Fulham Football Club (FFC) has recruited Oracle Cloud as its official point of sale (POS) and payments provider. In time for the upcoming season, the club will outfit Craven Cottage stadium and restaurants at its new riverside London entertainment destination, Fulham Pier with Oracle Simphony Cloud POS and Payments Cloud Service.
Our work with clients on personalization is rooted in the fundamental view that we've always aimed to better match what we have to offer with what a guest truly desires. This is particularly crucial when a property offers a diverse range of products beyond just rooms, where strategic personalization can genuinely elevate the guest's enjoyment by more accurately aligning offerings with their individual preferences.
Let's be blunt: most hotels haven't even reached personalization, let alone hyperpersonalization. And while Booking.com, Netflix, and Amazon are masters of knowing what you want before you do, many hotels still worship the PMS like it's the digital holy grail.
THE CHALLENGE Superbude previously faced challenges in managing metasearch campaigns across multiple platforms, including Google Hotel Ads, Tripadvisor, and Trivago. Their campaign management process was complex, time-consuming, and yielded a lower ROI than they achieve today. The key obstacles were a lack of transparency in campaign performance and the absence of a centralized, user-friendly management tool. By partnering with Cendyn, their primary objectives were to automate campaign management for greater efficiency, streamline operations, and ultimately drive higher ROI across all channels. THE SOLUTION Cendyn’s Digital Marketing Platform (DMP) provided Superbude with a comprehensive solution to streamline their metasearch advertising campaigns. By centralizing all their campaigns into a single, easy-to-use platform, Superbude eliminated the complexity and time-consuming manual processes that previously hindered performance. With advanced automation, Superbude was able to optimize campaign management across Google Hotel Ads, Tripadvisor, and Trivago, improving real-time decision-making and ensuring greater transparency in campaign results to deftly adjust strategies when needed. As a result, Superbude achieved a significant increase in return ROI, benefiting from more efficient operations and enhanced visibility into campaign performance across all metasearch channels for more marketing efficiency. We are extremely pleased with the results we've achieved using the Cendyn Digital Marketing Platform. It has streamlined our metasearch advertising, making it easier to optimize campaigns, and we've seen a 105% growth in revenue generated. Cendyn has helped us stay competitive and maximize revenue, and we look forward to continuing to grow with them. Diana AvagianiE-Commerce Manager, Superbude
THE RESULTS By leveraging Cendyn DMP, Superbude achieved outstanding digital marketing performance in 2024, significantly surpassing the previous year’s results. Return on ad spend (ROAS) soared to 20.3x, marking an 18% increase compared to 2023. Revenue generation more than doubled, growing by 105%, while bookings saw an impressive 101% uplift. Clicks surged by 56%, driving higher engagement, and conversion rates improved by 28%, turning more lookers into bookers. These results highlight the power of efficient metasearch campaign management within a powerful platform in maximizing direct revenue.
UN Tourism has agreed to partner with the Ministry of Tourism and Sport of the Republic of Croatia and the University of Zagreb on research and innovation in sustainable tourism development and the creation of a Sustainable Tourism Awards.
Hospitality Tech Vendors: one-stop-shop or best-of-breed plug-in?
From a technology perspective, the hospitality industry will continue to have a PMS-centric hotel tech stack approach. Today's PMS is the hotel 's command center for rooms and F&B management, sales and catering, distribution, availability, pricing, reservations, guest interactions, issue resolution, housekeeping, reporting, billing, guest communications, etc. and is often described as the central nervous system of the hotel operations.
Your take is spot on, and it echoes the reality I've seen play out time and again in the trenches of hospitality tech. The debate isn't really about "all-in-one" versus "best-of-breed"—it's about how we work together to deliver actual results for hotels and their guests.
A very topical question which also came up at the HFTP Barcelona CIO Summit recently. There was no single answer as it will always depend on the particular situation. For a small hotel/BnB, a combo PMS/POS/IBE product like Avon Data, Heart or BookAssist may suffice and would do a very good job.
In a word, yes. All the major players in industry are working towards a hospitality 'platform' solution. Yes, you may be able to purchase the pieces separately, which is purely commercial. But they are designed and intended to support across business operations.
Today, Tambourine, the global leader in hospitality marketing technology, announces the acquisition of ReservHotel, the leading hotel reservation platform serving the CALA region (Caribbean and Latin America), with the mission of bringing this best-in-class technology to its hotel partners across North America.
"Hand-thought is the new hand-built. In luxury, human-curated service — powered by AI — is the next premium." The CIO role has moved far beyond infrastructure. We’re no longer just maintaining networks — we’re shaping the future of the guest experience.
"Forget the hype — the true power of AI lies in the back office, not in guest-facing gimmicks." Technology has become central to our business planning. IT is no longer a support function — it’s a strategic pillar. I’m increasingly involved in shaping commercial roadmaps, evaluating distribution platforms, and making long-term investment decisions.
Every department is becoming its own tech expert — our job is to enable, not dictate." We’re witnessing a cultural shift in how technology is adopted within hospitality businesses. End users are increasingly tech-literate — they’re evaluating tools on their own, consulting peers, and coming to IT with clear preferences.
We focus on using technology to create seamless and personalised guest experiences while also improving performance. One example is how guests can easily add extras such as late checkout or breakfast directly from their phone at check-in.
One simple example that recently impressed me was receiving a WhatsApp message allowing me to check in online. It was seamless and aligned with what many guests now expect. In fact, we know that around 63 percent of millennials prefer the option to check in online.
At Staypineapple, we use Mews across all of our properties and have started incorporating AI to help us better understand our guests before they arrive. We combine this with other data—like reviews and past preferences—to build a more complete picture of who is staying with us.
The French hospitality industry is at a crossroads. Between stricter regulations, rising operational costs, and increasing guest demands, hotels across France are under pressure to evolve. At FHT Paris 2025, industry leaders gathered to explore how Digital Transformation is transforming hospitality operations, moving beyond buzzwords and into real-world impact.
In my opinion AI and robotics will disrupt the industry's jobs on a few different levels. The guest transactional experience will be the first to be affected and the first jobs to go will be in customer service, especially call centers, reservations, operators, etc.
A couple of key considerations impact the outcome and this will come down to a per business environment. These are - What is your philosophy toward the delivery of hospitality, which is a human to human condition? What 'level' of product are you offering to the market - do you currently deliver hospitality (service and care) with your existing product?
Technologies like AI, robotics, automation, mobility and IoT are called upon to solve a number of issues in hospitality: Solve dull, repetitive, dirty or dangerous jobs. Solve high turnover of trained employees (20%-30%) Solve problems like poor discipline, lack of motivation, etc.
Through their innovative concepts and strategic growth powered by Mews, this Swiss hotel brand is reimagining the hospitality experience for modern travelers.
... Back office. In all its flavours, from finance reconciliation (via Predictive AI/ML based RPA tools), guest feedback analysis (via Gen AI tools), Revenue Management (via Predictive AI, which has been in place for over a decade already), and marketing SEO/PR copywriting (via Gen AI text and graphic tools), HR (eg tools to auto read/select/deselect CVs based on Gen AI tools), and some staff productivity (eg via Copilot for email filtering).
I believe that the single biggest impact AI will have on hospitality is in REVENUE MANAGEMENT. Today's hospitality revenue managers navigate an increasingly complex environment shaped by shifting consumer preferences and remaining competitive.
Transitioning hospitality from Mobile-first to AI-first will be the greatest transformation of our industry since the advent of the Internet. Within this AI transformation, I believe agentic AI will have the single biggest impact on our industry.
The Circus Hotel faced several challenges in managing its sales distribution. The first issue stemmed from working with a previous partner who duplicated their website to create campaigns, which made it difficult to maintain effective control over channel management. This lack of transparency caused significant challenges for both customers and employees.
Silken Hotels faced several challenges in their quest to strengthen their position in the competitive hospitality industry. Limited visibility on Global Distribution Systems (GDS) hindered their ability to capture a broader audience, while a smaller share of corporate clients restricted their revenue diversification. Insufficient participation in corporate RFPs further limited opportunities to secure global partnerships. Additionally, a lack of strong brand recognition among travel agents, consortia, and corporate travel planners posed obstacles to expanding their market presence. Inefficient rate management through their Central Reservation System (CRS) also made it difficult to align pricing strategies with market demands, underscoring the need for strategic adjustments to achieve sustained growth.
A lot of hoteliers today will feel like they are treading water, grasping for clarity over what kind of impact AI agents will ultimately have on their businesses.
The first observation is that things are developing very quickly. As compared to Moore's law, the pace of next generation AI capablities are developing at a speed that is hard to fathom based upon our species past technical endeavours.
AI Agents are a fundamentally different way to interact with data and knowledge. We are now in the phase of replicating the current status with agents (for example, to build a travel itinerary), like the first TV programs were radio shows with a camera, but pretty quickly we'll evolve to find new ways of doing the same things.
No, most hoteliers are not ready for the new era of personal AI agents. Hotels have historically been cautious about new technology, and for good reason. But AI-driven hotel discovery isn't necessarily about tech adoption. It's about storytelling.AI relies on natural language processing, so hotels should publish blog posts and substantive content that answer traveler queries on their websites.
The term "robot" comes from the Czech word robota, meaning forced labor or drudgery. Introduced by Karel Čapek in his 1920 play R.U.R. and inspired by his brother Josef, the word encapsulated a grim vision of mechanized subjugation. Ironically, a century later, robots have flipped the script: they're no longer merely laborers but liberators, reshaping how industries—from logistics to hospitality—operate.
By 2025, over 85 million existing jobs will be lost due to the seismic shift toward AI, robotization and automation, according to WEF, McKinsey and OECD. Last year labor costs exceeded 1/3 of hotel revenue and AI, robotization and automation are becoming increasingly appealing to hotel owners and operators.
Could we see digital workers comprising half of the hospitality workforce, as they already do at Amazon in this decade? Yes. This model aligns perfectly with the limited and select service layer of the industry. Under such a model I would call it the 'no service' or dormitory management layer.
To thrive in an increasingly digital world, hotels must embrace AI to deliver the highly personalized experiences modern guests demand. However, as with any transformation, it's critical not to put the cart before the horse. Before investing in advanced AI-driven solutions, hotels should first establish a strong, sustainable data foundation—a Central Guest Profile (CGP) that aggregates guest information across all touchpoints of the customer journey.