Viber for Travel & Hospitality: Booking & Updates

In today’s internet-first travel environment, good communication is not only nice to have – it’s now expected.

Travelers expect timely updates, immediate booking confirmations, and personalized support every step of the way.

For airlines, hotels, and travel agencies, managing millions of messages while delivering this level of service is a significant challenge.

Viber Business Messages is an attractive solution for the travel and hospitality industry.

With its messaging platform that combines the immediacy of instant messaging with the functionalities that businesses need, this solution can help travel and hospitality companies reach millions of users around the globe – over 1 billion active users, to be exact.

With greater engagement compared to traditional channels, Viber is redefining the way travel and hospitality companies communicate with customers.

Why Viber for Travel & Hospitality?

Unmatched Reach and Engagement

Viber is a great option for travel companies that deal with clients all over the world.

The app has great statistics that make the process of communication even better:

These statistics are the reason why over 20,000 brands worldwide use Viber Business Messages to communicate with their clients.

Viber is particularly popular in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Cost-Effective Rich Communication

For travel companies that receive many customer messages, Viber can help reduce costs.

With Viber, you can reduce the cost of marketing messages up to 50% compared to using SMS, especially for lengthy messages that require several parts of an SMS message.

SMS only permits 160 characters in one message, while Viber Business Messages allow up to 1,000 characters in one message.

They can also contain rich media content, images, videos, and buttons.

So, in one message, you can send the entire booking confirmation, itinerary, and buttons to perform certain actions, all of which could be sent in several SMS messages.

Key Use Cases for Travel & Hospitality

1. Booking Confirmations

The moment when the customer completes the booking is of utmost importance in setting customer expectations and building trust.

With Viber, travel businesses can send clear booking confirmations that include all the necessary details in one easy-to-read message:

What to Include in Booking Confirmations:

• The customer’s itinerary, including flight numbers, times, and terminals
• Hotel details, including type of room and check-in/check-out times
• Booking reference numbers and QR codes
• Interactive buttons to manage bookings or add extras
• Links to digital boarding cards or hotel door keys
• Details of cancellation policies and options to change the booking

The ability of the business to send files and photos to the customer, such as confirmations and invoices, and the customer to send identity documents, preferences, and special requests to the business.

2. Real-Time Travel Updates

Traveling can be unpredictable, and getting updates in the middle of a disruption can turn a bad situation into a good one.

Viber has a high delivery rate and quick visibility, making it an excellent option for time-sensitive news.

Flight-Specific Updates:

• Changes in departure and arrival times
• Changes in gates and terminals
• Delays with new flight schedules
• Cancellations with rebooking options
• Pre-check-in reminders 24 hours before departure
• Boarding reminders with gate information

Hotel Communications:

• Pre-check-in forms to reduce waiting at the reception desk
• Personal room upgrade offers before arrival at the hotel
• Automated upsell messages for spa treatments, meals, and activities
• In-stay service requests and concierge assistance
• Check-out reminders and folios
• Post-stay feedback requests and loyalty program updates

3. Customer Support and Service Recovery

Businesses can use Viber Business Messaging to help their customers.

This provides real-time support, answers questions, and resolves concerns directly within the Viber app.

This kind of two-way chat can be particularly useful during travel troubles when a person needs urgent help.

The platform provides session messages that allow users to reply, ask questions, ask for help, or chat with a bot to get guided help.

This kind of message can be particularly useful for customer service, changing bookings, asking about products, and getting personalized recommendations.

4. Promotional Campaigns

Aside from the basic use of sending bulk messages, Viber is a good tool to use in the marketing of a travel-related business.

This is because the promotional messages that Viber offers allow the sending of targeted messages to the opted-in users.

These messages can also contain images, icons, and text.

Viber Message Types for Travel

Knowing the types of messages will enable travel businesses to choose the right format for their respective needs:

Transactional Messages

These are used to convey important information that the customer needs.

This can include flight updates, booking confirmations, etc.

Promotional Messages

These are rich media messages that can be used for marketing campaigns, loyalty programs, etc.

Seat sales, last-minute deals, etc., can be promoted using promotional messages.

Conversational / Session Messages 

Conversational messages can be used for two-way conversations.

This can be helpful in providing personalized customer service.

Complex queries can be handled using conversational messages.

List Messages

List messages enable the user to select one of the five predefined options by clicking on the respective button.

Users can be given options to confirm their booking, select their meals, etc.

Carousel Messages

Carousel messages enable the business to display up to five cards within one single message.

Each card can have one image, text, emojis, and two call-to-action buttons.

Destination options, types of rooms, tour packages, etc., can be presented using carousel messages.

OTP Messages

OTP messages can be used to provide secure user verification.

This can help prevent fraud while providing a seamless experience.

Case Study: Cebu Pacific Airlines

Cebu Pacific, the largest airline in the Philippines, is a great example of how Viber can revolutionize travel communications.

The Challenge

Cebu Pacific wanted to explore new ways of communicating with millions of travelers across their journey.

Using emails and SMS, however, was taking a while.

The Solution

A comprehensive communication strategy was implemented, with Viber as the primary channel due to its strong messaging and tracking capabilities.

SMS will be used as a fall-back option to ensure that messages are always received.

Implementation Highlights:

• Promotions with clear messages, photos, and GIFs, such as seat sales
• Flight updates, such as delays, gate changes, and schedule changes
• Segmentation of the audience to send personalized extra product recommendations
• Propensity modeling to guess what a customer wants based on past behavior

The Results

Chatbot Integration for 24/7 Service

Viber Chatbots can assist by sending out messages and giving customers support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This is particularly useful for travel businesses whose customers may be in different time zones.

The key features of a chatbot:

• Custom keyboards that allow users to click on buttons to take specific actions
• Rich content including cards, carousels, GIFs, emoji, and stickers
• Verified chatbot profiles to make them trustworthy
• Ability to track campaigns to see how many messages were delivered
• Ability to hand over to a human for complex questions

The impact of a chatbot on a business:

• Studies have shown that bookings can increase by 30% when chatbots are used for making bookings
• 76.9% of travelers find hotels that have chatbot services appealing
• Chatbots can be used to assist customers in making bookings to increase conversion rates

Hotel-Specific Applications

Hotels can use Viber in all phases of the customer journey:

Pre-arrival phase:

• Provide price comparison tools to illustrate the benefits of booking directly over OTA’s
• Send customers offers to upgrade their rooms
• Provide digital pre-check in forms to reduce check in time
• Provide local tips and suggestions for activities

During stay phase:

• Automate tasks that can be triggered during the customer’s stay
• View sales and upsell orders in real-time dashboards
• Manage customer requests and route these to the right departments
• Chat in customers’ languages using real-time translation tools

Post-stay phase:

• Launch review campaigns to increase ratings on TripAdvisor and Google
• Develop targeted offers for past customers
• Nurture loyalty program relationships

Implementation Guide

Getting Started

Viber Business Messaging allows the integration of the business’s existing systems or CRM with the Viber API.

This helps the business send personal messages, alerts, and promotions to customers who opt-in to receive messages.

Steps to Launch:

• Choose an official Viber messaging partner
• Partner with the messaging partner to set up your account and obtain a verified business profile
• Connect to the self-service platform or the API to your CRM
• Obtain customer consent for Viber messages
• Start with transactional messages and then promotional messages

Ensuring Message Delivery

To ensure that messages are delivered, a fallback option such as SMS can be used with a specified time window (TTL) until the message is delivered as an SMS.

This is especially useful in situations where the customer might not have an internet connection, such as in the case of flight changes.

Session-Based Messaging

A 24-hour chat session can be started when the user sends a message to the business.

The session can end after 60 messages in the session, or 24 hours have elapsed, respectively.

This can be used for booking changes without incurring additional charges for messages.

Best Practices for Success

• Use Viber primarily and have SMS as a fall-back: Ensure important information is delivered.
• Use rich media: Add images, GIFs, and videos to promos to increase engagement.
• Add chatbots: Provide 24x7 customer service and assist customers with their bookings.
• Segment your audience: Send personalized messages based on what customers do and what customers like.
• Automate workflows: Send timely reminders on flight updates, check-ins, and other special offers.
• Monitor performance: Monitor the success of messages based on delivery, read rate, and conversion.
• Enable two-way chat: Allow customers to ask questions or make requests.
• Be sensitive to the timing: Send the right message at the right time based on the customer’s time zone.

Competitive Advantages Over Traditional Channels

Viber vs. Email:

• Much higher open rates (90% compared to 20%)

• Real-time delivery confirmation and read receipts
• Rich media capabilities without any issues on various apps
• Sent to a customer's personal chat versus their inbox

Viber vs. SMS:

• Up to 50% cheaper, especially for longer messages
• Up to 1,000 characters per message compared to 160 for SMS
• Rich media capabilities: images, buttons, etc.
• Two-way chat for customer service
• Verified sender profiles for better brand recognition

With Viber Business Messages, travel and hospitality enterprises have a tremendous opportunity to improve their communication with their customers.

This is because Viber has a global reach and allows for effective engagement, rich media support, and cost savings, making it possible for travel and hospitality enterprises to deliver unique and personalized experiences that travelers today demand.

From travel booking confirmations and updates to promotions and chatbot support for travelers 24/7, Viber has everything you need to communicate effectively across the entire customer journey.

The success stories of airlines such as Cebu Pacific are a testament to the business potential of using Viber for effective communication with your customers and creating loyal customers.

Travel and hospitality enterprises today face a lot of competition, and travelers demand instant and effortless communication with their preferred travel and hospitality enterprises.

Therefore, travel and hospitality enterprises that use Viber will have a competitive edge over those that don't, and the question today isn't whether you should use rich messaging platforms such as Viber, but how soon you can set up your rich messaging platform to gain a competitive edge.

Ready to improve your travel communications?

Get in touch with a Viber messaging partner today and begin creating great customer experiences for your travelers.