The Columns

🏨 Marriott International manages 36 brands, Hilton 24, Accor 57, Wyndham 24, Choice Hotels 22, IHG 20, Hyatt 33, Radisson 10, and Best Western 16. This expansion aims at leveraging market presence but dilutes brand identity. The focus is on increasing "bed blocks," prioritizing loyalty programs over customer experience. This strategy risks making customers value loyalty points over genuine hospitality, potentially leading to a homogenized, soulless hotel experience.

I wasn’t even thirty when I first read Death Note. I walked away with one clear conviction: we’re not built to carry the weight of omniscience. Let alone when it…

🚗 Frustration, not joy, greets travelers in rental car check-ins. Despite pre-booking, customers face long lines and costly upsells. Promises of tech-savvy efficiency falter as kiosks channel back to manual checks. Customers, often exhausted post-flight, endure unnecessary upgrades and overpriced essentials like petrol and insurance. The process, outdated and inefficient, prioritizes profit over genuine service, misaligning with modern hospitality standards. Why does this persist? Because travelers have no other choice, stuck and captive.

🖥️ 1999, Trappist monks ran a hotel. Engaged in keyword stuffing like “Pamela Anderson SexTape” for Altavista's SEO. Fast forward to 2025, web remains immature. Transitioned from Altavista to SearchGPT. Content for AI: generated, readable, digested by AI, leaving humans as mere witnesses. Success relies on machine legibility over truth or beauty. Authentic content is now drowned out. We return to early SEO tactics, highlighting the cyclic nature of web content strategies.

🏠 Spain recently removed 60,000 apartments from the rental market to address housing concerns, highlighting a clash involving property owners and digital platforms. In Las Vegas, short-term rentals under 30 days are effectively illegal due to casino lobbying, limiting competition. The debate questions the balance between property rights and regulation influenced by corporate interests. Across the globe, traditional property investment faces challenges from digital platforms in a battle intensified by lobbying and legislative action.

I must admire the optimism. These campaigns urging travelers to explore the ‘other 99%’ of a country, to get off the beaten path and discover some hidden gem. It’s a…

This morning I booked a hotel.Well—I didn’t book it. A bot did, while I was having breakfast. To be precise: the brand-new ChatGPT Agent, freshly launched in Europe. I told…

Suggested soundtrack for this rant: “Erika”: https://open.spotify.com/intl-it/track/6iUVUzg0c2O0KJjxdOvrdr?si=12b3596922464be4 It shares its name with a drink Americans stubbornly keep ordering after 11 a.m. Unfortunately, it doesn’t share the taste.It’s the Chef who,…