Innovation

🏨 A h2c report reveals 78% of hoteliers believe their booking engines are outdated, with over 60% perceiving them as inadequate for supporting direct bookings. Key issues include poor user experience (UX), lack of optimization tools, and integration challenges. With over 55% of bookings now made on mobile devices, engines failing to optimize for mobile miss out on a significant audience. To improve, hoteliers should focus on modern UX design, leveraging optimization tools, mobile-first design, system integrations, and AI for personalization. Metrics like direct booking ratio, conversion rate, mobile booking share, abandonment rate, and guest satisfaction should be monitored to measure success.

💾 Houston, TX-based hotel technology specialist SHR launched its new embedded booking engine on January 29, 2025, aiming to reduce booking abandonment, which occurs 78.3% of the time in the hotel industry, with a higher rate on mobile (85.6%) compared to desktop (73.1%). The EBE features advanced personalization, multi-property search, real-time updates, and upselling options. Direct bookings are expected to surpass OTA bookings by 2030. SHR, founded in 2004, serves over 2,000 hoteliers globally.

???? 🏨 D-EDGE asserts the importance of advanced KPIs in hotel strategies by 2025 for optimizing performance, increasing profitability, and improving guest experiences. It offers tools to transform hoteliers' approach to KPIs and stay competitive.

💹 STOCKHOLM—28 January 2025—IDeaS, a SAS company and leader in hospitality revenue management software, partners with Benchmarking Alliance, a competitor benchmarking data provider for the hospitality industry. The integration offers daily data from over 2,000 hotels in the Nordic region, aiding hoteliers with market intelligence for improved pricing strategies. Benefits include viewing Benchmarking Alliance data in IDeaS solutions, advanced market intelligence, and real-time market trend identification.

🏦 Michiel Bakker, CEO of the Culinary Institute of America, on January 29, 2025, shared insights from his 12 years at Google, applying hospitality principles that transformed the workplace experience. The episode is supported by Shiji Group, a leading global hospitality technology company. Music by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound. The goal is to turn ideas into actions for business benefits.

🏡 José Muiños Tabares de Nava, Director of Food and Beverage at Luxury Tenerife Hotels, significantly improved Royal River Hotel's operations by implementing an innovative POS system. The upgrade led to reduced service delays, increased guest satisfaction, and operational cost savings. Key criteria for the cloud-based POS choice included reliability, ease of use, integration, scalability, and luxury-level customization. The system's real-time data has optimized the F&B strategy, improving order accuracy, enabling personalized upselling, and thus increasing revenue. Staff training and phased adoption ensured smooth integration with existing infrastructure, while the system's flexibility supports the hotel's expansion plans. Advanced encryption and PCI-compliant protocols secure guest data. Overall, the POS system has enhanced personalized guest service, reduced staff workload, and contributed to a positive financial impact on the hotel.

🚀 AirAsia MOVE offers a comprehensive app for booking flights from over 700 airlines, 900,000 hotels, along with ride-hailing, dining, insurance, and shopping options. Saudia’s Travel Companion uses AI for personalized travel services and plans to add voice commands, digital payments, and e-SIM connectivity. For successful travel superapps, 60% of travel industry CXOs see potential in AI for product development, while only 18% see it for creating a superapp. Overcoming technology barriers, 81% of companies met or exceeded expectations with AI investments. Collaboration and high-quality data management are essential for innovation in the travel sector.

📓 During the "Blue Monday" period around the third Monday of January, there is a surge in summer holiday bookings. A study of 840 hotels across 17 European cities showed hotels with adaptive pricing strategies earned 8.6% more revenue per available room. Over 28,000 hospitality businesses benefit from combining pricing basics with dynamic pricing, automation, and distribution management. Effective distribution strategies include using Online Travel Agencies for visibility and a Property Management System for rate and booking management. Avoiding pricing mistakes and using automated tools for data-driven decisions are key for year-round success.

🏨 Independent hoteliers face rising costs and high guest expectations in 2025. All-in-one Property Management Systems (PMS) enable efficient operations, reducing the need for multiple tech partnerships and integrations. These systems improve return on investment, streamline operations, and help manage data across departments, including embedded payment processing and loyalty programs. With the ability to share guest data and utilize revenue management tools, multi-property management becomes more efficient. Operators seek technology partners for seamless integration and customized support to quickly realize benefits and profitability.

🚢 Odysseus, a cruise booking engine specialist, integrates live booking for Atlas Ocean Voyages, offering travel advisors yacht-style itineraries. CEOs Monish Luthra (Odysseus) and James Rodriguez (Atlas) highlight the partnership's benefits for providing adventure-filled travel options and empowering advisors with effective booking tools. The integration reflects a commitment to exceptional client experiences.