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Amazon Brings Alexa To Hotels (zdnet.com)
Amazon is finally bringing Alexa to the hotel room. The e-commerce giant announced Tuesday the launch of Alexa for Hospitality, a specialized version of the voice assistant that integrates into popular hotel software systems for guest services. From a report: Housed inside of an Echo device, Alexa for Hospitality is functionally identical to the Alexa used in homes, except tailored to a hotel's service options. Guests can tell Alexa to order room service, book a spa appointment, call for housekeeping, provide directions, or play music in their room, for example. On the privacy side, Amazon said hotels will not have access to voice recordings of Alexa interactions or responses, and recordings of Alexa commands are remotely wiped when the guest checks out of the hotel. However, hotels can use Alexa for Hospitality to "measure engagement through analytics and adapt services based on guest feedback," Amazon said. Alexa for Hospitality is available to hotels, vacation rentals, and other hospitality providers starting today, with Marriott International signed up to deploy the service across its hotel portfolio this summer.
"Amazon said hotels will not have access to voice recordings of Alexa interactions or responses"
oh really?
the second part seems to contradict this
"recordings of Alexa commands are remotely wiped"
unless that implies that the hotel doesn't keep a copy but Amazon does.
My guess is that they do have access to recordings - but let's imagine that they don't:
What happens when the guest orders a load of perishable food to the room and then when it arrives they deny all knowledge [e.g. through malice or if their romantic getaway turned sour and they didn't want that expensive dinner any more or they claim someone else walked in the room and made the request or ... ] ?
Are you seriously suggesting the hotel wouldn't keep a copy of the order to play it back to the guest?
If they don't then there's plenty of scope for 'pranks' and or sabotage from their competitors to run up the food wastage bills ; if they do keep recordings for this eventuality, then why not for other purposes (which gives a weasel excuse to cover any/all occasions).