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🏦 The Social Hub, formerly The Student Hotel, won the Hospitality Awards in 2015 and is now B Corp certified with a score above average on its first attempt. Founded by Charlie McGregor, the hotel group operates 23 sites across Europe, offering over 1,000 rooms, as well as dining, event, and coworking spaces in 18 major cities in the UK and continental Europe. The company joins over 9,000 B Corp certified businesses globally and is among fewer than 50 in the European hospitality sector.

🖥 Stillgram, an AI-powered app, eliminates tourists from travel photos, creating the illusion that the user is alone at famous landmarks. The app can discern elements and people to keep, like the user and the Eiffel Tower, and delete the rest. Stillgram, created by an independent developer, is available on iOS as freemium with 1K resolution and a watermark. Subscription options are $2.99 per month or $8.99 for lifetime access, which removes watermarks and ups resolution to 4K.

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🚗 Matawan, a French startup, offers a cloud platform to communities for facilitating multimodal travels, allowing the use of a single transport ticket. Operating in several French cities including La Rochelle, and internationally in Canada and Switzerland, Matawan aims to expand from a regional to a national level. Their cloud-based service enables real-time data storage and analytics, fostering predictive analysis for communities and simplifying the multimodal journey for travelers. Matawan's future includes advancing international presence and integrating generative AI for conversational agents to assist communities in real-time network management.

🍳 In 2023, over 58% of classified hotel establishments in France featured a restaurant or dining area. For 4* hotels with a restaurant, dining accounted for 24.8% of revenue on average, while 5* hotels saw up to 28.3%. A roundtable on hotel restaurant profitability is scheduled for Tuesday, May 5, from 12:30 to 13:00 at EquipHotel in Hall 7.3.

🏦 The Surrey, A Corinthia Hotel, reopened on Manhattan's Upper East Side 4 days ago with a new design and ultra-luxurious experience. Owned by Reuben Brothers and redesigned by Martin Brudnizki of MBDS, the 16-story building offers 70 rooms, 30 suites, and 14 private apartments. It features New York's first Casa Tua restaurant and Surrey Spa with Sisley Paris, catering to international taste-makers and locals. Simon Casson, CEO of Corinthia Hotels, expresses pride in this inaugural North American opening.

🏠 The 11th EspritMeuble will take place in Paris from November 18 to 21, 2023, expecting to set a new record with 350 brands showcasing. The event, vital for the industry's 2024 business development, will return to pavilion 1 at Porte de Versailles in Paris. It anticipates 13,000 professionals and will feature an enhanced conference program. Gaëtan Ménard, President of EspritMeuble, advises visitors to allocate at least two days for a fruitful experience.

📖 The French Senate will vote on a law regarding "meublés touristiques" on November 5, followed by a vote in the National Assembly on November 7, with the law taking effect on January 1, 2025. The "micro-BIC" scheme allows a 30% tax deduction on rental income up to €15,000 annually, and a 50% deduction for classified guest rooms and furnished tourist rentals up to €77,700. Previously, the deduction for tourist furnished rentals was 50% up to €77,700 and 71% up to €188,700 for classified furnished rentals. A preliminary declaration in the city hall is mandatory for all seasonal rental properties, with DPE requirements aligning with year-round rentals. A DPE score below E (D by 2034) is necessary to rent out properties. Non-compliance can lead to penalties, and municipalities can set their own regulations, like those recently established in Saint Malo. Additionally, the law will increase taxes on the sale of furnished rentals by eliminating the use of fiscal amortization, which currently enables 70% of owners to avoid paying any tax on rental income.

🎯 In 2021, 49 startups joined the unicorn club with valuations over $1 billion, up from 36 at the start of the year, with a record $44 billion in venture capital funding. In 2022, funding dropped due to higher interest rates and economic uncertainty, leading to valuation adjustments. Thirteen unicorns exited the market within three years, some entering public markets or merging with SPACs. By 2024, new unicorns emerged, with a shift towards ground mobility and European players gaining significance, and fintech in travel becoming more prominent.

📦 Cloudbeds announces a pioneering AI-driven Property Management System (PMS) named Cloudbeds Intelligence, introducing multimodal and causal AI to the hotel industry. This PMS interprets data to help hoteliers optimize business strategy and pricing policy. Adam Harris, co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds, highlights the system's ability to provide actionable insights for unified commercial strategies, impacting dynamic pricing and targeted marketing. Cloudbeds Intelligence is acclaimed as the first of its kind globally, positioning ahead of industry players like Snowflake and Oracle's Cloud solutions used by Hyatt.