Marriott's Slack extension proves booking corporate travel software doesn't have to suck
Marriott is using Slack and emoji to make booking a hotel room as easy as giving a 👍 .
The hotel chain introduced a new Slack extension that lets teams browse and book hotel rooms directly in their chats. And, being Slack, of course, there's an emoji feature.
Start by providing a city and dates, and the extension will surface a handful of options. Everyone in the chat can then vote — using Slack's emoji reactions — on which option they want. When the votes are in, you can book the winning hotel right in the same place.
That may seem overly simplistic, but if you've ever tried to use the nightmare that is Concur or other corporate travel software, the idea of simplifying the process down to a few emoji doesn't actually seem so bad.
Naturally, the extension is limited to hotels affiliated with Marriott's Rewards program, but the company promises the Slack tie-in will aways turn up the lowest possible rate.
Marriott also has the distinction of being the first hotel chain to have a dedicated Slack experience, though the hotel chain has previously dabbled in messaging, with a bot for Facebook Messenger and an iMessage app.
The extension itself was built by a company called Snaps, which also makes emoji apps for businesses (and Lady Gaga, as it turns out), so it's not surprising they'd bring an emoji component to Slack as well.
Unfortunately, Marriott's voting-by-emoji is limited to the 👍 — at least for now. But we can at least hope party parrot won't be far behind.
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
