Innovation

🔎 A recent blog post warns that OTAs may soon detect and penalize AI-generated responses to reviews. However, Booking.com's contract does not include any penalties for such actions. Booking.com already extensively uses AI for chatbots, suggestions, translations, and more. Instead of abandoning AI, the key is to use it effectively by injecting human elements like empathy and emotions. Angel IA offers educated and supervised AI solutions, trained with tens of thousands of high-quality, expert-written customer service responses, considering various parameters such as context and local news.

🔔 SoLike, founded in 2018, launched a client review response automation feature, evolving from a traditional agency to a technology providing a Chrome extension and a platform unifying reviews from Google, Booking, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Trustpilot, etc. This development responds to hoteliers' needs to free up teams from repetitive tasks and focus on on-site customer experience.

🏥 On April 5, MSC Cruises inaugurated the world's largest and most innovative terminal at PortMiami, spanning 45,770 square meters over four levels. In 2024, PortMiami welcomed over 8 million passengers, leading global cruise port rankings. The terminal features 22 biometric gates for rapid boarding and aims to streamline baggage transit. It can host 3 cruise ships simultaneously, including MSC World America (6,762 passengers, 2,138 crew members). The terminal is expected to handle up to 36,000 travelers daily, with MSC World America's inauguration set for April 9, 2025. MSC Cruises is Europe's leading cruise line and the third largest globally, continually modernizing the industry.

📃 Sébastien Couix, CEO of Visamundi, launched the company in 2017 to simplify travel administrative procedures, now employing about 20 people. Visamundi serves individual travelers and operators, having processed 40,000 to 50,000 travel documents, with a third of clients from outside Europe. The UK introduced ETA on April 2, the EES system is set for 2025 in Europe, and Thailand will require arrival cards from May. Visamundi specializes in up-to-date travel formality advice and has developed a technological solution with an API and integrated AI for tasks like document scans, but emphasizes the necessity of human support. In 2024, the GDPR alliance was launched for data confidentiality and protection, and they offer a SaaS solution for corporate travel managers, including specialized immigration lawyer contacts.

📡 Air Canada becomes the first airline to use Eutelsat's satellite connectivity in low Earth orbit (LEO), with services also targeting business aviation. The launch occurs two years after Eutelsat's acquisition of OneWeb. Their multi-orbit GEO/LEO connectivity offering includes a constellation of 600 LEO satellites and 100 approved antennas. Embraer Phenom 300 is the first business jet equipped with LEO service. Textron plans to offer it on various Cessna Citation models and Airbus ACJ versions. Eutelsat's order book exceeds 1,000 aircraft fittings.

💎 In the hospitality industry, human labor is becoming a rarity, potentially enhancing workers' value as automation, robotics, and AI, particularly agentive AI, redefine service. Three hospitality models—technocentric, anthropocentric, and hybrid—are emerging, based on the balance of human labor and technological solutions. Human workers may gain premium status as personalization, authenticity, and empathy become highly valued. Sotheby's 2017 Hong Kong auction exemplified value through scarcity, with a pink diamond selling for $71.2 million.

📱 Swifty, accelerated by the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, created an end-to-end conversational travel booking engine. CEO Stanislav Bondarenko emphasizes its capability to convert oral requests, text, or calendar appointments into bookings. The platform connects users to travel providers through familiar interfaces, like Messenger and WhatsApp, integrating payment via Stripe. Swifty collaborates with airlines, OTAs, and TMCs, and connects to over 90% of airlines globally via NDC and Travelport. It offers a comprehensive inventory, including Expedia's accommodations and rail transport. Swifty promises a booking precision above 95%, aiming for 99% by year-end. The team of six plans to expand to support major travel industry players.

💸 Paris-based SoLike, established in 2018, launched an automated customer review response feature on March 31, 2025. The technology allows hotel professionals to choose their level of automation, ranging from 100% human to a fully automated AI system. This innovation was developed in response to hoteliers' requests to save time and focus on on-site customer experience. As a result, a partner hotelier reduced review response time from 4 hours to less than 1 hour per week. SoLike won the Start-up Award at FoodHotelTech 2021 and their platform now aggregates reviews from over 50 sources.

🤖 Pudu Robotics recently launched FlashBot Arm, a semi-humanoid robot combining a wheeled machine's convenience with a humanoid's manipulation and interaction capabilities. FlashBot Arm features robotic arms, an interactive screen face, RGB-D cameras, Lidar, panoramic cameras, and pressure-sensitive skin. It can grab objects, press buttons, and navigate hotels, restaurants, or offices—ensuring safe human interaction by stopping upon contact.

🔍 Google integrates AI-generated summaries of reviews into search results, first observed in the U.S. AI-generated summaries introduced to Google Maps in November are now visible in Google's right-side search result panels for local businesses. SEO specialist Amy Toman discovered this feature and noted the new reporting function for business owners to flag incorrect summaries. Google's "About" link details how information is collected and used. Five-star ratings without comments won't impact summaries; detailed customer feedback is now more valuable. Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-review-summaries-local-panels-39166.html