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Automatic

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  • 3 min

Bringing Service Robotics to Hospitality: A Conversation with ToDo Robotics CEO Marianela Nanninga

🔮 ToDo Robotics' BellaBot Pro is reshaping hospitality by handling tasks like food delivery and bussing tables in hotels and restaurants. El Porton Mexican Group, across Georgia, Tennessee, and Arkansas, uses multiple units for improved service speed and customer engagement. BellaBot Pro integrates with POS and PMS and offers significant labor cost savings over time. Initially, older guests may face adoption challenges, but overall, reception is positive. The bot supports staff, rather than replacing them, and features customizable branding and voice options. Future AI advancements will enhance capabilities, aiming to address labor shortages and elevate guest experiences.
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  • 2 min

(20) Post | LinkedIn

📊 Peter Thiel emphasized mastering one marketing channel to ensure business success. SEO dominates with the top 3 results out of 500,000 claiming over 70% of traffic. Online ads favor companies with the best funnels and budgets. Organic social media and influencers are ruled by the top 1%. To choose the right channel, consider search volume, content quality, response copy skills, influencer impact, sales team profitability, UX design, and partnership opportunities. Mastering a channel requires constant experimentation and learning from failed attempts. Follow Matt Lerner for weekly insights.
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  • 5 min

The top 50 genAI use cases in marketing | MarTech

📈 MartechTribe surveyed 283 marketing professionals, revealing genAI applications dominate the marketing tech landscape with 2,324 tools, accounting for 77% of sector growth in 2024. Content and data use cases ranked highest, with copy ideation (50.7%), copy production (43.9%), and content optimization (28.6%) leading the content category. In data, knowledge/documentation (22.5%), and competitor research (21.4%) were top applications. Advertising tech sees lower adoption, with the highest ad-related use case ranked 28th. Monthly genAI use centers on strategic tasks like content image/video ideation (24.3%), while daily/weekly uses focus on operational tasks such as copy ideation (50.7%). Wishlist items indicate interest in exploring audio/podcast production (51.4%) and compliance/risk data (46.4%).
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  • 7 min

6 Major Trends Shaping the Future of Hotel Distribution

📱 Travelers visit 38 websites on average before booking a hotel, highlighting the need for centralized, customer-centric search platforms for direct bookings. The roomangel Foundation is pushing for a global initiative to connect new hotel search platforms directly to hotels' property management systems. Loyalty programs are shifting towards personalized rewards, and the Digital Markets Act, enforced on May 2, 2023, is aimed at curbing unfair practices by large digital platforms in the EU. Booking.com has ended rate parity clauses in the European Economic Area due to the DMA. Mobile bookings are surging, with 68% of travel and hospitality online traffic coming from mobile devices in 2023, and in the UK, 51.3% of bookings were made on smartphones by 2024. Artificial Intelligence is poised to revolutionize hotel distribution through enhanced direct bookings, dynamic pricing optimization, personalized marketing, and intelligent upselling.
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  • 3 min

Shiji appoints Steven Hopkinson as Senior Vice President, APAC & Middle East, expanding regional leadership

💼 Shiji appoints Steven Hopkinson as Senior Vice President for APAC & Middle East, announced on February 24 in Singapore. With a background in hospitality technology and business expansion, Hopkinson previously served as Senior Vice President for EMEA & AsiaPac at Groups360 and co-founded a Group Housing solution bought by Groups360 in January 2020. CEO Kevin King expresses confidence in Steven's role to enhance Shiji's regional support and expand customer relationships. Shiji, founded in 1998, now has over 5,000 employees, 80+ subsidiaries, operates in over 31 countries, and serves 91,000+ hotels, 200,000+ restaurants, and 600,000+ retail outlets.
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Mövenpick Debuts in Poland With Two Hotels Set to Open

🏠 Mövenpick announced new hotels in Poland opening in February 2025: Mövenpick Grand Hotel Wrocław with 180 rooms, and Mövenpick Resort & Spa Karpacz with 126 rooms. In November 2024, Mövenpick Hotel Winter Park Baku opened in Azerbaijan, and Mövenpick Hotel Brussels Airport launched in Belgium. The brand plans further expansion in Europe with upcoming openings in Italy (Bari in May and Mondello in September 2025), Greece (Sivota in Spring), Montenegro (Kotor in May), Croatia (second half of 2025), and Hungary (Budapest Centre in 2025). Mövenpick has over 120 hotels worldwide, emphasizing culinary excellence since its founding in 1948.
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Whitestone Companies Acquires Homewood Suites by Hilton Minneapolis-Mall of America

🏨 Whitestone Companies, based in Columbus, Ohio, acquired Homewood Suites by Hilton Minneapolis-Mall of America on February 24, 2025. The 144-room hotel is located across the Mall of America and close to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. This marks Whitestone's first investment in Minnesota and the fourth Homewood Suites purchase in 18 months. The property will be renovated, including guest suites, public spaces, and amenities. Regal Hospitality will manage the hotel's operations.
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Yasuhiro Toshida Appointed Executive Chef of Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto

🍴 Yasuhiro Toshida appointed as Executive Chef at Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto, bringing 30 years of culinary experience across Japan. Toshida will oversee EMBA KYOTO CHOPHOUSE, The Lounge & Bar, Fuju Lounge, Sushi Ginza Onodera, and In-Room Dining. He focuses on seasonality, procuring local ingredients, and creating exceptional dining experiences by working with Kyoto’s farmers, foragers, and fisheries. Toshida's background includes roles at Chinzan-so Tokyo, HYWWJP Corporation overseeing 10 restaurants, and opening upscale hotels and restaurants in collaboration with renowned chefs. Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto will introduce enhancements like hyper-seasonal menus under Toshida’s leadership.
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Just Salad Raises $200M

🏨 InterContinental Hotels Group PLC acquired the Ruby brand from Ruby SARL for €110.5 million (~$116 million). Ruby, established in 2013, operates 20 hotels with 3,483 rooms across Europe and has 10 more hotels with 2,235 rooms in the pipeline. The acquisition includes an upfront payment of €109.9 million and a deferred €0.6 million. IHG anticipates franchise fees of $8 million in 2028 and over $15 million by 2030, with integration costs around $10 million in 2025. Additional payments to the seller could reach €181 million ($190 million) if they operate over 20,000 Ruby-branded rooms by 2030 or 2035. Integration of Ruby hotels into IHG is expected to commence in 2025 and complete by March 31, 2026, increasing IHG's system size by approximately 0.5%.
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Roland Gonzalez Promoted to Church’s Texas Chicken CEO

🏨 IHG acquired Ruby brand for €110.5m ($116m). Ruby, established in 2013, has 20 hotels with 3,483 rooms across Europe and 10 pipeline hotels with 2,235 rooms. IHG plans to integrate 20 Ruby hotels by March 2026, expecting an increase of 0.3% in its global system size. With the pipeline, an additional ~0.2% increase is forecasted. IHG's integration costs for 2025 are projected at $10m. Franchise fees from current and pipeline hotels to reach $8m by 2028, exceeding $15m by 2030. Additional payments to the seller could reach €181m ($190m) by 2035, based on growth. Ruby aims to expand to over 120 hotels in 10 years and 250 in 20 years globally.
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