Marketing

📌 Digital marketing agency Found, specializing in travel and hospitality, partners with Edyn to increase the digital organic presence of its aparthotel brand, Locke. The collaboration, announced as a six-figure deal, aims to drive growth in vibrant European cities, including a recent opening in Lisbon and a planned launch in Paris for early 2025. Found will leverage a £1 million investment in audience insight technology to enhance Locke's SEO and PR, building on its portfolio that includes Hand Picked Hotels and The Hoxton.

☕ Barista Tech, launched by HTG (affiliated with Taylor UK and Hubbard Systems), simplifies the selection of coffee machines for businesses by offering on-site consultations and personalized recommendations from a wide range of brands like Synesso, La Marzocco, Schaerer. They cater to various budgets from £4,000 to £40,000 and offer complete coffee solutions including sales, service, maintenance, beans, cups, and accessories. Pete Gray, the managing director, emphasizes their full-service approach from enquiry to ongoing support. Prices for espresso machines start at £1,950+VAT.

🏨 Independent hotels can enhance guest loyalty by personalizing rewards, offering unique experiences beyond discounts, simplifying point earning, leveraging technology for engagement, rewarding direct bookings, and utilizing referrals and social proof. Regularly tracking and adapting the program based on feedback ensures its effectiveness. This strategy aims to reduce customer acquisition costs and increase repeat bookings, fostering long-term profitability.

🌟 Villa Sassa entices with a direct booking Layer offering 25% off room rates, breakfast, and a free shuttle. Hôtel de Seine appeals to American guests with a Thanksgiving greeting, while Ohla Eixample captures the Halloween spirit with themed discounts. Camelback Resort promotes family-friendly activities for fall getaways. La Maison Champs Elysées supports breast cancer research in October, donating 1€ per cocktail/mocktail sold. These strategies enhance direct bookings and revenue during the fall season.

💸 Hotel gift vouchers can drive revenue year-round beyond peak holiday seasons through strategies like festive and off-peak promotions, bundling with experiences, encouraging corporate partnerships, creating urgency with limited-time offers, and maximizing online visibility. The Ritz-Carlton and The Langham London effectively use these tactics, the latter offering December promotions on spa and afternoon tea vouchers. Online presence is crucial as 75% of consumers judge a business's credibility by its website design, impacting conversion rates.

🍝 Bret Thorn, Senior Food & Beverage Editor for Nation's Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality since 1999, also writes for the New York Sun (2005-2008) and previously worked in Thailand as a journalist (1992-1997). He is a Tufts University magna cum laude history graduate (1990), studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris (1986), and reported for ABC News during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Thorn won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal Award, was IFEC president in 2005, and was inducted into the Disciples d'Escoffier in 2014. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

🏨 Hotel Operations Management article focuses on best practices, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and trends essential for enhancing efficiency and guest satisfaction. Authored by Suniti Bahl and published on Hotelogix Blog on October 18, 2024, it delves into costs, technology, and challenges involved in hotel management. The post emphasizes the need for streamlined operations to ensure a high-quality guest experience.

🎃 The Grand Brighton's seafront hotel introduces a Halloween-themed afternoon tea from October 28th to November 3rd, featuring delicacies like lemon meringue tart and dark chocolate delice adorned with pumpkin and bat motifs. Savory selections include pork & leek sausage rolls, egg mayonnaise sandwiches, and Shipton Mill scones. Prices start at £40 per person, with options to add Moët champagne or Brighton G&T from £11. To book, visit grandbrighton.co.uk.

🌐 Propellic sponsors the Travel Tech Essentialist newsletter, offering a Propellic Performance Bookings Assessment for marketing plans. The most clicked links in issue #156 were about travel brand strategies and scarcity tactics. A leaked document from MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) reveals his success principles, suggesting a unique airline business model. Peter Fabor uses Booking.com to find hotel acquisitions in Portugal via "David’s Triangle": low ratings, great location, poor value. Muji’s branded hotel in Tokyo exemplifies product integration. Andrew Chen from a16z discusses the resurgence of in-person events post-lockdown for B2B growth and relationship building. Jake Lazaroff created Waypoint, an offline travel planning app, during a travel sabbatical. An Accenture report shows a $28 billion opportunity for the travel industry with generative AI. ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode could disrupt OTAs, but their future adaptability is noted. McKinsey’s report suggests airlines could unlock up to $45 billion by 2030 with modern retailing. The Travel Tech Essentialist newsletter introduces deep dives on innovative companies, starting with DHARMA. 2025 sponsorship opportunities for the newsletter are announced, and the job board highlights positions at WeRoad.

🍴 Chef Kwame Onwuachi opened Dōgon in Washington, D.C. on September 9, named after the Dogon tribe with inspiration from Benjamin Banneker. Dōgon offers a 140-seat dining space inside the Salamander hotel, designed by Modellus Novus with celestial-themed décor. The restaurant serves Afro-Caribbean cuisine, featuring dishes such as carrot tigua and lobster escovitch, curated by chef de cuisine Martel Stone. The cocktail program, created by Derek Brown, showcases Black-owned brands and includes the Flower Pot Punch, a pre-Prohibition classic.