This week: Hotel automation and AI, Uber and Expedia is not a thing, AI and connected trips, the rebundling of travel, and hotel rules.
Hello,
US Elections happened. The country survived. Markets seem happy. I just want to see more people traveling and sharing experiences and opinions with each other.
Best, Martin
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That exciting Uber + Expedia deal
So apparently the rumored deal is off the table according to Barry Diller. I didn’t comment about it at the time as a lot of others had already done so. I tried to work out what the synergies would be with a merger (for the consumer) and I couldn’t find much that can’t be achieved already. There were lots of speculations in all kinds of directions. Really the biggest reason for the deal would have been Dara. Buying travel is something that happens 2-3x a year. Booking a ride is something that happens 10-20x a month. One is for $20 the other is for $2000. While travel leads to booking a ride, it happens with or without integrations. There just isn’t much added value to the traveler. But stock market moves aren’t always about the consumer.
ACQUISITION RUMORS
5000 guests later
A study of 5,000 travelers gives some interesting insights into what customers find important and what they don’t find important. For example, like most emerging travel markets, Chinese travelers are still 60% focused on the big bucket list items, whereas Europeans only 20%. The rest are more interested in unique experiences. Insights that make some of the points below (AI search and Connected Trips) even more relevant. McKinsey’s 100+ content team has an advantage that they don’t need to sell ads; they just need to leave a good impression, worth the read or listen.
TOURISM ITINERARY
About me: I'm a fractional CMO for large travel technology companies helping turn them into industry leaders. I'm also the co-founder of 10minutes.news a hotel news media that is unsensational, factual and keeps hoteliers updated on the industry. Booking’s AI push
There are two distinct views on AI and OTAs. One side believes that they’re going to become irrelevant and replaced by AI search. The other points out that this isn’t the first time it was the end of OTAs and yet, they’re still here. There are lots of questions about future of search as well. The only way I can see this change is if the experience is orders of magnitude better. Better means not just for searching but also the booking, payment etc. Wrong prices, room no longer available, etc will be issues that will set back non-OTAs quite a lot. Even Google’s own booking module never really took off (several reasons for that). It is an interesting space to watch, it seems like all search is up for disruption now. Interesting to see where this lands.
ENHANCED AI TRAVEL
Automation and AI
In the hotel operations space we talk about automation and robot delivery of foodservice. It is good for show, the value-add is pretty small. The majority of the automation is boring, the back-of-house things like credit card checking, reconciling the PMS data with OTA data for commission corrections etc. the value add is pretty high. But it isn’t sexy, and the name RPA isn’t sexy either. Some automation work has been on-going for years now. With AI this is going to increase, being able to “program” a hotel using natural language (LLMs) or natural action (AI Agents or Action Models) means a lot of tasks will be automated soon. At many levels.
RPA FOR HOTELS GOOGLE CHROME AI TOOL LLMS IN ENTERPRISE
Connected trips
There is nothing new with connected trips, this is what travel agents have been doing for some time now. The internet unbundled the travel experience where each step is now managable on its own with more transparency. As things that have been unbundled tend to get rebundled (example: cable networks, to streaming, to streaming packages) it is only normal to see that trips are being rebundled again. It is likely going to be facilitated by AI, but AI wont take the risks in case one is left in some foreign country in a hotel that has since closed or a tour that only existed online. Apparently a big value add of travel agents was the insurance, but is it really that big?
CONNECTED TRIP GROWTH
Podcast: I was invited on the Hospitality Daily Podcast and spoke about technology in hospitality, some thoughts on what wont change in hospitality, and why I co-founded 10minutes.news. Best, MartinTHOUGHTS: [I’m travelling this week, so re-sharing a classic]
10 Rules of Hotel Marketing
1. If you want fast results, protect yourself from brandjacking.
2. If you are uncertain of where to advertise, find out where OTAs advertise.
3. The alternative to good advertising is more OTAs. It’s not wrong, it’s just a different strategy.
4. If you think there’s a war against OTAs think again. Almost one quarter of your direct bookings happen because you are on OTAs.
5. Occupancy is a result of the right rates and the right visitors, both are under your control.
6. A hotel has three parts to its marketing plan (a) location (b) comfort and (c) value. The best hotels are equally good on all three. But any hotel can excel in one and that is its marketing edge.
7. The USP is never what you think it is. It’s what your guests think.
8. If you can’t track direct results it’s not marketing. It may be PR but thats a whole different field with a whole different view.
9. The four key performance indicators of your website are: Turnover generated, visits to site, conversion rate and of course budget spent to make that happen. Learn to read them in your sleep, they’ll save you lots of hot air.
10. The easiest way to increase rates is to increase service and guest satisfaction; because you can’t move the hotel nor renovate it over-night.
