TOP NEWS

🛫 Travelers expect a personalized hotel experience, with 75% wanting on-the-go tailored suggestions. Websites have just 1-3 seconds to captivate users, or 1/3 will leave. A Skift study shows 6/10 travelers would pay more for 24/7 customer support. TrustYou analysis of 153.6 million reviews found service quality can boost a hotel's score by up to 6.26 points. Cleanliness is crucial for 9/10 travelers. iSeatz's study reveals 69% prefer loyalty programs offering better discounts, while 80% are inclined toward sustainable travel. AI technology and experiential travel are critical for future trends, with 89% of tourism providers reporting increased demand for experiential travel.

🏦 Rivero emphasizes choosing a hospitality brand that aligns with personal values for a fulfilling career, highlighting Ritz-Carlton as her favorite because it matches her DNA. She advises students to pursue internships in operations to understand hotel functioning deeply, a trait shared by successful hoteliers. Additionally, Rivero encourages creating customer experiences that go beyond the functional to emotional and 'wow' factors. In leadership, she stresses selecting and nurturing the right team to build loyalty and commitment, despite the hospitality industry's limitations in competing with flexible hours and high salaries.

📞 A female revenue manager (RM) is tasked to analyze the hotel's revenue streams before Monday's meeting, as the hotel is behind projections. Her analysis involves manual work with spreadsheets, consolidating data from the Property Management System (PMS), Revenue Management System (RMS), Point-of-Sale (POS), and event management software. She struggles to form a complete picture and feels the pressure to devise a plan to increase profitability. To improve efficiency and decision-making, she proposes the adoption of a Business Intelligence (BI) tool to consolidate data, which gets the asset manager's support. Moving forward, the hotel aims to become a data-driven organization.

📌 Mayfair Equity Partners invested €35m in BizAway, a B2B travel management firm. BizAway, founded in 2015, acquired Next Generation Travel's business travel division in April last year. The investment will fund AI and data strategy enhancements and explore M&A opportunities. Mayfair and BizAway's shareholders received transaction advice from Clearwater and Lazard, respectively. BizAway aims to transform the corporate travel experience, capitalizing on its success and significant growth over the past decade.

📋 RaizUp will host the first Revenue Leadership Program cohort from October 1 to November 30, an 8-week professional growth initiative for leaders in hospitality. Celebrating five years of consultancy, the program provides 25 online sessions across four key verticals: total revenue management, digital marketing, leadership development, and AI/tech. Designed for practical application, the program enables immediate implementation of skills and knowledge.

🏖 Domestic flight bookings increased by 1%, international by 3%; average domestic roundtrip ticket costs $660, international $1,315. Domestic cruise bookings soared 19%, international cruises 6%, with costs averaging $2,355 and $3,560 respectively. Top fall travel destinations include Orlando, Boston, and Seattle in the U.S, with Rome, Paris, and London internationally. Gas prices decline due to a quiet hurricane season and winter-blend gasoline. Car rental rates dropped 5% domestically and 15% internationally, with high demand in Boston, Denver, Portland, Montreal, and Vancouver.

📌 A Hotelier's Guide on Online Travel Agencies published in September 2024 by Suniti Bahl explains how online travel agencies (OTAs) operate, their impact on the hospitality industry, and strategies for hotels to increase visibility and bookings. The article, hosted on Hotelogix's blog, includes marketing tactics and is part of the Hotelogix Blog's content on tips and trends in hospitality.

🏨 Luxury hotel The Joule in Dallas, Texas, focuses on personal and professional growth, with Tal Shnall as their Learning and Development Manager. Shnall, with a background in operations and leadership, emphasizes continuous development and resilience. Despite starting with basic hospitality skills in the 90s at a Hilton property, his career progressed to leadership roles in Marriott and Starwood. Shnall advocates for personal investment in growth, citing books, podcasts, and seminars as resources. He is part of the John Maxwell leadership team and implements these learnings in his role at The Joule, aiming to elevate the careers of his team and enhance guest experiences.

🏠 Enhancing guest satisfaction in Parisian hotels can be achieved through simple touches like local music (01:58), fresh croissants on arrival (04:07), reading materials that immerse in the local environment (05:10), recommendations for local coffee shops (06:57), personalized restaurant suggestions (08:44), and curated walking or running routes (09:38). These experiences help guests connect with the location and elevate their stay.

🏨 The article, dated 2024-09-13, discusses the hotel star rating system, highlighting its influence on guest choices and bookings. It offers guidance on improving a hotel's rating to attract more travelers. The article is associated with Hotelogix and includes tips and trends in hospitality, aiming to boost hotel bookings by enhancing star ratings.