LuxUrban Hotels Inc. (“LuxUrban” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: LUXH), which utilizes an asset-light business model to lease entire hotels on a long-term basis and rent out hotel rooms in these properties in key major metropolitan cities, today announced that it has launched a pilot program to incorporate a state-of-the-art, bespoke Amazon Alexa Voice Experience (“Amazon Alexa”) in three of its hotels: The Lafayette by LuxUrban, Trademark Collection® by Wyndham in New Orleans, The Blakely by LuxUrban, Trademark Collection® by Wyndham in New York City, and O Hotel by LuxUrban, Trademark Collection® by Wyndham in Los Angeles.
The deployment of Amazon Alexa at these three hotels is designed to elevate the guest experience by providing quick, tailored, and seamless access to property services and amenities, enhance property efficiencies, and increase ancillary revenue opportunities. The pilot program is set to commence in the first quarter of 2024 with an expectation that it would be rolled out across the Company’s portfolio of hotels in 2024.
By using an Amazon Echo Show 8 device available in their rooms, guests can receive answers to commonly asked questions regarding the property and locale, order food, call the front desk, request housekeeping, make reservations, and more. The program includes a customized Chatbot experience that will launch on the Company’s website, as well as social media channels focused specifically on pre-and post-stay with the goal of increasing direct bookings and eliciting positive reviews. The program is designed to enhance efficiencies in areas such as housekeeping and maintenance by immediately routing these requests to the appropriate staff. Comprehensive reporting provides valuable insights on performance metrics, common requests, feature use, response times, and more which can be used to drive continuous property and enterprise-wide improvement initiatives.
“We believe that the availability of Amazon Alexa will help make the guest experience more enjoyable while further differentiating our properties,” said Brian Ferdinand, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. “We also believe that the installation of this in-room technology will allow us capture high margin ancillary revenue opportunities at the properties at which it is available.”
LuxUrban Hotels Inc.
LuxUrban Hotels Inc. utilizes an asset-light business model to lease entire hotels on a long-term basis and rent out hotel rooms in the properties it leases to business and vacation travelers through the Company’s online portal and third-party sales and distribution channels. The Company currently manages a portfolio of hotel rooms in New York, Washington D.C., Miami Beach, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. As of November 8, 2023 the Company had 2,032 hotel rooms under lease, including properties not yet available for rent, and seeks to rapidly build its portfolio on favorable economics through the acquisition of additional accommodations that were dislocated or are underutilized as a result of the pandemic and current economic conditions. In late 2021, the Company commenced the process of winding down its legacy business of leasing and re-leasing multifamily residential units, as it pivoted toward its new strategy of leasing hotels. This transition has been substantially completed.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (set forth in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended). The statements contained in this release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. Generally, the words “anticipates,” “believes,” “continues,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plans,” “possible,” “potential,” “predicts,” “projects,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this release may include, for example, statements with respect to the success of the Amazon Alexa program and the expected benefits, the Company’s collaboration with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, scheduled property openings, expected closing of noted lease transactions, the Company’s ability to continue closing on additional leases for properties in the Company’s pipeline, as well the Company’s anticipated ability to commercialize efficiently and profitably the properties it leases and will lease in the future. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are based on current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effect on the Company. There can be no assurance that future developments will be those that have been anticipated. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results of performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, including those set forth under the caption “Risk Factors” in our public filings with the SEC, including in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and any updates to those factors as set forth in subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or other public filings with the SEC. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
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