Innovation

🔎️ A Bain & Company survey of 1,100+ US consumers reveals 80% depend on "zero-click" AI search results for 40%+ of searches. HubSpot notes a traffic drop of up to 30% to company sites, while Scrunch AI finds AI referral traffic grows 40% monthly. Adobe Analytics highlights a 1,200% increase in AI-driven traffic to retailer sites (Feb 2025 vs. July 2024). AI-powered search conversions are rising, with some outperforming standard Google search by 2x. AI is reshaping the customer discovery funnel, enabling single-step journeys from vague interest to specific recommendations, sidelining traditional touchpoints and necessitating new marketing strategies focused on AI-generated content and referrals.

📍 Accor launched the 14th edition of the Take Off! Student Challenge, reimagined for 2025, to focus on local involvement and inclusivity, offering challenges in local languages across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Brazil, China, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Mexico, and more. The initiative seeks to improve accessibility and inclusion, with over 400 Accor hotels certified 'Tourisme & Handicap' for accessibility. The competition aligns with Accor's support for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and emphasizes talent development for an inclusive hospitality future.

🍕 Pizza Hut India, part of Yum! Brands, Inc., is integrating MoEngage to centralize customer engagement. This global pizza leader aims to enhance customer experiences through new channels. MoEngage provides an advanced analytics suite and AI-enabled offerings for targeted consumer programs. Pizza Hut values the platform for its capability, scale, and support, citing unmatched market customer success and implementation teams. MoEngage serves 1,350+ global brands and helps automate customer data reporting, minimizing manual efforts for Pizza Hut.

📅 ATPI Group launches ATPI EventsHub, a guest management platform integrating travel booking for events management. The innovative technology offers 24/7 support, a customizable white-labeled experience, and streamlines booking flights, hotels, and transfers on one platform. Helen van Berkel, the global head of Events at ATPI, emphasizes personalization, innovation, and human touch for exceptional guest experiences. The platform, tested last year, will be used by a UEFA partner for the Champions League Finals in Munich.

🛫 Intuitive reports that 60% of companies fail to complete reservation system upgrades due to complexity. Intuitive's buyer’s guide and over 20 years of experience aim to streamline this process for tour operators and OTAs. The guide offers a methodology, an RFP template, and evaluates technology providers beyond just functionality. Intuitive also provides reverse RFPs and 30-minute expert calls to assist businesses in the upgrade process. A webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, 7 May to further aid in planning, evaluating, and selecting technology providers.

💾 Guesty, an Airbnb Preferred+ Software Partner, launched a Quality Dashboard for property managers on Airbnb, resulting in a 17% increase in review volume and a 7% increase in 5-star ratings over eight months. The tool provides real-time data-driven insights, tracks ratings, guest feedback, and quality metrics, leading to up to a 10% higher average quality score. The initiative reflects Guesty's commitment to innovation and supporting property managers to enhance guest experiences and drive bookings.

📣 IDeaS launched IDeaS Spotlight on Apr 23, 2025, a demand intelligence solution for hotel marketers, combining AI analytics with demand forecasting and price sensitivity to optimize marketing and revenue. Spotlight offers an actionable dashboard, improves conversions through price sensitivity signals, enables real-time strategy adjustments, and facilitates team collaboration, aiming for higher revenue and effective campaigns.

🌱 On Apr 23, 2025, Amex GBT launched a sustainability feature for Egencia to aid companies in cutting travel emissions. The tool suggests sustainable travel options, such as rail for short flights and lower-emission flights, emphasizes lower-emission cabin classes, and offers implementation via policy link. Integrated with the SAF platform Avelia, it aims to help companies meet sustainability goals by showing carbon reductions from SAF use.

🍕 Pizza Hut India, a Yum! Brands, Inc. subsidiary, has partnered with MoEngage to revamp its customer engagement. MoEngage, serving 1,350+ global brands, will provide advanced analytics and AI to Pizza Hut for creating tailored consumer programs. The collaboration aims to streamline operations, offer quality support, and introduce innovative communication methods, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction. Manish Gupta, Chief Digital & Technology Officer of Pizza Hut India, highlights MoEngage's capability, scale, and support as decisive factors for the partnership.

💳 ROH secured a $9.2 million investment led by Highgate Technology Ventures and Acrew Capital for platform expansion and enhanced data processing. Over 80% of the hotel industry's $4 trillion annual payments involve manual work. ROH's board now includes Raja Goel, Kurien Jacob, and John Gardner. Hotels using ROH have seen improved sales conversions, operational efficiency, compliance adherence, and receivables management. Highgate piloted ROH over two years, noting immediate value and efficiency gains. In 2024, ROH handled nearly $250 million in invoices and saw a 523% increase in AI-generated bookings.