Expedia.com Launches First Amazon Alexa Skill for Personalized Real-Time Travel Updates

BELLEVUE, Wash., Nov. 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Expedia.com^® today announced the launch of a new travel updates skill for the Amazon Alexa service, giving customers the ability to interact with Alexa-enabled devices such as the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot to receive important travel updates and information in an easy, intuitive way. The Expedia skill for Alexa offers a voice-activated method to hear details on upcoming trips purchased on Expedia.com with other features embedded within the skill that allow travelers to ask for specifics regarding hotel bookings, flight status, loyalty points balance, rental car reservations, and more.

"Expedia remains committed to investing in voice recognition and natural language processing technologies to gain a deeper understanding of the unique nuances associated with the rapidly evolving field of voice-centered interactions," said Tony Donohoe, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Technology, Brand Expedia. "Our skill for Amazon Alexa, alongside our recently launched Expedia bot for Facebook Messenger, are prime examples of how we are striving to generate effective user feedback with Expedia content on new emerging platforms and to give our customers even more ways to get real-time travel updates using whatever device they choose. Ultimately, we want to better serve travelers everywhere."

"We're excited to work with Expedia to bring personalized travel-updates to our Alexa customers—and just in time for the busiest travel season of the year," said Rob Pulciani, Director, Amazon Alexa. "Now Alexa and Expedia customers have the ability to track their flights, book their car rental, and get real-time updates on delays or gate changes—all hands-free by just using your voice. We can't wait for our customers to try this out."

Owners of Alexa-enabled devices, such as Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Fire TV and others, can easily begin an Expedia conversation with simple commands and questions related to their trip. The Expedia skill for Alexa is free to enable and available on any device that supports Amazon Alexa in English in the U.S. Simply go into the "Skills" section of the Alexa app, search for Expedia, and click enable.

For more information regarding the Expedia skill for Alexa and supported requests, please visit http://www.expedia.com/alexa.

About Expedia.com
Expedia.com^® is one of the world's largest full service travel sites, helping millions of travelers per month easily plan and book travel. Expedia.com (https://www.expedia.com/, 1-800-EXPEDIA) aims to provide the latest technology and the widest selection of top vacation destinations, cheap tickets, hotel deals, car rentals, destination weddings, cruise deals and in-destination activities, attractions, services and travel apps. With the Expedia^® Best Price Guarantee, Expedia.com customers can get the best rates available online for all types of travel.

Expedia, Expedia.com, Expedia+, Find Yours, Vacation Deprivation and the Airplane logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners © 2016 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. CST # 2029030-50.

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SOURCE Expedia.com