Automatic

🔔 Stayntouch, a leader in cloud hotel PMS and guest-centric technology, introduced UpsellPRO, enabling hotels to market room features individually during booking. Partnering with NYU SPS Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, they found that roughly 50% of respondents with over a month booking window would pay more for ABS. The panel, including experts Flo Lugli, George Roukas, John Burns, Klaus Kohlmayr, and Nichole Dehler, discussed ABS benefits like expanded booking control, increased visibility for upselling, and enhanced personalization. ABS offers insights into guest preferences, creating opportunities for higher satisfaction and revenue. The industry, influenced by the airline's unbundling approach, seeks a unified definition of ABS to avoid consumer dissatisfaction and an overload of choices.

🍴 Restaurant365's midyear industry survey of nearly 3,700 QSR and dining locations reveals top 2024 challenges: labor cost increases (80% of operators, with 64% noting a 1-5% rise), food cost increases (80% reported, 51% seeing 1-5%, 40% noting 6-14%), and sales concerns (38%). Despite challenges, 49% experienced sales growth. Investment shifts towards back-of-house tech, marketing, and staff training with 37% focusing on staff enhancements, and 55% allocating 1-2 hours weekly for training. Sustainability measures are adopted by 68%, including food waste tracking (39%).

💸 Attribute-based selling (ABS) revolutionizes hotel booking by offering guests the choice to select room features and amenities during reservation. ABS enhances guest satisfaction, increases average daily rates (ADR), and optimizes revenue per available room (RevPAR). Peter Waters of Amadeus predicts hotels moving from room-sellers to merchandisers. For implementation, ABS complexity and the potential revenue benefit must be weighed, advises Andrew Rubinacci of FLYR. Priya Rajamani of Stayntouch emphasizes ABS can be integrated with existing technology. Hoteliers should evaluate tech capabilities, understand their property's unique attributes, assess market demand, consider staff impact, perform cost-benefit analyses, pilot the program, and be patient with adoption, following the crawl-walk-run approach.