Hilton and Be My Eyes have joined forces to make hotel stays more accessible.
In mid-October, Be My Eyes announced what it called an “industry-first” venture with hospitality giant Hilton that makes travel accessible to Blind and low vision people. The primary goal of the pair’s collaboration is “[ensuring] all guests have the same great Hilton experience [while advancing] Hilton’s commitment to creating more accessible travel experiences and exceptional guest experiences for everyone.”
“Traveling and staying at a hotel often marks the start of a memorable journey, whether it’s a business trip, a family vacation, or a special celebration,” Be My Eyes wrote in its press release. “However, for guests who are blind or have low vision, navigating the layout of a hotel room or unfamiliar facilities can introduce challenges that may affect their overall experience. These obstacles can turn what should be a seamless stay into a more complicated and stressful situation, highlighting the importance of accessible services in the hospitality industry.”
According to Be My Eyes, the new venture sees Hilton becoming “a key organization in the Be My Eyes’ Service Directory” which features “an extensive listing of Hilton hotel brands and service contact options.” Through its Service Connect platform, Blind or low vision guests have the ability to “dedicated, English-speaking Hilton reservations and customer care agents, or a tailored AI-powered visual interpreter known as Be My AI.” The intent of the work is to leverage technology in order to aid disabled people in familiarizing themselves with things like room layout, fixtures such as the thermostat, identifying toiletries, and more.
For its part, Hilton posted a video about the initiative to YouTube.
In a recent interview, Be My Eyes CEO Mike Buckley explained travel can be a “terrible pain point” for Blind and low vision travelers. One particular source of pain is lodging, as he told me many in the blind and low vision community have trouble negotiating seemingly mundane things like which bottle is the conditioner and which is the shampoo. To remedy this and a host of other issues, Buckley said the Be My Eyes sought to “approach the hospitality sector and figure out ways to work together to make it more accessible.” Of Hilton, Buckley called the brand “the most valuable hotel company in the world and arguably the leading hotel brand in the world,” with discussions between the two companies beginning “about a year ago.” What Be My Eyes quickly discovered was that Hilton has what Buckley called a “deep commitment to accessibility” and who was “willing to pilot and experiment and iterate” on the project.
Buckley said Hilton has a team devoted to accessibility for disabled people who stay at one of the company’s 19 properties. Hilton is “putting its money where is mouth is,” Buckley told me, with him adding he “has a lot of respect” for what the hotel brand is doing. Be My Eyes staffers stayed at various Hilton hotels to give the integration a proper test, with Buckley saying “there were many hotel stays” throughout the process.
“We [at Hilton] have long had a focus on providing life with the warmth of hospitality, going all the way back to Conrad Hilton founding Hilton over 100 years ago,” said Mike Gathright, who leads customer experience at Hilton. “We’re really focused on how we’re able to best deliver the most reliable and friendly stays. When we think about that, it’s providing the most reliable and friendly stays for all guests.”
Gathright works closely with Hilton’s employee resource group and digital accessibility team, telling me the Be My Eyes partnership was the brainchild of the latter. He said Hilton is “constantly” looking at ways to makes its hotels more accessible to people, noting that Hilton “specifically” sought assistance from Buckley and his team. Hilton’s collaboration with Be My Eyes felt right and a “really great partnership,” according to Gathright.
Gathright alluded to the notion that accessibility is for everyone, telling me there are aspects of the Hilton experience—such as using your phone to check-in and use as one’s room key—that aren’t built expressly for accessibility’s sake but nonetheless have relevance to it. He said the self-serve check-in (or out) process is convenient for anyone, but can be a boon for someone who’s disabled who, for example, may not be able to wait in line at the front desk due to physical limitations. Likewise, Gathright noted using one’s phone as a key may prove more accessible than trying to finagle the conventional card into the reader on the door.
Working with Be My Eyes gives Hilton chance to learn, Gathright said.
Feedback on the integration with Hilton has been “very strong,” Buckley said. There have been a slew of posts about it on social media, with Buckley saying posts on Instagram and TikTok have gone “semi-viral.” He also told me he’s heard from many in the Blind and low vision community who, not dissimilar to high school athletes committing to basketball or football programs in college, have stated their commitment to patronizing Hilton hotels precisely because of the Be My Eyes feature. But Buckley is wide-eyed, saying he realizes nobody is perfect and there is room for improvement. Fortunately, he said, Hilton has pledged its fealty to “getting additional feedback and changing and improving the product as we need.” Thus far, however, Buckley was keen to emphasize Be My Eyes has “only gotten good reports and it’s very exciting.”
For Gathright’s part, he shared similar sentiments to Buckley’s. Everyone, internally and externally, has been “supportive” of the partnership with Be My Eyes. Widening the aperture, Gathright said the integration has served as a good reminder that Be My Eyes isn’t a magic wand; it isn’t suddenly going to make hospitality accessible. On the contrary, he stressed work remains in ensuring properties have elevators, roll-in showers, and the like. Gathright shared an anecdote about a guest whom he said hadn’t traveled much “due to complications with travel” and was excited by the Be My Eyes functionality. All told, Gathright said “everybody acknowledges [Be My Eyes] is something that could definitely be an assistive tool in helping travelers who are Blind or low vision be more confident and free in their ability to travel.”
As to the future, both Buckley and Gathright reiterated the importance of accessible hospitality, as well as expressed excitement for what may hold for Be My Eyes and Hilton as a twosome. Gathright said working with Be My Eyes is “another example of creating reliable and friendly stay experiences for our guests,” adding Hilton will “learn a lot.”
“We’ll continue to listen and learn and understand from all of our travelers, including travelers with disabilities, so that we can be a hotel of choice and a place where people feel comfortable and know they can have a reliable stay,” Gathright said of Hilton’s humility in growing.
The Hilton partnership is yet another joint venture for Be My Eyes, following similar initiatives with Ray-Ban and with Microsoft announced in the last several weeks. For Buckley, the work reflects the company’s mission, which he said is to “make the world more accessible for the 340 million people globally who are Blind or low vision” while adding “we’re not stopping until we attack the entirety of the enterprise sector.”
