Deloitte's look at travel tech and 5 more stories
You need a grasp of machine learning
As hoteliers we don't need to care too much about machine learning, AI and so forth. But we should have a grasp of the subject. AI is hailed as the new electricity and AI needs machine learning to live. The reason it's the new electricity is that it will soon be powering just about every IT system at different levels. Personalisation is a huge one and in hotels we'll need that. So while we don't need to be engineers we should have at least a grasp of how it works so it appears less like magic and more like logic.
Google Maps becoming the ultimate travel app
It is arguable that Google Maps is the most used travel app. The reviews are growing at an incredible pace, the contributor community is actually a community with exclusive events at Google Offices and that's just a small part of it. With recommendations this is growing even more and removing the travelers "where should we eat tonight" struggle. For hotels and trips this eventually means more (paid) opportunities to get discovered at the right moments.
The change in hotel search
Hotel marketing has changed a lot over the last few years, the really short version is that today marketing a hotel is more about building a brand (through the experience) and great revenue management. The search for hotels is mostly about matching price, experience and location than it ever has been. As search platforms grow it more accessible building fewer generic hotels and more personalised experiences. There will always be tension between direct and third parties because third parties will try to lower costs to consumers and increase fees to partners, but they don't matter if one can charge the right price to the right guest.
GOOGLE SEARCH AND HOTELS
Deloitte looks at the future of tech in travel
"Over the past two years, travel start-ups raised a cumulative $30 billion in funding - almost totalling the amount raised over the past 10 years." Deloitte's recent look into the future of travel tech is quite interesting and includes a very easy to understand overview of the 5 main sectors of travel technology that will shape the future: Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, Voice, Automation and Blockchain.
Preparing for Voice tech in Hotels
That voice technology is coming to hotels is not new. We know it is coming, the problem with such new technologies is what should hoteliers do, today, to prepare for it when it comes. It isn't viable to invest into such technologies heavily today since we don't know where it will go. But if anything, online distribution has taught us that waiting it out is a bad idea. Because nobody knows exactly when and how it will change, the only thing to do now is get prepared. This article has some pragmatic steps to do to prepare for the coming changes.
Marketing Lessons from the Movie Industry
The movie industry has built one of the most efficient marketing machines we know. The risks are huge, the costs are extraordinarily high and the product has a limited lifecycle. Many similar (but smaller) conditions exist in the hotel industry, so learning from some of their marketing ideas can only help. Even if they have the star power, budgets, storytelling and graphic teams that beat any hotel or hotel group, there is still something to learn.