Innovation

🍴 Saladplate is a hub for the Hospitality, Food, and Beverage portfolio by Informa Markets. It offers insights into industry trends and innovations. The platform features weekly news, a monthly newsletter, a bi-monthly e-magazine, and connects users with over 10,000 brands and products. It also provides updates from 35+ international trade events, serving as a comprehensive resource for industry professionals.

🥤 April to early June in India marks peak sales for soft drinks, with temperatures soaring over 40°C. During this period, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have traditionally dominated. However, in 2025, Reliance Consumer's Campa Cola is intensifying the competition, challenging the duopoly by pushing towards an oligopoly in the market.

🍴 Saladplate is the go-to hub for the Hospitality, Food, and Beverage sectors within Informa Markets, offering a multitude of resources like weekly news, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-monthly e-magazine. Gain insights and connect with over 10,000 brands through their supplier directory. Stay informed on updates from more than 35 international trade events. This platform is indispensable for those tracking industry trends and innovations. 📈

📱 In 2025, hotels need strong connectivity, scaling from 5 to 50 OTA channels to thrive. Limiting to a few OTAs restricts exposure and revenue. Effective channel management, like STAAH, ensures centralised inventory, rate parity, and real-time sync, preventing overbookings and manual errors. Langkawi’s Royale Chenang Resort expanded to 2,000+ channels, enhancing efficiency. Champlung Mas in Bali increased OTA bookings by 9% with STAAH. Integration with PMS and RMS is crucial for seamless growth.

💻 Chatbots and Customer Data Management are leading AI applications in hospitality, per h2c GmbH's research involving 171 hotel chains and 11,000+ properties. 78% use AI, 89% plan expansion within 24 months; 42% employ chatbots, 50% aim for data management. AI reliance scores a low 4.7/10. Key obstacles: lack of expertise (62%), unclear strategies (51%). Business Intelligence (78%) ranks top in value. In five years, 40% foresee full automation of reservations and guest data management.

📦 Modoru launched an RFID-powered inventory system to help catering companies reduce operational costs by up to 20% and packaging waste by 50%. Globally, the catering industry, with around 400,000 operations, faces a recycling rate of just 9%. Manual inventory tracking consumes 25% of staff time and has a 10% error rate. Cape Town's Dish Food & Social will be the first to deploy the system, with further projects in Dubai, the USA, the UK, Singapore, and Australia.

🌐 Lighthouse's new AI-powered 'Smart Distribution' enhances pricing and distribution for independent hotels. It automates public rates across booking channels and uses AI to recommend strategies, reducing OTA commissions and boosting revenue. Serving over 85,000 properties in 185 countries, it simplifies revenue management and increases direct bookings. Vincent Goemaere, Sr. VP, emphasizes its role in reclaiming hotel revenue control. This tool is essential for managing complex distribution efficiently.

📰 Travel tech sees a shift: Propellic's study highlights a move towards operator-direct bookings (~80%) over OTAs (13%), revealing users spend more time planning than booking. Clip-farming emerges as a growth hack, with $2k yielding 10M views and downloads. Greg Isenberg's distribution software idea boosts leads by 40%. Speedrun’s next cohort closes, offering up to $1M for startups. Andrew Chen emphasizes clearer pitches. McKinsey notes travel firms aren't ready for agentic AI scale, focusing on internal workflows first.