Innovation

💰 Marriott International reported a third-quarter net income drop of $168 million YOY, despite a global RevPAR increase of 3%, with international markets leading. The company's development pipeline includes 3,800 properties with 585,000 rooms, and net rooms grew by 6% YOY. Group business RevPAR rose 10% YOY, with full-year 2024 projections up 8%. Business transient segment RevPAR also increased by 2% YOY, whereas leisure transient RevPAR remained stagnant. Marriott's focus is shifting to midscale with the City Express by Marriott brand, despite higher growth in luxury segments. The third quarter saw over 30% of room additions through conversions, and a multiunit deal with Sonder added 9,000 rooms, with 1,000 more in the pipeline. The company anticipates annual savings of $80-$90 million starting in 2025 from G&A cost reductions and continues its asset-light strategy by selling owned properties. Marriott Bonvoy's membership reached 219 million.

🧑💻 In 2024, AI at Wharton and GBK Collective released "Growing Up: Navigating Gen AI’s Early Years" analyzing Generative AI adoption. A survey of 800+ senior business leaders showed Gen AI weekly usage increased from 37% in 2023 to 72% in 2024, particularly in Marketing and HR. Companies transition from "curiosity" to "excited" about AI, with softer concerns about job replacement. The report suggests future investments in Gen AI will focus on ROI and organizational adaptation, but growth may slow for targeted applications.

🏃 Gemini's AI capabilities power new features for 250 million places, rolling out in the U.S. on Android and iOS. Users can plan drives with route exploration including landmarks and dining options. Enhanced navigation provides lane guidance with clear lane markers. Weather disruption reporting is available for winter months. Coming soon to Search: AI-powered review summaries and detailed place queries.

🏢 PPDS, global provider of Philips Professional Displays, opened the PPDS Studio NYC Metro in Fairfield, NJ, near New York City, marking the second PPDS Master Showroom and the ninth PPDS Studio worldwide. The state-of-the-art, 2,368 ft² venue, targeting hospitality partners and hotel owners, was inaugurated on October 24. It features over 30 active screens, including a 138” Philips LED All In One, a transparent OLED, and the Philips Signage 3000 Series EcoDesign Series, which consumes up to 70% less energy. The showroom offers areas for product training and events for over 25 people, showcasing PPDS' sustainable and innovative display solutions.

🍴 Chipotle faced a social media critique over portion sizes, but after addressing concerns and retraining employees, it saw increased loyalty and sales. TikTok's influence is significant, with 53% of millennial users visiting restaurants they've seen on the platform and 78% of TikTok-marketing restaurants experiencing a positive ROI within six months. A single favorable TikTok review can dramatically boost a restaurant's business, as seen with Danny Boy's near UCLA. For success, restaurants must embrace social media culture, utilizing listening software and crafting bold, trend-driven campaigns. Chili's and Texas-based Lotus Seafood exemplify this approach, leading to viral success and notable sales growth.

🏨 Acappella Suite Hotel in Selangor, Malaysia, experienced a 125% increase in direct bookings and a 40% rise in total bookings over six months after adopting STAAH's technology. Starting in 2015, the hotel switched to STAAH due to its outdated booking engine and the surge in customer preference for direct bookings post-Covid. STAAH's SwiftBook and Get Google features improved booking ease and web visibility, resulting in significant revenue and visibility boosts for the hotel.

📊 Enterprises prefer in-house development of LLM solutions to control data and costs, with use cases in task automation, improved search, and content acceleration. However, few projects reach production due to high inference costs, talent shortages, and LLM limitations. Document processor Rossum, with $100M raised and ~$50M ARR, leverages LLMs for higher-value propositions. ABBYY reported a 60% YoY revenue growth and 100% new ARR growth in 2024. ServiceNow, post ElementAI acquisition, grew from $4B to $10B ARR and 25% YoY in 2024, launching "Now Assist" chatbot in Nov 2023. Salesforce's Einstein Copilot and Microsoft's Office 360 Copilot show mixed market feedback. H., founded by Google Research/Deepmind founders, raised a $200M round led by Accel and partners with UiPath for LLM-based RPA. Despite advancements, the Enterprise LLM space is still in an early, pilot phase. ???????? CARTE represents a novel approach to pre-training neural networks with tabular data.

📊 Hospitality-focused BI solutions, compared to generic BI tools, offer specialized functions for hoteliers like data mapping, collaboration, and reporting tailored to industry needs. Key benefits include efficient performance visualization, streamlined data collection, maximized revenue, and enhanced guest experiences. Features such as seamless PMS integration, customizable reports, multi-property reporting, cross-departmental collaboration, and extractable data facilitate decision-making and operational efficiency. Hospitality-specific BI tools help hoteliers optimize performance, improve guest satisfaction, and increase profitability.