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🏠 At IFTM 2024, CEO Clément Vergnolle and Marketing Director David Ferreira of Slotr showcased blockchain experiments with vacation rental stakeholders and territories, highlighting the technology's potential to revolutionize the sector by enabling the resale of overnight stays through "tokenization.

🏂 Sunweb, European ski tour operator, reports a 5% increase in winter holiday bookings for the 2024-2025 season compared to last year, with significant growth in the Belgian and British markets. French destinations like La Plagne and Les Arcs in Paradiski are most popular, followed by Maurienne resorts such as Valloire, Saint-François-Longchamp, and Les Sybelles. The Southern Alps areas, including Les 2 Alpes and the Dévoluy massif, also show strong dynamics.

🏨 Hotel Management Agreements (HMAs) now average 17.4 years as of 2024, up by four years since 2005. Based on a JLL and Baker McKenzie survey covering about 400 HMAs over 20 years, including 145 contracts from 2018-2023, the Maldives and Japan average 26 and 23 years respectively, while Australia's average is 15. Base management fees dropped from 1.7% to 1.6% of revenue, but sales and marketing costs are rising, with more operators charging 3% or more of total revenue. Performance termination clauses are included in 93% of contracts.

🏠 Summer 2024, Paris: Bruno Chiaruttini, General Manager, successfully relaunches and oversees the renovation of a major Parisian hotel ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics. The hotel, with 757 rooms and over 4,800 m² of event space, had been dormant for 4 years. Post-Olympics, Chiaruttini, a multilingual and discreet industry veteran with a career grounded in commercial passion, is celebrated for his human qualities by peers.

📙 Over 70 artisans showcasing mastery in glassmaking, woodworking, ceramics, and other decorative arts have been handpicked for the inaugural Artisans d'excellence exhibition from November 7-9, 2024, with a professional day on November 7, at the Hôtel des Italiens. These creators will present their crafts to design and architecture professionals as well as the general public, highlighting the fusion of aesthetic and technical innovation in French artistic trades.

📞 WhatsApp Business offers hospitality sector tools for professional use, including verified profiles with business info, product catalogs with direct booking links, and message management features like welcome/absence messages and quick replies for common questions. It's free, works on PCs, separates personal from professional messages, and integrates with hotel PMS systems for direct booking and avoiding overbooking. Integration with social media and websites encourages customer engagement through WhatsApp.

🏨 Hyatt implements OPERA Cloud, enhancing efficiency and guest experience by centralizing data across its global establishments. Cameron Hammond, SVP of Global Field Technology Services at Hyatt, emphasizes the modern and secure platform's role in providing better data insights and operational planning. OPERA Cloud, based on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, offers mobile access for staff to assist guests anytime, anywhere, promising more personalized customer interactions. Hyatt benefits from improved visibility of guest preferences and behaviors.

📝 Coach Omnium, active since 1991, studies the MICE market, particularly seminars, through regular surveys. Post-Covid, the seminar market has revived, with 82% of corporate event organizers rating MICE providers as good professionals and 90% of participants eager to attend seminars. Common dissatisfaction includes lack of provider creativity (37%), high prices, expensive extras, commercial disappointments, and inadequate facilities. Complaints from participants also focus on difficult access, poor maintenance, insufficient technical equipment, uncomfortable rooms, subpar catering, and unengaging content. Quality of the overall seminar experience impacts customer loyalty.

📘 GPT-3, created by OpenAI co-founded by Elon Musk, processes over 175 billion parameters to generate written content, including text translation and coding. As of 2024, Google Local Guides involves over 120 million contributors influencing internet users' choices. A recent algorithm update, "Helpful Content Update," launched on December 5th, targets improving content utility for users, penalizing SEO-focused content. The trend towards local consumption is underscored by 97% of consumers searching for local businesses on Google, with 70% of searches resulting in store visits. Guest Suite offers a solution for managing local visibility and customer reviews.

💻 The inaugural CIO Summit EMEA, a two-day tech executive conference for the hospitality industry, is set for April 24-25, 2025, in Barcelona. It targets top technology leaders from major hotels, casinos, cruise companies, and timeshare management, emphasizing high-level peer networking. The event follows the North American version's 20+ years of success and the expansion to EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) after HFTP's acquisition post-Digital Horizons 2024's success. Contact Carson Booth at carson.booth chez hftp.org for more information.