Innovation

💸 Airbnb, Booking, Expedia, and Trip spent a combined €17 billion on digital marketing, surpassing the global revenue of all Hiltons and 17 times higher than Accor's operating margin. Booking Holdings led the 2024 investment with €7 billion, over 30% of its annual revenue, up from €6.5 billion in 2023. Expedia followed closely, with Ariane Gorin announcing a 12% increase to €6.5 billion. Airbnb invested €2 billion, while Trip's marketing expenses reached €1.5 billion, up 29% year-over-year.

🏖️ Maya Travel, a Belgian startup, raised €1 million for its virtual travel assistant's development and AI performance investment. The funding round included Lighthouse and business angels, with clients like Travelbase, Joker, Noorderhuis, and Frenchly. The funds will boost expansion, enhance sales and engineering teams, and allow clients to train AI models with their data for more accurate white-label recommendations. Maya Travel's AI assistants, deployable via email, WhatsApp, or travel sites, reportedly increase client sales by 20%.

📦 Apaleo, a PMS provider serving clients like citizenM, easyHotel, and Numa, launched Agent Hub, an AI agent marketplace for hoteliers, in Munich. Agent Hub aims to facilitate the integration of AI in hospitality by offering solutions for revenue management, loyalty programs, and accounting. Mews has previously popularized similar marketplaces. Agent Hub allows customization and easy deployment of AI for daily operations, including email reservation management and sales strategy recommendations.

📱 Amazon has launched Alexa+, a new AI-powered voice assistant that uses language models like Anthropic's Claude from Amazon Bedrock. Alexa+ has "experts" for specific tasks, like controlling Philips Hue, Roborock, or booking through OpenTable and Vagaro. It can autonomously schedule appointments, such as appliance repairs via Thumbtack, and is integrated with Travel partners like Priceline, Viator, and Ticketmaster, allowing for full booking capabilities with Amazon Pay. In 2024, a partnership with Viator enabled booking experiences from hotel rooms via Alexa. Available in beta for Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21 users in the US, with a broader rollout planned. Alexa+ costs $19.99, free for Prime members, and is part of a network of 600 million Alexa-equipped devices globally.

🏨 Apaleo, an open API hotel management platform, launched Agent Hub, the first-ever AI agent marketplace for the hospitality industry, designed to assist businesses in keeping up with rapid AI advancements. Agent Hub enables hoteliers and tech developers to create, discover, adopt, and share AI-powered solutions that streamline operations, enhance customer experience, and boost profitability. The vendor-independent platform allows for the integration of AI solutions tailored to specific needs without costly system overhauls. Agent Hub also promotes industry-wide collaboration by bringing together hoteliers, developers, and service providers to accelerate AI adoption and innovation.

📈 Google is testing new, detailed customer experience questions on Google Business pages for a limited number of restaurants. American SEO expert Claudia Tomina reports that only a few establishments currently have this feature. The beta-phase questions cover wait times, noise level, group size, seat types, and establishment details such as vegetarian options and wheelchair accessibility. Google's AI, Gemini, may use this data to enhance local search rankings and recommendations. Optimizing Google My Business profiles now is crucial for businesses to meet Google's criteria and improve their platform positioning and reputation.

🏨 MGM Resorts International completed the deployment of Amadeus's next-generation Central Reservation System (ACRS) across all MGM Resorts in North America, including Las Vegas and regional hotels. ACRS is a cloud-based system enhancing MGM's distribution capabilities to efficiently connect with direct and indirect channels. As Amadeus's second ACRS client, MGM collaborated on implementing ACRS as a leading reservation platform and innovating the system, especially regarding strategic business partnerships. The new system aims to significantly reduce manual data management and prioritize strategic partner connectivity, offering high availability and ultra-fast response times for all hotel types.

💸 Travelnest, a vacation rental platform founded in 2015 in the UK, partners with Mangopay to optimize payment processes for seasonal rental owners. By integrating Mangopay's e-wallet solutions and multi-currency management, Travelnest aims to enhance efficiency, reduce administrative burden, and improve occupancy rates. The platform connects thousands of property owners with over 30 global booking platforms, including Airbnb, Booking.com, and Expedia.

💎 The Royal Mansour Tamuda Bay unveiled its 4,300 m² longevity and wellness center, marrying cutting-edge medical expertise, ancient holistic traditions, and absolute refinement. This sanctuary, set between sea and mountain, offers medical and aesthetic treatment cabins, sea water pools, relaxation rooms, yoga, Pilates, traditional hammam, and meditation, ensuring a high-end care immersion. The center redefines well-being and active longevity, aiming to reinvent health approaches by blending advanced preventive medicine with pleasure.

📞 Softphonie FAQs indicate that phones are not necessarily removed from all hotel rooms, allowing guests to call hotel services from anywhere with an Internet connection. Some hotels activate the Guest App upon reservation for pre-arrival communication. The system operates autonomously without a Property Management System (PMS) connection and is set up in under 7 days. Calls to external numbers and room-to-room calling features are still in development.