Innovation

🛌 Journey, a new loyalty platform for independent hospitality operators, launched in New York. Designed for boutique hotels, luxury resorts, and short-term rentals, it uses AI to enhance guest experiences and streamline operations. Already adopted by over 1,300 properties, including locations in Indonesia, Texas, and Colorado, Journey helps independents personalize services and reduce third-party reliance. CEO John Sutton emphasizes its advantage over traditional loyalty programs. Journey's platform integrates with existing systems to offer real-time personalization.

📈 Guest trust in hotels starts with accurate online content. Misaligned data, like a fitness center's location, often leads to guest complaints and financial losses. The hospitality industry suffers from content fragmentation due to legacy systems like PMS and CRS, which don't integrate well. A single source of truth (SSoT) is needed to ensure consistency. The industry should focus on collaboration, viewing AI as a validation tool, not a creator. Accurate content is essential for maintaining brand integrity.

📈 Mews introduces versatile ledgers to modernize hotel accounting. Prepayments auto-log in the Deposit Ledger and shift to the Guest Ledger upon check-in. The Guest Ledger offers real-time revenue insights, while the City Ledger manages post-checkout payments. Trial Balance consolidates daily activity for export. These updates provide real-time financial views, GAAP compliance, cleaner data, and smoother audits, all enhancing hotel operations and automation. Ideal for modern hoteliers seeking precise, efficient accounting solutions.

📰 Matthias H interviewed Lennert De Jong, CEO of citizenM, about its sale to Marriott. In 2023, digital influence shaped over 60% of retail sales, projected to hit 70% by 2027. Expensify invested $40 million in F1 movie product placement, aiming for a 5:1 ROI. During COVID-19, hotels offered minibar items for unused towels. TikTok leads social retail, while AI poses risks by anthropomorphizing technology, urging regulation. Apple’s privacy changes challenge marketing attribution.

💻 Meyer Jabara Hotels, managing 45 hotels across the U.S., harnesses AI to revolutionize guest experiences. AI personalizes ambiance and suggests activities, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty. AI aids in revenue management, forecasting, and accounting by analyzing data. The Beekeeper app ensures staff communication. Future plans include exploring CoPilot for staff training and AR/VR for immersive guest experiences. Cybersecurity, with multi-factor authentication and real-time threat detection, remains essential to protect these innovations, ensuring safety and guest privacy.

🚧 Hospitable launched a fully automated Security Deposit feature that combines deposit collection, guest identity verification, and chargeback protection into a single workflow. This marks the first integration of these services without extra tools. Hosts set deposit amounts; the system automates the rest. Chargebacks are resolved within a day. Hospitable charges a flat 2% per deposit. Founded in 2016, Hospitable automates guest messaging and optimizes rental management.

💸 HITEC 2025 highlighted evolving hotel revenue strategies, focusing on profitability across departments with AI integration. Former Duetto CEO, David Woolenberg, noted the shift from traditional RMS to comprehensive profit platforms. Fragmentation in systems remains a challenge, necessitating smarter AI alerts for $10,000 decisions. Clean data is crucial, especially for diverse operations. Olly Lynch, SVP Global Marketing, emphasized margin-aware tools over mere revenue growth, spotlighting ROI demands amid rising costs and labor constraints.

💻 Josh Graham, Head of Market Development at Cloudbeds, highlighted AI's potential at HITEC 2025, focusing on the need for robust infrastructure over mere innovation. He emphasized the importance of integrating hotel tech systems to transform data into actionable insights. Current fragmentation in tech systems limits AI's effectiveness. Graham advocates for AI that acts, not just reports, and believes solutions should be developed within the industry to address unique hospitality challenges.

💰 Hospitable has launched an automated Security Deposit feature, integrating deposit collection, guest ID verification, and chargeback protection. This seamless process begins when a reservation is confirmed, automating deposit requests and verifications. Guests must complete ID checks before check-in. Hospitable charges a flat 2% per security deposit. Issues during stays are resolved quickly, often within a day. Launched in 2016, Hospitable continues to innovate, offering comprehensive, automated property protection.

💻 RoomRaccoon integrates with HiJiffy to automate up to 90% of guest interactions across over 130 languages in Europe. This partnership empowers independent hotels to enhance guest experiences and boost direct bookings. HiJiffy's AI assistant engages guests via live chat on hotel websites and social media, while RoomRaccoon’s PMS data personalizes messages throughout the guest journey. This collaboration enables efficient communication and increases revenue without additional staff effort.