TOP NEWS

📈 HubSpot's organic traffic plummeted by 75% in 2024, from 10 million to 2.5 million visits. Italy proposed a law against fake hotel reviews, requiring identification from reviewers. The hotel industry now has access to APIs, but faces challenges with AI search altering traditional search landscapes. The media industry struggles with stagnating engagement. Creative marketing proves impactful without extra costs. Destination management aims to balance tourism and local experience. Emotion in marketing remains essential despite analytical shifts.

📈 Hotel revenue managers face persistent challenges that limit their strategic impact: wrestling with inconsistent and overwhelming data, attracting the most profitable guests, and forecasting in uncertain conditions. They spend hours on data cleanup due to multiple disjointed data sources like PMS, OTAs, and internal spreadsheets, which often contain errors and lack integration. To maximize profitability per guest, it's essential to focus on NetRevPAR, Revenue per Guest, and Flow-Through rather than just occupancy rates. Forecasting is complicated by unpredictable market conditions and poor data quality across revenue streams like F&B and spa. Key strategies include investing in data consolidation tools, providing cross-functional staff training, aligning processes, and integrating technology for a holistic guest view. Building a collaborative forecasting process, adaptable forecast models, and incentivizing staff for quality data entry can improve profitability and competitiveness.

📊 American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) introduces emissions-based carbon pricing for air travel, allowing customers to select carbon calculation methods and apply fees to flights. This mechanism aids in informing travelers about their carbon impact and funds sustainability projects like sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), electric vehicles (EVs), and research & development (R&D). Amex GBT's software empowers companies to address their carbon footprint by directing investments towards lower-carbon solutions. The initiative aligns with corporate efforts to reduce emissions and supports the transition to a low carbon future.

🚀 Guestline, an Access Company, reports 2.4 million self-service travellers using GuestStay technology, saving 6,000 labour hours for hotel teams. In 2024, 2.3 million online check-ins, plus 120,000 kiosk check-ins, increased hotel revenues by 2.6%. Autonomous checkouts were opted for by 72,000 guests. GuestStay captured 800,000 personal email addresses, while the Direct Booking Manager secured 1.2 million bookings in 12 months, with 6.7% via Google Connector.

📊 In 2025, hotels face flattened top-line revenue performance, rising costs, and shrinking profits, prompting a shift from siloed strategies to alignment between marketing, sales, and revenue management. Prioritizing direct bookings to improve conversion rates is essential. A centralized "single source of truth" for data across departments, focusing on around three key metrics, is recommended for revenue managers. Independent properties struggle with integrated technology, which affects efficiency and decision-making. Success hinges on direct channel growth strategies, technology investment, and data centralization to stay competitive.