what each intent refers to:
Low Intent - Users that may be visiting your site for the first time/may still be in the discovery stage.
Medium Intent – Users that have spent time exploring your site and may have performed a booking engine query or signed up to your newsletter.
High Intent - Users that have spent time exploring your site and performed other search queries or have advanced deeper into the booking funnel (I.e. have reached the Customize/Book page)
Pre-Arrival Guest – Users who have secured a booking with your property. You provide quick to their reservation information and promote on-site facilities to these pre-arrival guests.
Post-Checkout Guest – Users who have already stayed at your property and are re-visiting your site as a post-checkout guest. You can reward loyal customers, encourage them to leave a review or provide incentives for the guest to stay again.
Create room price feed
Follow the steps below to create room price feed:
🤓 Tip: Live prices will display on the recommender engine depending on the room page selected. For example if you have a classic double room price and a classic double room URL then the live classic double room pricing will display on the recommender engine.
Click the CRM tab.
On the left hand side hover over recommender engine.
Click room prices feed.
Click the button + add new room.
A list of room names will appear in the drop down.
If it is the case you have matching website pages, copy and paste the URL into the box provided.
Click what status is suitable - active, suspended or deleted.
Repeat step 3 & 4 until all the rooms have been allocated a URL.
Press save changes.
🤓 Tip: If you do not have room pages set up on your website then this feature can be skipped.
Allocate tags and interests
In the steps below you will learn how to set up the tags and interests on your recommender engine:
A tag is label or marker that helps to categorize and organize content.
Click the CRM tab.
On the left hand side hover over recommender engine.
Click tags and interest.
URL's can be added manually or imported from your website sitemap.
Add the sitemap URL.
Click import URLs from sitemap.
Page URLs will be populate
Click a tag by clicking on the correct topic.
The selected tag will be highlighted in orange.
To attach the tag, click the box on the right beside the URL you wish to apply.
The tag will then be applied.
You can see what tags are associated with a URL by adding the URL in the test URL box.
Click save changes.
Create news feed
Follow the steps below to create your new feeds:
Note: The news feed is a collection of short messages which can be selected to display on the recommender engine. The type and quantity of messages selected will depend on the configuration of the storyboard. Other information accumulated from the user journey is also used to rank messages.
Click the CRM tab.
Click news feed.
Click the button + create feed.
Enter a feed code.
A feed code is for internal use to make it easier to identify the news feed.
Click the correct status.
Click on a feed type from the drop down menu.
Message: This is a simple message and can contain title, description, and configurable actions.
Rate: In addition to simple message content, a rate message type is configured to open a live search popup directly on your website allowing users to search for availability on those selected rates.
This can be used to market your special offers in different categories. When selecting a rate feed type, a multi-select box is displayed from which you can select the rates that you would like this feed item to focus on. The live search that is opened when the user can click on this message will focus on these rates.
Click an action.
Depending on the feed type selected, a different set of actions are available:
Message:
No action: The message content is displayed in the news feed, but the user is not provided with any links to action the message.
Go to URL: A URL can be provided where the user will be directed to after they click on the message.
Open Message Popup: A promotional message can be setup in another section of the Recommender Engine configuration. When this option is selected, a further selection is visible to allow you to select which promotional message to open.
Open Search by Rate: A live search popup is displayed with results ordered by rate then room.
Open Search by Room: A live search popup is displayed with results ordered by room then rate.
Rate:
No action: The message content is displayed in the news feed, but the user is not provided with any links to action the message.
Go to URL: A URL can be provided where the user will be directed to after they click on the message.
Open Rate Message Popup: Opens the Live Rate Widget which enables the user to browse through your rooms and rates, while checking availability and prices without leaving the portal or website.
Go to Booking Engine Rate page: User is directed to the main booking engine.
Feed title content:
Feed Title can be provided in all languages enabled for your property. This can be up to 50 characters long.
Feed Content can be provided in all languages and can be up to 170 characters long.
A call-to-action label can optionally be provided and is used as the button label in the feed. If no label is provided, the entire feed item becomes clickable, and no button is displayed.
A call-to-action URL must be specified if the action of the message is to go to a URL.
One image can be selected for the news feed. Images must be uploaded to your MediaCenter or you can re-use existing images from your private galleries or the IBE public galleries.
Click save changes.
Note: Live rate widget:
Calendar - the user can see relevant pricing for their search and can see prices at a glance.
Pricing - selecting dates, updates the prices depending on your check-in and check-out date.
Room/Rate selector - the rates will be shown depending on the filters than have been set.
Currency selector - currencies available depending on the property's settings.
Room/Rate information - gallery, amenities, video/3D tour (if enabled), full rate description.
Apply feed filters
To apply feed filters, follow the steps below:
Click the CRM tab.
Click news feed.
On the main page you will see all the feeds you have set up.
The recommender engine will try to select the most relevant messages to display to a user, based on their previous interactions with your website and booking engine.
A configurable set of rules and filters allow you to specify if certain messages should be promoted in different situations or if a feed type is to be restricted to a specific audience.
Two filter categories are provided:
Show: A message will only ever be displayed if the user meets all the criteria set out in the filter.
Promote: A user does not have to meet all the criteria set out in the filter, but the more conditions that are met, the more the message is promoted and is likely to be seen by that visitor.
Happy St. Patrick's Day. This message has a show filter applied (the check mark) and this message will only be displayed if all the rules configured are matched. In this case, there are two rule filters applied (country and date search). The user must be from either US or UK and have a search date from 10 Mar – 20 Mar.
Golfing Breaks. This message has a promote filter applied (the upward arrow) and this message can be displayed for all users but will be promoted a little higher if the filter criteria are met. In this case, there is one rule filter applied (tag). If the user has previously shown an interest in golf, the message will be promoted higher.
To add filter rules to a message, click on either the show or promote filter section in the message list to trigger the filter popup:
To add a new filter, click the filter type and click the add filter button.
Up to 3 filters can be applied to each message.
Filter Types
Guest Country. Filter applies if user is from any of the selected countries.
Tags or Interests. Filter applies if user has shown an interest in any of the selected categories. User interest is determined by AI based on the pages the user has visited or how they have previously interacted with the booking engine.
Guest Segment. Filter applies if user has been identified as belonging to any of the selected guest segments. Segment profiling is managed by Allora based on the pages the user has visited or how they have previously interacted with the booking engine.
Search Days of Stay. Filter applies if user has previously performed booking engine searches for stay on any of the selected days. This can be used to target midweek or weekend visitors.
Search Dates of Stay. Filter applies if user has previously performed booking engine searches for dates within any of the selected date ranges.
Current Day of Week. Filter applies if the current day of the week is any of the options selected.
Current Month of Year. Filter applies if the current month of the year is any of the options selected.
Intent Level. Filter applies if the user booking intent level is identified by AI as being in any of the options selected. Booking intent is determined by analysing all data from the user journey such as pages visited, number of sessions, number of searches, time on site, etc.
Time to Next Check-in. Filter applies if the user has made a booking and their time before check-in is in any of the options selected.
Time since Last Check-out. Filter applies if the user has made a booking and the time since their last check-out is in any of the options selected.
User Info. Based on the filter mode, filter applies if the user has (not) performed any of the actions selected.
Create promotional messages
Follow the steps below to create promotional messages:
Note: Promotional messages are displayed as popups on your website and can be configured to display only when stories are clicked on the recommender engine news feed.
Click the CRM tab.
Click promotional messages.
Click + create message.
Message content:
A title can be provided in all languages enabled for your property and can be up to 90 characters in length.
Content can be provided and can be up to 320 characters in length.
A message can include a call-to-action label. This is used for the message button text if the message is actionable.
An action URL can be provided where the user will be redirected to if they click on the message action button.
Message template, choose which template is the best option.
Promotional messages can optionally include an email sign-up section which is displayed if the add email signup option is ticked on the message configuration.
An image can optionally be selected which will be displayed at the top of the message popup.
Click save changes.
Enable the recommender engine
To enable the recommender engine follow the step below:
Contact the support team or your point of contact.
If the criteria are met the recommender engine will be enabled.