Hospitality software provider Cendyn works with 30,000 hotels in 143 countries and its CRM platform has been market leader for more than 20 years. So when we got the chance to quiz them about the most important topics in hospitality right now, we didn’t hesitate.

We sat down with Michael Bennett, Cendyn’s Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Business Development, at ITB in Berlin a couple of weeks ago. Watch the below video to hear what we discussed, including industry anxiety over GDPR, the new European Union data protection legislation due to come into force in May, and why CRM is increasingly becoming a priority for hoteliers. We also tackled the status of the Direct Booking Movement, up and coming hotel brands and why he is “very optimistic” about the industry’s prospects in 2018.

For more on CRM, take a look at our Hotelier’s Guide. Cendyn contributed to the fifth part, dedicated to maximizing the power of your CRM.

If you’re still catching up on everything ITB? The following posts can help:

• Messaging, chatbots, and AI: What hoteliers need to know now

• Hoteliers beware — Airbnb is no distraction for Booking.com

• Automation, Auto-Agent, Airbnb and China on the menu at ITB

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