Innovation

💰 July 17, 2025, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts partnered with Grubhub across nearly 6,000 U.S. hotels, spanning 20 brands. The collaboration offers delivery with no fees using Grubhub's app or QR codes. Franchisees without full-service restaurants were quick to adopt, seeing improved guest satisfaction and repeat business. The tie-up provides a six-month free Grubhub+ membership. Implementation involved seamless geofencing by Grubhub. Wyndham tracks usage to drive repeat stays and differentiate its brands.

🏡 Miami, FL, San Francisco, CA, on November 10, 2025 — Boom, a pioneering AiPMS, and Beyond, a leader in revenue management, announced a partnership. This collaboration integrates Beyond's dynamic pricing with Boom's AI management, enhancing efficiency for short-term rental operators. Boom also introduced BAM for autonomous short-term rental management and secured $12.7 million in funding. Beyond launched Neyoba, an AI revenue management assistant. Both aim to streamline operations and optimize profitability for property managers.

📈 Marketers, according to a McKinsey report, struggle to demonstrate the ROI of martech investments. Among 50 Fortune 500 marketing leaders, none could link martech to significant business outcomes. In China, e-commerce performance is scrutinized multiple times daily. Generative AI performs best when creating ads from scratch, improving click-through rates by 19%, while AI-modified ads perform poorly. Transparency about AI creation causes a 31.5% drop in CTR. Use AI for ideation, generating multiple concepts efficiently.

📱 Grand Hyatt Singapore implemented Shiji's Stellaris Digital Dine platform to revolutionize its in-room dining. The system, integrated with Infrasys POS, removed manual errors, cut order errors from 5-10% to near-zero, and improved menu update time by 90%. Orders placed digitally increased to over 90%, saving $3,600 monthly in labor costs. In-room dining revenue reached 58% via digital orders from July 2024 to June 2025, with enhanced guest satisfaction and sustainability through the elimination of printed menus.

💻 Grand Hyatt Singapore transformed its in-room dining with Shiji’s Stellaris Digital Dine platform, achieving over 90% digital ordering and reducing labor costs by approximately $3,600 monthly. This shift enhanced order accuracy, reducing errors from 5-10% to near-zero, and improved menu update efficiency by 90%. Between July 2024 and June 2025, 58% of in-room dining revenue was digital. The initiative also supported sustainability by eliminating paper menus, aligning with the hotel's broader digital goals.

💻 HotelRunner will join the Phocuswright Conference from November 18-20, 2025, at Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego. As an annual sponsor, HotelRunner embraces the "Game On" theme with its travel-native finance infrastructure Ruby. Unlike generic fintechs, Ruby caters specifically to the travel industry, integrating bookings, payments, and compliance in real-time. HotelRunner enhances hospitality operations with real-time distribution, AI-driven automation, and data insights. Its leadership team will discuss industry trends and showcase the platform's capabilities.

💰 Hotels are transitioning from traditional revenue management to profit-oriented strategies. Focus has shifted from RevPAR to metrics like GOPPAR and NOI. Every department—rooms, F&B, spa—contributes to profit. Integration of AI and BI tools enhances profit forecasting and management. The transformation necessitates collaboration between finance, operations, and marketing, with a unified vision of profitability. Emphasizing value over volume, profit optimization is reshaping hospitality, making profitability the core of revenue management.

🎯 In November 2025, approximately 200 delegates from over 100 entities gathered in Riyadh for the 45th Affiliate Members Plenary Session during the 26th UN Tourism General Assembly. The focus was on membership expansion, sports tourism, and collaboration. The 2026–2027 Work Programme was presented, and new collaboration mechanisms were introduced. Outstanding contributions were recognized in eight categories. UN Tourism, comprising 166 countries, 6 territories, and 500+ affiliates, emphasizes responsible, sustainable tourism.

🏨 In 2025, a travel trend of hyper-personalization is emerging, where hotels utilize AI to tailor guest experiences by analyzing booking patterns, digital identities, and lifestyle data. This approach shifts guest choices from brand loyalty to personal relevance. The hospitality industry aims to use data to enhance human interaction and optimize operations, like avoiding unneeded preparations, thereby reducing costs.