Now you can use Facebook Messenger to book your reservation at Vegas’ Venetian

The Venetian on Tuesday becomes the first hotel in Las Vegas to offer bookings using Facebook Messenger, with help from a chatbot named Luis.

Beginning at 9 a.m., the Venetian will allow potential guests to check room rates and obtain other information about the resort without leaving their Facebook accounts.

Facebook Messenger “is critically important to growing a more seamless experience,” said Lisa Marchese, the Venetian’s chief marketing officer.

“It doesn’t make sense for me to send you over to a website.”

The resort’s Facebook page links users to the same content as its website, but the use of Messenger eliminates what Marchese called “channel switching.”

It also provides an additional and important option: the chance to ask questions of Luis, a language recognition platform from Microsoft.

Users can ask resort-specific questions, including queries about dining options or entertainment choices at a specific time.

Marchese noted that the Luis technology is intuitive and “will get smarter as more people use it.”

Marchese said all credit card transactions are encrypted using the same security software on the resort’s website.

This type of technology, which is becoming known as “conversational commerce,” is already used by a recent online startup called Snap Travel. It provides multiple hotel and pricing options for destinations around the world. Language recognition allows their “ninja agents” to answer specific questions within a minute or two.

Booking using Facebook Messenger is expected to expand to the Palazzo, the Venetian’s sister property, Marchese said, although she didn’t say when that would happen.

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel

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