Martin Soler - 10 Minutes News for Hoteliers - Page 5

4 min

103 – Building better hotel tech

📍 Hotels prioritize FF&E (furniture, fixtures, equipment) investment due to immediate guest satisfaction impact, contrasting with tech upgrades which cause short-term disruption despite long-term gains. Chanel enters sports marketing as The Boat Race's Title Sponsor and Timekeeping Partner starting 2025. AI agents expected to assist rather than replace travel agents, enhancing efficiency. "The White Lotus" highlights the non-tech aspects of hotel management, emphasizing human connections. Summary: Hotels often choose FF&E investments over tech due to the direct revenue and immediate positive effect on guest experience, while tech promises future benefits but creates immediate disruption. Chanel will sponsor The Boat Race in 2025, reflecting the trend of luxury brands in sports marketing. AI is poised to support travel agents' work rather than supplant them. "The White Lotus" TV show reveals the intricacies of hospitality management beyond technology.

5 min

101 – Hotel Loyalty, Brands and Companies

🏨 Accor's ALL rewards program recently hit 100 million members. Major airlines generate 30-50% of their profit from selling miles. Hotel brands offer loyalty programs to guests and brands/labels to investors. Marketing strategies include performance marketing, neuromarketing tactics, and designing ads for specific online channels. AI is poised to transform hotel marketing by emphasizing relevancy and reputation. Attribute selling could increase hotel revenue by 12%, as reported by Amadeus. Hotel loyalty programs like Bonvoy and All are becoming the primary identity of large hotel groups, driving repeat business and accumulating guest data. Hoteliers focus on loyalty strategy and brand architecture, while property operators manage guest experience. The dual model benefits guests with a global network and consistent standards, and owners with brand equity and distribution.

5 min

100 – Preparing for AI in hotel industry

📈 The 100th edition of Tell, Martin Soler's newsletter, discusses AI in hotels, selling hotel spaces for coworking, and the importance of storytelling in the industry. The early adopters of AI in hospitality are said to learn and adapt quickly, leading the way for latecomers who might struggle to catch up. Data collaboration is key for personalized experiences, with a need for solid PMS, CRS, and CRM integration. Retail media is predicted to become a dominant advertising channel by 2030. Hospitality tech stacks require understanding of their components' relative importance, and APIs might soon be replaced by a faster Model Context Protocol (MCP) to improve integration and data exchange.

5 min

99 – Building a brand design system

📝 In the hotel industry, the trend is leaning towards all-in-one solution providers to streamline services, buying power, and integration despite not always offering the best features individually. Discussions reveal that hotel technology still faces challenges with integration. Elsewhere, Sesame’s voice AI shows promise with human-like interactions but lacks purpose, particularly in tasks like hotel room booking. Key insights also highlight the importance of system design over graphic design in multi-product company rebranding, suggesting that true solutions are often simple and unflashy, and that internal buy-in is crucial.

4 min

98 – Focus meetings are brutal

📈 Major OTAs collectively increased marketing spend by 5% last year, reaching $17.8 billion. Booking and Expedia lead, followed by Airbnb and Trip, with Booking dedicating 31% of revenue to marketing. The increase in OTA marketing budgets reflects the competitive nature of the travel industry and the importance of visibility in a crowded market. Amazon's test to redirect shoppers to brand sites for unavailable products could influence OTA-hotel relationships. Alexa's new generative AI feature, Alexa+, has potential impact on voice assistant utility. Focus in projects requires defining tasks to stop, not just tasks to do, as emphasized by Steve Jobs' approach to innovation.

6 min

97 – Trade shows and B2B marketing

🏢 The biggest travel trade show, ITB, remains relevant for annual networking despite the shift of product research and sales online. The Shiji Group's insights highlight the importance of personalization in guest experience trends for 2025. Mid-tier hotels are outperforming luxury ones due to competitive pricing and enhanced services. Booking.com is adapting to AI, which may impact OTA searches and commoditize them as "databases" for AI search engines. Self-checkout kiosks in grocery stores are reintroducing human labor due to technological limitations. The New York Times integrates AI, particularly an internal tool named Echo, for content tasks. The beauty industry sees a significant shift online, with e-commerce accounting for 25% of the total market and expected growth of 7% in the next three years. Meta invests in humanoid robots, though hotel housekeeping robots have not been cost-effective. Human elements at trade shows are increasingly valuable for establishing trust and relationships in business.

5 min

96 – Reviews are coming back

🏨 Evan Shapiro suggests content creators are reshaping the media landscape, a significant trend for hotel industry advertising collaborations. CEOs in the travel industry must adopt AI to stay relevant, with technology poised to enhance all other tech and enable employees. TikTok challenges Google as a search engine, particularly among 15-28 year olds, indicating a shift in SEO strategies. Amazon Ads' Brand+ uses AI for targeted TV ad campaigns, a potential game-changer for hotel advertising. Studies show social reach can boost paid search by 32%, YouTube enhances email campaigns by 25%, and influencer content increases paid social performance by 30%. AI-driven media planning tools from Meta, Google, and Amazon are simplifying ad targeting. Hotel reviews are gaining new importance with AI, able to analyze vast data for tailored insights, potentially influencing hotel offerings and revenue.

5 min

95 – Optimism in Marketing

💰 The "State of Fashion: Luxury" report by Business of Fashion and McKinsey reveals shifts in the luxury industry, notably a preference for experiences over products. Luxury hotels can capitalize on this trend by offering personalized and human-first services, using AI to enhance guest interactions. Marketers emphasize the importance of optimism in promoting products and services, focusing on positive aspects rather than problems. Revenue Management Automation (RMA) is emerging to optimize pricing strategies, suggesting that Revenue Management Systems (RMS) may not have fully achieved this in the past. Google is testing an 'AI Mode' for search queries to provide summarized information, potentially affecting website traffic and analytics for hotels. Marketing success relies on emphasizing a product's compelling features, inspiring customer desire and driving sales.

5 min

94 – Brand marketing for hotels, what should it be?

👟👟 Nike experienced a significant stock price drop of $25 billion, or 32%, on June 28, 2024. The slump was due to an over-focus on Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and performance marketing, neglecting the brand's emotional connection with consumers. Brand marketing is suggested to complement performance marketing to achieve long-term success. Amazon allows hotels to advertise on platforms like Prime Video and Twitch, highlighting the importance of brand-building in the hotel industry. Hotelbeds' parent company launches The Luxurist, featuring over 3,300 properties across 141 countries, to enhance the B2B premium travel sector.

5 min

93 – LLMs, Deepseek, OpenAI and commodities

💻 IKEA launched a new loyalty program, acknowledging its late entry into the trend with a humorous ad campaign. Barry Sternlicht is revitalizing Starwood under SH Hotels & Resorts, aiming to innovate with 14 hotels and expansion plans. Google's hotel metasearch redesign focuses on visual elements, with larger images and maps to enhance user experience. LLMs (large language models) in AI are becoming a commodity, soon to be integrated into various digital platforms, rendering provider debates irrelevant. Users will expect AI-driven interactions, with the focus shifting to the quality of integration and context understanding rather than the AI brand.

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