Action items for AI in the hotel industry. Selling the lobby. Story telling in hotels. What makes a great hotel stack and how media is moving in the industry.
Hello,
Wow, this is the 100th edition of Tell. With plenty of stops and starts over the year. But still 100 times I’ve written the newsletter. It was once known as “Food for Thought” because I had a section about that. I hope it still makes you think. I wouldn’t want this to be just a series of conclusions.
Best, Martin
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Embracing Multi-Purpose Spaces to Stay Competitive
About a decade ago, I noticed how under-used hotel lobby and breakfast spaces were. Busy a few hours in the morning and then empty the rest of the day. Giving a weird hallowed feel to many hotels during the day. At the time I got with a friend and looked at starting a company that would help hotels sell this space for coworking and so forth. The project never really got off the ground. We were both pulled into different directions and that was that. But that doesn’t mean the concept should exist. It could be extra revenue for hotels, and a great third place for locals. Some people are figuring this out.
HOSPITALITY INNOVATION ATWORLD
Selling stories not rooms
I’m not 100% convinced that telling hotels to sell stories instead of rooms will translate into increased revenue for hotels. It’s just too abstract of a concept. Hotels sell an experience, a tangible service that is temporary. But where I do agree is that to design a really good experience requires a great story. What is it you want the person to get out of the stay. If one thinks of every operation, every action and put it in a story form it comes together as a great experience. What if you designed your SOPs with an “And then, But, Therefore” model. Could be interesting.
HOTELS SELL STORIES
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. Data Collaboration for Hotel brands
The travel and hospitality industry is expected to thrive on personalized experiences powered by technology and data collaboration. It has been the promise of AI and a lot of tech companies for quite a while. While I totally agree to this, the incremental benefits as small and the cost to implement are high. However as we know in hospitality it’s the little things that make the great experience. How could this work without costing tens/hundreds of millions to build?
DATA COLLABORATION TRAVEL
Retail Media by 2030
Many years ago it was becoming clear that retail media was going to be one of the dominant advertising channels. Amazon tipped the scale on this and today it is their largest source of profit. Expedia has been at it for a while. Booking had some form of it with rank/commission modulation. It’s interesting to see that some predict all media to shift towards retail media by 2030. Something for hotel marketing agencies to follow and get ahead of.
MEDIA RETAIL TRANSITION
If APIs are too slow what’s next?
For AI models it seems APIs are too slow so there’s a Model Context Protocol (MCP) being created. How should hotel tech work with this? APIs have been the future for a while (see my column below) but there are barriers and what should have been an easy connection between systems is becoming a resource and management cost for the tech industry. New ideas are always interesting.
AI INTEGRATION SIMPLIFICATION
What Makes a Hospitality Tech Stack Successful?
A good primer in the key parts of a hotel tech stack. As with most B2B tech, there are a lot of various parts that keep crucial business processes working. What will break, what will not – tough questions and hard decisions need to be done. But understanding the relative importance of each part of the stack is a good place to start.
HOSPITALITY TECH INTEGRATION
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, MartinOpinion
Hoteliers, prepare for AI – Or Be Left Behind
We’ve seen this before. The internet, OTAs, online review management—those who moved early reaped the rewards. They weren’t necessarily the best, they were just ready when the shift happened. AI is the same. In hospitality, we don’t yet know how or when AI will transform operations, guest experiences, or revenue strategies (some changes are happening already). But history tells us one thing the ones who wait pay it in lost revenue.
The early adopters of AI in hospitality will make mistakes. They’ll invest in tools that don’t deliver, experiment with processes that don’t quite fit. But by the time AI in hotels becomes mainstream, they’ll have the experience, the data, and the tech adapt easily— the late adopters will scramble to catch up, wasting time and money hiring consultants and agencies who know they’re desperate and charge accordingly. Ripping out old incompatible systems etc.
What should hotels do now?
AI is driven by data. Without clean and accessible data, even the most powerful AI models will fail to deliver results. The real work isn’t just about picking the right AI tools—it’s about building a strong IT exchange foundation that allows you to plug in AI when the time is right.
Tips for small hotels:
— Invest in a solid PMS, CRS, and CRM setup that integrates smoothly.
— Ensure your systems communicate (not just the above three)—data should flow seamlessly between them.
— Have API access to these systems. Don’t just rely on vendors to do API work—understand how APIs work and how they can be used.
— Get development resources—even a freelancer or a small development partner—who can help you build things and automate processes using APIs.
For Groups & Larger Hotels:
— Build a data lake environment, so you can easily query and analyze it.
— Ensure data is clean and structured—bad data leads to bad outcomes. Invest in data cleaning and structuring. Avoid just a central copy of databases (even though it is a start).
Those who prepare, get lucky
Look back at the early days of online bookings. The hotels that had websites and booking engines before the industry shifted to digital weren’t necessarily getting the all the online reservations, but by the time the mainstream caught on, they knew how to operate efficiently online. Meanwhile, those who had ignored the shift had to rush to adapt—often relying on expensive consultants or simply reply on OTAs that took control of their distribution (hint, the shift to mobile was a repeat of that, and AI is well on the way to being the same).
Will AI revolutionize guest loyalty with amazing personalization? Will it automate marketing and revenue management to near perfection? Will it streamline guest interactions and operations? Will it free up back-office resources so people can spend more time with guests? We don’t know yet. But we do know that it is inevitable. Technology that makes life easier, reduces effort and increases quality of life gets rapid adoption – this is one of those.
Remember that today, a lot of hotels are considering digital keys, yet smartphones became mainstream about 2015.
