Jeff Bezos on Tech, Bazin on Accor and more stories
Jeff Bezos' big picture on technology
In our day-to-day work we can easily get stuck into "the next big thing", or worse, trying to catch up with the last big thing. Debating about direct or indirect bookings, adwords and what have you. But then every so often we need to step back and try and look at where we are in the broader trajectory of technology. We can debate that maybe or maybe not chatbots will drive direct revenue, but maybe we should just look at bit further. This interview with Jeff Bezos is long, it's 60 minutes long, but it will give you a pretty good idea about how much will change in the coming 10-20 years.
Search is going to change soon too
The whole concept of search is based on people typing things into a search bar. Google pretty much owns all of that. And it has monetized it through an incredibly lucrative (and efficient) advertising model. But that whole concept is going to change, and this time Google is playing catch-up to Amazon. Here's how all of that could soon become quite different and what that means for travel. PS: If you want to not miss this boat, make sure you've got a system that can rapidly connect you to new technologies.
How to not fail at choosing a PMS
For the time being, the PMS is still the center of all hotel technology. Getting the right one can be tricky. In my opinion, more important than features, more important than just about everything - is does the system have a functional API service (service also includes helpful people helping you use it). Why? because there will always be a feature missing - but if there's a good API (and service) then you can find someone who can help you build it. Without that, you'll be stuck with old tech. So buying safely doesn't mean buying what everyone else bought, it means buying something that can support the future.
Sebastien Bazin's Accor Roadmap
The fastest moving hotel company today is AccorHotels and there's no doubt about that. Yes the jury is out on whether this is going to pay off on the long term and if it does, what worked and what didn't. Because even Google, shuts down many of their acquisitions. Some just because they didn't have time to nurture them even if the product was great. In this interview with Bazin, it's not about the industry, it's not about the big plans of the future (a bit is in there). Here's a retrospective look on the acquisitions, the changes and where all that will lead AccorHotels for the decade to come. If only the rest of the hotel company CEOs could be as straight forward as this - we might be going places.