TOP NEWS

🏨 Personalized hotel welcome letters enhance guest experience by providing essential information and showcasing amenities for a memorable stay. Article published on August 26, 2024, by PRABHASH BHATNAGAR, discusses the benefits, templates, and occasions for these letters. 🛎️

🔔 Effective communication in the hotel industry, with systems including phones, apps, and software, ensures smooth operations and guest satisfaction. Good interdepartmental communication can reduce costs by preventing mistakes like double bookings, increase revenue through improved guest services leading to repeat visits, and ensure efficient use of resources and better financial planning. Training in cross-cultural communication and regular skill-building is crucial for staff. Hotelogix PMS enhances communication by sending automated SMS to guests and managing guest preferences, which personalizes the guest experience.

🏨 Marriott leads hotel loyalty programs with 192 million members, while Hilton's membership more than doubled since 2018. Loyalty members, 41% more likely to have traveled in the last three months, prioritize convenience (71%) and comfort (65%), and 83% have previously purchased ancillaries. Over half prefer using points over cash for upgrades, with 69% willing to redeem points for room upgrades. Airlines and cruises show repeat purchases increase with ancillary experiences, suggesting hotels can drive long-term growth by offering memorable ancillary services to loyal customers.

💳 Business travelers targeted by hotel groups offering personalized options through direct booking, aiming to lure clients away from third-party platforms with technology-driven exclusive deals. As of August 26, 2024, hotels are adopting attribute-based booking, akin to "Build a Bear," for a customized experience and better expense tracking, while confronting challenges such as the absence of industry standards for this booking method.

🏥 Samantha Hardcastle, founder and creative director of The Storied Experience, shares insights on story-driven hospitality in an episode dated Aug. 24, 2024. Key insights include the creation of experiences that align with guests' aspirations (02:57), the importance of a hotel's mission and reconnecting with its original purpose (05:16), the impact of the environment on behavior (06:10), activating hotel spaces to provoke curiosity (08:09), aligning with tourism and experiential elements (11:03), incorporating local history interactively (14:37), and embracing regenerative travel principles for community impact (16:42).

🌍 Key facts from the article include the prediction of business travel recovery between 2024 and 2030, with obstacles such as sustainability and economic concerns, and the emergence of "Blurred Travel" as a new travel category post-pandemic. Companies like American Express and Airbnb are adapting to this trend by focusing on internal travel and extended stays, respectively. Google searches for digital nomadism increased by 69% over two years, and Airbnb noted that long-term stays have nearly doubled to 25% of bookings. Employers are supporting remote work as a perk, with some even funding employee travel. Blurred Travel combines leisure with work, leading to new opportunities for travel providers.

📅 American Express's Amex Trendex report on Aug 23, 2024, reveals five trending U.S. business travel destinations: Princeton, New Jersey; Durham, North Carolina; Southwest Michigan; Sacramento, California; and Honolulu, Hawaii. The rise of blended business and leisure travel, particularly among younger travelers, is noted post-pandemic. Traveler comfort is increasingly prioritized, with many paying extra for enhanced experiences. AI integration in business travel is anticipated to improve operations, reduce costs, and upgrade the travel experience.

🏨 Dubai led in EMEA hotel occupancy at 80.3% and Milan in GOPPAR at €157.28. Doha's GOPPAR grew by 50.1% from H1 2023; Amsterdam's fell by -13.3%. Paris, despite the Summer Olympics, saw drops in occupancy (-3.4%), RevPAR (-2%), and GOPPAR (-9.6%). H1 2024's hotel deal volume was high in Greece, Eastern Europe, France, Spain, and the U.K., with London poised for a record year. Europe's demand surpassed the U.S., with Southern Europe's profitability up by 9% after a 13% increase from 2023. The U.K. Provincial revenue doubled London's growth. Middle East revenue and profit grew over 8% from 2023, with U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia's profit margin up over 8 points since 2019. Covivio acquired a €500 million stake in Covivio Hotels, Best Hotel Properties' deal was €347 million, and Ares bought Landsec's U.K. portfolio for £400 million. London's luxury hotel ADR declined from 2023, but occupancy led to similar RevPAR levels in H1 2024.

📊 Martin Soler, co-founder of 10minutes.news and Klairhaus, discusses digital transformation's impact on sales, noting Starbucks' decrease in sales due to diminished in-store experience. He draws parallels between the Uber + BYD partnership and hospitality, suggesting hotels could showcase products to generate additional revenue. Citing an overestimation of demand during mega-events, Soler suggests hotels should base pricing on actual demand to avoid unhappy customers. He emphasizes the need to advance mobile hotel experiences before the next tech wave hits.