Innovation

📈 Data mining transforms raw data into valuable insights for industries like hospitality, aiding in improving operations, customer satisfaction, and revenue. HiJiffy's solution follows a data analysis process involving identifying business questions, collecting data from user and agent interactions, preparing data by removing errors and inconsistencies, analyzing data to spot trends using metrics like CSAT, automation rate, and CTR, and presenting findings for decision-making. Continuous improvement is key, with monitoring through Customer Success Alerts and feedback analysis. This approach helps hotels maintain a competitive edge by enhancing guest experiences and optimizing performance.

🏌️ Golfbreaks, a leading golf tour operator, has launched an app for Apple and Android devices to enhance the booking and in-trip experience for customers. The app, confirmed by Head of Digital Product Jon Richards, includes features like personalized itineraries, travel arrangement management, rooming list organization, payment tracking, and live notifications such as tee times and partner offers. Positive feedback was received following a beta test, with thousands of downloads already recorded. Co-founder Steve Hemsworth noted the app's time-saving benefits during a September golf break with a group of 16.

🖤 Valpas aims to grow its bed bug-safe hotel bed count from 40,000 to 2 million by 2030. Funding of £3.3 million was secured, with Zenith VC leading the investment round, including Icebreaker VC, Finnish Industry Investment, and others. Funds will be used to double the bed count by 2025. Valpas technology is active in Europe, Mexico, Japan, and helps hotels avoid losses from bed bugs, which cost billions yearly. Valpas CEO, Martim Gois, emphasizes the importance of guaranteed safe stays for travelers.

💳 Cross-border payment company Nium partners with B2B travel marketplace HyperGuest to enhance payment processes for travel partners and hotels worldwide. Nium's virtual card solution, offering real-time issuance in over 20 currencies, will provide faster, more secure, and transparent payments, addressing issues such as payment failures, fraud, and inefficiencies in B2B hotel transactions. The integration aims to streamline payment workflows, reduce fraud, and improve cash flow for participants across the travel value chain. HyperGuest's Amit Rahav highlights the increased payment volumes and improved choice, flexibility, and control for network partners.

💳 Hotel gift vouchers are strategic for increasing revenue and guest loyalty by enhancing guest satisfaction, attracting new clientele, providing an additional revenue stream, and enabling seasonal promotions. Effective campaigns target specific audiences, offer high perceived value, and ensure seamless purchase and redemption via STAAH’s Gift Voucher Engine. Partnerships, early booking discounts, last-minute deals, promotions, and referral incentives are among the 10 strategies to maximize voucher impact and drive both short-term revenue and long-term loyalty.

📈 Marriott International reported Q3 2024 results with a worldwide RevPAR increase of 3%, 2.1% in the United States and Canada, and 5.4% in international markets. Q3 reported diluted EPS was $2.07, down from $2.51 in Q3 2023. Net income decreased to $584 million from $752 million year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA reached $1,229 million, up from $1,142 million. Approximately 16,000 net rooms were added, bringing the development pipeline to around 3,800 properties and 585,000 rooms, with over 220,000 rooms under construction. Marriott repurchased 4.5 million shares for $1.0 billion in Q3 and expects to return $4.4 billion to shareholders in 2024.

🏨 Stella Hotels, renowned for their hospitality on the Greek islands of Crete and Santorini, partners with The Hotels Network to optimize their direct booking strategy. Through state-of-the-art tools, they offer a seamless, personalized booking experience, enhancing online productivity. With the integration of Predictive Personalization, Stella Hotels saw a significant conversion rate increase, effectively targeting hesitant visitors and boosting direct reservations. The most effective campaign, the Predictive Personalization low-intent campaign, turned casual visitors into booked guests, proving its efficacy in improving direct channel performance.

🏨 Over the past decade, hotel technology has evolved from manual, disconnected systems to integrated, AI-driven platforms like Atomize RMS and Mews PMS. Atomize utilizes AI for real-time, automated revenue management, shifting from reactive to proactive strategies. Mews PMS redefines property management systems with a focus on the entire guest journey through open API architecture. Integrating Atomize and Mews offers unified data, enhanced revenue optimization, improved guest experiences, operational efficiency, and scalability. The synergy of these platforms fosters a guest-centric mindset, leverages data as a strategic asset, and requires a culture of agility within the hospitality industry. This tech stack modernization aims to create more personalized, seamless, and memorable guest experiences, representing the new standard in hospitality.