Maxime Blot

🏨 Joël Darfeuille won Meilleur Réceptionniste de France 2024 and Meilleur Réceptionniste du Monde 2025 at the Trophée David Campbell, organized by AICR. The national competition included a video presentation and hotel presentation, with 5 juniors and 5 seniors competing in eloquence contests and role-play games. The international final in Athens focused on managerial skills, with two role-plays, group work, administrative tasks, and detailed knowledge of a fictitious hotel. Joël's preparation involved training with Fairmont professionals, AICR France support, public speaking training, and stress management. His victory leads to new professional opportunities and a desire to inspire the next generation.

📌 D-EDGE, a French company, equips over 17,000 hotels worldwide and leads European hotel technology. Formed by a strategic merger in 2019 between FastBooking and Availpro, it offers a vast array of interconnected solutions to simplify hoteliers' complex ecosystems. With a presence in 25 countries, primarily in Europe and Asia, they provide high-quality, localized customer support, evidenced by a 97.6% customer satisfaction rate. The "Hotel Distribution Report 2025" reveals insights like the average cost of a direct online booking being around 3.5%, significantly lower than OTA commissions of up to 28%. The report, based on 2024 data, highlights the importance of direct bookings and digital marketing strategies such as SEO and metasearch, where Google dominates with over 85% market share.

🍳 Les Petites Cantines, un réseau de cantines conviviales en France, compte 14 établissements avec projets d'expansion pour 2025, incluant une ouverture à Bordeaux. Fondé par Diane Dupré la Tour, qui a traversé une épreuve personnelle en 2013, le concept est né à Lyon en 2016. Les lieux encouragent la participation des convives dans la préparation des repas, avec un système de prix libre. Le réseau emploie 35 salariés et est soutenu par des entreprises, des collectivités et des fondations. En février 2025, 18,557 adhérents actifs et 6,265 couverts servis témoignent de l'impact social du projet. Diane Dupré la Tour et le chef Christian Têtedoie collaborent pour « Recettes du Collectif », une formation destinée à améliorer les pratiques dans la restauration collective.

👨‍💻 Frédéric Robles, an attorney turned tech entrepreneur, co-founded Namastay to connect reservation and payment technologies for hotels. Launched in July 2022, the company now partners with over 300 hotels in 29 countries and is an official partner of Relais & Châteaux. Namastay's solution, embedded via iframe in hotel websites, enables secure online payments, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, with tokenization and encryption. Offering faster, secure transactions and mobile adaptability, it improves customer experience and hotel operations, charging around 1% commission per booking with no setup costs. Namastay plans future integrations with PayPal, deferred payments (Clarna), and cryptocurrencies, and is exploring new markets like Morocco.

📊 Matthias Vivier Merle founded digital communication agency KZN in 2014, specializing in high-end clientele and complex sales. His team utilizes digital tools like social media, SEO/SEA, and digital campaigns for client communication in the hospitality industry. As of 2025, communication in the hotel sector is predominantly digital, with social media, SEO, SEA, and digital campaigns as the three main pillars. Masterclasses are available to navigate the evolving digital landscape, focusing on understanding the current digital environment, defining communication strategies, optimizing social media presence, leveraging SEO/SEA potential, and anticipating future trends such as AI and algorithm changes. ????