The GM in Pretty Woman, changes the story, why hospitality is an amazing industry. Loyalty program global growth, Ads going automatic, Fashion brands getting into hospitality + more
Hello,
It’s easter weekend starting tomorrow, for a big part of the world. Either a lot of people are going to have time to read this newsletter, or nobody will. I figured I need to stick with the schedule. Have a great read (and time off).
Best, Martin
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Advertising going on autopilot mode
The future of online advertising (yes there is still such a thing as off-line ads) is autopilot. In e-commerce this is already the main revenue driver. Hotels are slightly more complex (limited and expiring inventory) but this will come. With even the creatives being updated by AI. OTAs have the upper hand here and they will want to commoditize it to room = room (more flexibility on inventory). But hotels should explore with this a lot.
ADVERTISING AUTOMATION
Hotel Loyalty Programs & Rewards
CBRE says, hotel loyalty programs saw a 14.5% growth in membership in 2024, reaching over 675 million members and accounting for 52.8% of occupied rooms. The numbers indicate a huge success. As I wrote about in my column a few weeks ago, this is the main product hotel chains sell. I’m not convinced about the cause and effect of 52.8% of hotel occupancy. Did they book because they were members or did they become members because they booked? Still the fact is that people love perks and rewards programs give plenty of perks. So there’s no reason they should disappear.
HOTEL LOYALTY GROWTH
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. How fast must we adapt?
Roomservice and mini-bars are still a thing in some hotels. And some are trying to keep it alive at all costs. Probably because that’s how they grew up. But we’ve never seen technology and habits change at a faster pace than now. And it keeps accelerating. How fast do we need to be? A hotel in China put up delivery lockers for food delivery. It really doesn’t look good – but it is practical.
TECHNOLOGY AND EXPERIENCE
Fashion Brands Venturing into Hospitality
Fashion brands entering hospitality highlights a post-pandemic trend toward experiential retail. Brands like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Lacoste, Skins and more. I love it some of the concepts are superb. My only advice to the new brands trying this is that your brand should define the hospitality experience, not the other way around. If the brand is new – it is unclear what the synergy will be. In short, make it a pop-up concept that helps define a known brand. Unless of course your brand is related to hospitality in which case the concept explains the brand.
FASHION, EXPERIENCE, BRAND EXTENSION – LUSH
The micro-hotel-brands
A leading soap amenities manufacturer once explained how the western hotels preferred boutique brand amenities. Giving the guests the experience of discovering a micro-brand. Whereas the emerging country tourists preferred big brands to show that they’ve made it. Psychological intent is the same – show one has something unique and hard to get. But methods are different. Boutique hotels have the micro-brand in their DNA, the rest of world is catching on.
SMALL IS THE NEW COOL
A thorough list of hotel tech systems
There are many systems in hotels, some will say too many. Every tech company believe their solution will solve all the problems. In the end as I wrote last week, tech isn’t the main driver of hotels (insider tip: it’s the people). But tech should enable the people to spend time with guests and not copy paste invoices into emails. This list is a good, though slightly overwhelming list of all the systems that exist.
TECH, GUEST EXPERIENCE, ECOSYSTEM
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
Feedback Loops, Happiness, and Hospitality
One of the most incredible things about working in hospitality is the instant feedback loop. I’ve worked across e-commerce, tech, consumer goods, and B2B services—and in every one of those sectors, there was always a goal to make customers happier. But nowhere have I found the kind of rapid, tangible cause-and-effect loop that exists in hospitality.
In most industries, you launch a product, gather feedback, iterate, maybe launch a new version six months later (when you’re good), and hope it solves the problem. By the time it reaches the customer who gave the original feedback, other problems have come up and nobody really cares so much.
But hospitality isn’t like that. Hospitality is live. In-person. Immediate.
A friend who worked at a hotel front desk recently told me how he’d try to predict guests’ names from flight details before they arrived. He’d prepare the check-in, guess the names, and welcome them as they stepped out of the taxi. Most of the time, he got it right—and the guests were floored. That moment of surprise, that little spark of magic, took seconds to deliver and created lasting joy.
You don’t need to redesign your entire product line to make someone’s rainy day better. Send a bottle of champagne to the room and say, “We’re sorry the weather wasn’t great, we hope this makes up for it.” It takes 5 minutes and changes everything.
And these moments add-up. Every shift, every day, you get dozens of chances to make someone’s day better, sometimes by simply smiling. That’s a feedback loop no algorithm can replicate.
Now here’s the interesting bit: it’s not just the guests who get happier. You do too. The feedback loop works both ways. Making someone else feel better is a proven path to personal satisfaction. You see the impact of your actions. You experience their gratitude. As a GM you go home exhausted, but fulfilled.
Technology can help (and must) with real-time analytics, personalization, but it still can’t match the human immediacy of hospitality. While everything is becoming more digital and disconnected, hospitality has something deeply human to teach us: happiness isn’t an NPS score, it is what humans bring to others.
And this is why I love this industry.
