Innovation

🏨 Journey partners with Valor Hospitality to boost guest experience at Northern Ireland's only 5-star resort, Dunluce Lodge, and Scotland's Seaton House near St Andrews' Old Course. Dunluce Lodge integrates Journey's e-Commerce platform and digital marketing, aiming to lead in luxury hospitality in Northern Ireland. Seaton House focuses on brand visibility and authentic Scottish experiences, setting a luxury standard in Scotland. Both properties anticipate outstanding results from the partnership committed to innovation and guest service excellence.

📡 Philippine Airlines (PAL) partners with Amadeus to enhance customer experience with a tech stack transformation initiated in 2018, focusing on personalized services for international and domestic flights. Amadeus to revamp PAL's website, manage cloud hosting, and improve Mabuhay Miles loyalty program with modern UI, targeted promotions, and partner network expansion. The collaboration features a digital lab and competency center to drive ongoing innovation. PAL's President, Captain Stanley Ng, highlights the partnership's role in PAL's digital strategy. Amadeus EVP Javier Laforgue emphasizes the commitment to optimize PAL's online presence and loyalty program.

📢 Custom Travel Solutions (CTS) announces new Membership Engagement team aimed at increasing B2C user engagement. The team's purpose is to boost frequent usage, travel savings, and support recurring revenue. Mike Putman, CEO & Founder, emphasizes the critical role of member engagement in successful membership organizations and loyalty programs. Corlia Mocke, with a decade of experience and a Bachelor of Commerce, and Amina Mazhar, with over a decade in B2B strategy, join the CTS team. CTS focuses on optimized marketing campaigns for client sales and B2B marketing strategy. Future expansions and hires are anticipated.

📅 Martin Soler, a fractional CMO and co-founder of 10minutes.news, Europe's most read hotel newsletter, discusses the hospitality industry's challenges and advancements. Topics include the airline industry's customer satisfaction issues, the hotel industry's struggle with cyber-security education, the potential of algorithmic advertising, and the efficacy of AI travel agents. He highlights the inconvenience of hotels requiring triple payment and suggests a trust-based system utilizing integrated payments. Soler also notes the integration of booking systems on social platforms like TikTok. ????

🎯 Flight Club, founded in London 2015, launched in Chicago 2018 and is now in several U.S. cities including Boston, Houston, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Denver. The New York flagship is set to open late 2025 in a 10,700 sq ft space at the city landmark 31 Union Square. Prior to New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. venues will open late 2024, occupying 7,000 sq ft and 8,546 sq ft respectively. Flight Club will announce its 10th U.S. location soon, aiming for sustained growth, with Chicago venue experiencing record sales over six years post-opening.

📰 Bethesda, Maryland—Curator Hotel & Resort Collection partnered with PressReader, offering hotel guests access to over 7,000 publications worldwide. The digital newsstand integration at member hotels promotes sustainability and provides guests with unlimited reading material in multiple languages during their stay, accessible through hotels’ WiFi via the PressReader app or website. The partnership provides Curator members with competitive annual service fees, readership data, and a reporting dashboard.

💻 "The Inside Man" series showcases real-world security threats through drama, covering social engineering, phishing, and more in Season 1, virtual assistants and password issues in Season 2, international deepfakes in Season 3, ransomware attacks in Season 4, and exploring social media threats and password theft in Season 5.

🏗 B2B travel tech startups don't need to chase unicorn status; bootstrapping can lead to success with the right market fit, a recurring customer base, and profitability. Bootstrapped companies like HotelPORT focus on customer needs, efficient client acquisition, long-term contracts, predictable revenue streams, and strategic investments, allowing them to grow sustainably without needing billion-dollar valuations. Solid business fundamentals, rather than rapid, venture capital-driven growth, can build resilient, impactful businesses in the travel tech industry.

🏠 Nobu Hotels upgrades its network infrastructure with HPE Aruba Networking solution based on Zero Trust principles, enhancing guest connectivity and security. The AI-powered network supports luxury services like an AI Concierge accessed through digital assistants or the Nobu app, improving operational efficiency and data security. IoT technologies used include door automation, security cameras, and HVAC sensors, while operational tools cover POS devices and housekeeping automation systems like HotSOS. HPE Aruba's ClearPass and UXI aid in network management and troubleshooting across Nobu's global properties.

🏡 In Manhattan, Q1 RevPAR grew by 9.4%, slowing to a 6.8% increase in Q2 2024 compared to the previous year. Luxury hotels saw an 8.35% YOY RevPAR lift, with occupancy rising from 76.2% to 81% and ADR increasing from $535.97 to $545.79. Upscale, upper upscale, and upper midscale properties also experienced RevPAR increases of at least 5%. Lower Manhattan led neighborhood growth with a RevPAR jump of 9.6%, while Midtown South's RevPAR rose by 9.3% to $287.32. Chain-affiliated properties had a 6.9% RevPAR boost, with independent hotels surging 8.2%. Full-service hotel occupancy outperformed limited-service with 4% YOY gains.