There’s no doubt that today’s hotel leaders have to be technophiles, embracing the ever-changing world of the business ecosystem and somehow managing to get all their API- connected tech to work in unison.
Most hotel owners think artificial intelligence is on the horizon. It is already here. From voice tech to predictive maintenance, today’s hotels are running on systems that did not exist a decade ago. The 1990s brought the Internet, the 2000s brought the iPhone, Android, Twitter (X), LinkedIn, Facebook (Meta), and the social media storm that followed. Today, it is AI, electric and autonomous vehicles and more.
For someone who has never stepped foot on an ocean liner and frankly isn't all that keen on boating in general, I've had a lot of conversations about cruises lately.
Our memory is less like a video camera and more like a film editor, splicing together just the highlights. Our brains only have a limited ability to store data. Therefore, we tend to remember experiences not as they were, but as a few powerful memories. For hotels, these memorable moments make all the difference for repeat business.
Hospitality is a multi-faceted experience. Everything from the booking process to the on-site amenities to customer service affects a guest’s impression of a property after checking out. No operational department exists in a silo, and they all work together to create a guest experience greater than the sum of its parts.
Hotel acquisitions that involve a per-key price tag of more than $1 million, even £1 million, are becoming the reality now in Europe, whereas that might have been only a U.S. concept just a decade ago.
Oh, to be a luxury consumer — staying at the Four Seasons, shopping at Louis Vuitton, eating at restaurants with more Michelin stars than the number of ex-husbands per Real Housewife.
Visitor taxes, tourism levies, bed taxes, call them what you will, are spreading around the world as surely as the tourists themselves, with similarly mixed reactions.
Sustainability is a vital initiative for the entire travel industry. Maybe you, like us, experienced what feels like the hottest and driest summer in memory. Anomalous weather patterns like this are becoming increasingly common across the globe, and hotels are increasingly pressed to do their part.
