Technology

Any hotel group which values the direct channel (brand.com) already knows that data science has been at the core of digital marketing in hospitality for many years. It's fundamental to customer segmentation, targeting and results measurement.

The data fragmentation in hospitality is a huge challenge the industry faces today. Guest and operational data lives in multiple "data islands" that do not talk to each other: PMS, CRS, WBE, CRM, ORM, CMS, DMS, Social Media and BI.

Data science is an area of expertise that needs specialists, similar to other areas like design and creativity. Typically, most companies have outsourced these non-core functions; in the case of creativity, to ad agencies, for example.

Behaviors of guests & sorting of all offerings (room, packages, meals, drinks, activities) based on previous behaviors. Much of this if done on a per person can be done using general purpose AI along with a just in time promp injection model.

The best data that a PMS stores is its guest history - travel purchase, rooms stayed in, ancillary purchases, number of occupants, special requests and so on. While we can discover some patterns to help grow the business, a machine can sift through this multitude far more efficiently to find patterns and do so in an unbiased manner.

PMS data is only one source of first-party data, and it's actually quite limited because it focuses only on past guests. A richer set of data is built when combining PMS with CRM data and direct website behavior data. Once powered by that dataset, some key practical applications are: Benchmarking: create automated competitive sets for each hotel and find opportunities for improvement.

The words 'permanent reality' are hardhitting and oftentimes hard for hotel decision makers to absorb. While there are a host of technologies that can be added to the stack to help chip away at the labor problem, what I pose instead is to go one level deeper and look at the human stack.

According to a Perkbox survey, Hospitality is the fifth most stressful industry to work in, with 64% of employees suffering from workplace anxiety. Therefore, it is not surprising that a significant number of hospitality workers are reconsidering their employment situation and evaluating different career options.

Today's HIGH-TOUCH LOW-TECH business model in hospitality results in increasingly inadequate service and customer dissatisfaction. Currently, the poorly paid and trained employees, overwhelmed by labor shortages and mundane, repetitive tasks simply cannot provide better service.

When thinking about decentralization in travel, I think it's very important to realize that these are not changes happening on top of the existing infrastructure and applications stack, but they are happening below. The precise region is the layer between the Internet and the applications.If we want to use a metaphor, we are not waiting for the meteorite to fall on earth.

When discussing the integration of Web3 in travel and across various industries, the primary question is not 'if' but 'when.' Consequently, the debate about balancing technological innovation with preserving genuine travel experiences and cultural interactions may be somewhat overstated.

The travel industry stands on the cusp of a technological revolution. Integrating blockchain, NFT, and decentralized systems promises to redefine travel's essence. Decentralization has immense potential, reshaping loyalty programs and introducing room tokenization, revolutionizing the way we perceive ownership and access within the industry.

In the shift from Web2 to Web3, marketing like everything else has the promise of being 'disrupted'. By which exist mechanism no one truly knows, but besides the buzzy disruption there are two other D-words that you can use to guide your prediction and how your company can get ahead of the curve: Disintermediation and Democratization.

Web3 Marketing signifies a paradigm shift within the digital marketing realm, introducing a new era of opportunities. The essence of Web3 lies in decentralization and this fosters data ownership and user privacy. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been seamlessly integrated into the art and entertainment world, enabling brands to create distinctive, tradable digital assets, as exemplified by campaigns from prestigious brands like Bulgari and D&G.

Web3 marketing represents a revolutionary paradigm, leveraging decentralized technologies to create a marketing environment free from intermediaries, empowering users with control over their data and facilitating community engagement through direct interaction.

Generative AI advancements are reshaping the landscape of personalized trip planning, virtual travel guides, interactive storytelling, and multilingual communication in the travel industry. This innovation represents a significant shift, heralding a "new normal" where artificial intelligence meets travel.

We are talking here about our latest technology tred the generative AI. It shouldn't be considered as a race to implement latest technology trends and the focus should be on customer needs and improving guest experience. Generative AI's generative and conversational ability could add a layer of seamlessness to online experiences of customers, and make the interactions more efficient.

As a tech enthusiast and someone deeply involved in the travel industry, I can't help but get excited about the integration of generative AI. The fact that major players like Booking, Expedia, and Kayak are already successfully utilizing it is a testament to its potential.

As we all often say, "Hospitality is a people industry." This highlights one of our greatest strengths in how we bring people from diverse backgrounds and geographies together, and create meaningful experiences for our guests.

Lots of reasons. The big chains are locked into their supplier relationships and would lose their big discounts if they jump, plus they have built other products that rely on their core systems, so would incur a big cost of change.

There are many factors and its not the technologies itself. Budgets for sure are tight and The return on investment for these technologies may not be immediately apparent, leading to hesitation in adopting them, disruption to operations will come into play especially if its PMS related but probably the biggest factor is the human factor.