Live Show 113 October 6th 2017
“Google earbuds speaks in tongues, how good is AI analytics, and Delta doesn’t want to do free upgrades anymore”
Show Player
Co-Hosts
Holly Zoba
Robert Cole
Edward St.Onge
Topics
Here are the top ten stories:
Guest Experience
1. Google’s New Earbuds With Real-Time Translation Have Huge Implications for Travel
Google’s New Earbuds With Real-Time Translation Have Huge Implications for Travel
Startups
2. Marriott learns from accelerator as 2017 winners take off
https://www.tnooz.com/article/articlemarriott-learns-from-testbed-accelerator
Intermediaries
3. Hotelbeds Eyes a Viable Wholesaler Path in the Shadows of Priceline and Expedia
Hotelbeds Eyes a Viable Wholesaler Path in the Shadows of Priceline and Expedia
Brand Compensation
4. An Analysis of Franchise Fees
http://www.cbrehotels.com/EN/Research/Pages/An-Analysis-Of-Franchise-Fees.aspx
Strategy
5. Advanced analytics in hospitality
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/advanced-analytics-in-hospitality
Loyalty
6. Delta’s New CEO: Giving Away Upgrades for Loyalty No Longer Makes Sense
Delta’s New CEO: Giving Away Upgrades for Loyalty No Longer Makes Sense
Las Vegas
7. Guests Scanned at the Wynn in Glimpse of Las Vegas’s Future
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-03/guests-inspected-at-the-wynn-in-glimpse-of-las-vegas-s-future
8. MGM creates a new sizzle video (a before & after comparison)
2016 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6tWhUy1uY4
2017 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51yrzw6jWns (2:43) or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=930JwVp3Qu4(1:00)
Entrepreneurship
9. Student Entrepreneur Rob Karp Is Miles Ahead
https://sha.cornell.edu/blog/2017/10/03/student-entrepreneur-rob-karp-is-miles-ahead
How Hotels Get Hostile with Guests and How Guests Respond
10. Report: U.S. Lodging Industry Fees and Surcharges Forecast to Increase to New Record in 2017
Report: U.S. Lodging Industry Fees and Surcharges Forecast to Increase to New Record in 2017
11. Man tries to escape hotel bill by crossing a telephone wire over to the next building
http://mashable.com/2017/10/02/china-cross-building-telephone-wire
While AI is certainly an amazing opportunity for the hospitality industry to leverage more complex data for efficiency and personalization, the industry is still not using the simplest forms of data that are currently available to them. 80%+ of independent hotels who come to us aren’t even tracking the conversion events on their online booking engine because of it being “too difficult” to get cross-domain tracking to work or because their booking engine vendor doesn’t integrate with Google Analytics. Of the folks that do have the data available to them, a lot don’t analyze it to gain insights or make decisions.