Avis teams up with Amazon for voice-powered bookings with Alexa

Avis has become the first car rental operator to offer voice-powered car reservations via Amazon Alexa.

It allows travelers to make a reservation and manage car rentals through the voice activated platform on Amazon Echo devices.

It is being previewed to the trade this week at the Global Business Travel Association’s Convention, and will roll out to consumers in August.

We are constantly looking for ways to make the customer’s experience more magical. We have our mobile app, which allows renters to manage their entire experience from their smartphone at approximately 175 locations globally, and now with Alexa integration, we will provide them with yet another way to engage with us seamlessly," said Arthur Orduña, chief innovation officer of Avis Budget Group.

Travelers get instant, voice-controlled access to the booking function with simple voice commands such as ‘I need a car at La Guardia Airport at 9:00am this Friday,’ Avis says.

It enables customers to review the current or past reservations and request an e-receipt of the last rental.

It also takes note of any customer preferences or optional add-on requests.

Avis cites data from Gartner, Inc., which forecasts 30% of consumer interactions with technology will be via voice assistance platforms by 2018.