Innovation

💰 July 17, 2025, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts partnered with Grubhub across nearly 6,000 U.S. hotels, spanning 20 brands. The collaboration offers delivery with no fees using Grubhub's app or QR codes. Franchisees without full-service restaurants were quick to adopt, seeing improved guest satisfaction and repeat business. The tie-up provides a six-month free Grubhub+ membership. Implementation involved seamless geofencing by Grubhub. Wyndham tracks usage to drive repeat stays and differentiate its brands.

🏡 Miami, FL, San Francisco, CA, on November 10, 2025 — Boom, a pioneering AiPMS, and Beyond, a leader in revenue management, announced a partnership. This collaboration integrates Beyond's dynamic pricing with Boom's AI management, enhancing efficiency for short-term rental operators. Boom also introduced BAM for autonomous short-term rental management and secured $12.7 million in funding. Beyond launched Neyoba, an AI revenue management assistant. Both aim to streamline operations and optimize profitability for property managers.

📈 Marketers, according to a McKinsey report, struggle to demonstrate the ROI of martech investments. Among 50 Fortune 500 marketing leaders, none could link martech to significant business outcomes. In China, e-commerce performance is scrutinized multiple times daily. Generative AI performs best when creating ads from scratch, improving click-through rates by 19%, while AI-modified ads perform poorly. Transparency about AI creation causes a 31.5% drop in CTR. Use AI for ideation, generating multiple concepts efficiently.

💰 Hotels are transitioning from traditional revenue management to profit-oriented strategies. Focus has shifted from RevPAR to metrics like GOPPAR and NOI. Every department—rooms, F&B, spa—contributes to profit. Integration of AI and BI tools enhances profit forecasting and management. The transformation necessitates collaboration between finance, operations, and marketing, with a unified vision of profitability. Emphasizing value over volume, profit optimization is reshaping hospitality, making profitability the core of revenue management.

🏨 In 2025, a travel trend of hyper-personalization is emerging, where hotels utilize AI to tailor guest experiences by analyzing booking patterns, digital identities, and lifestyle data. This approach shifts guest choices from brand loyalty to personal relevance. The hospitality industry aims to use data to enhance human interaction and optimize operations, like avoiding unneeded preparations, thereby reducing costs.

💻 88% of companies use AI, but real change remains elusive; two-thirds are in pilot stages. Only 10% have scaled AI agents effectively. Just 6% of firms see profits by redesigning systems and setting growth goals. Successful AI integration demands leadership involvement. Companies excel when humans and AI collaborate, treating people as co-pilots. McKinsey's State of AI 2025 report underscores the need for ambition and redesign to transform work effectively. #FutureOfWork #AI #Leadership

📱 Forward-thinking hotels are using advanced AI sales assistants for event bookings. Traditional chatbots often fail, but new AI systems can enhance revenue with an ROI of $3 to $10 per dollar invested. With a 20% improvement in conversion rates, hotels can gain $450,000 extra annually from 2,000 inquiries. AI ensures rapid responses, crucial as 61% of RFPs go to the first three bidders. Group sales hit $190 billion in 2024, highlighting the potential of smarter AI investments.

🏨 Jannes Sörensen, founder of Kepler Hotel Group and Kepler International Hospitality Academy, joins Matthias Huettebraeuker to discuss rethinking hotel experiences. Drawing from his leadership of luxury hotels like The Beaumont in London, Sörensen emphasizes focusing on fundamental human needs rather than preemptive solutions. This approach aims to create more meaningful, memorable stays for guests. Music for the episode by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound.