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🏗️ Airbnb's Brian Chesky announced the return of Experiences on the platform after an 18-month hiatus and a purge of over 5000 offerings. The relaunch sets new standards: unique activities exclusive to Airbnb, more affordable pricing, and promotional videos instead of photos. These Experiences aim for authenticity and local connection, distinguishing Airbnb from classic tourist visits. Further efforts will enhance Experiences' visibility in the app and marketing initiatives.

💰 Nearly half of European hotels' daily revenue growth comes from extras like breakfast, as 45% of travelers will pay more for higher quality breakfast, says Booking's latest study. The survey covered 32,000 travelers across 32 countries, revealing preferences for local supply, quality products, and unique offerings. Secondary to breakfast, 26% of guests value access to local tours and activities, while spa and wellness services rank third with 25%. Shuttle services and flexible checkout are also premium amenities, with 24% and 23% of guests willing to pay extra, respectively. The study underscores the evolving client motivations and the importance of adapting to their expectations for increased revenue.

💸 A French decree published on June 30, 2024, effective July 1, 2024, followed by a second decree on July 6, 2024, effective July 7, 2024, completed the transposition of an agreement on value sharing, initiated by the Law of November 29, 2023. The Value Sharing Bonus (PPV) allows companies to award employees up to €3,000 annually, or €6,000 for those with profit-sharing plans, twice a year, exempt from social security contributions and temporary CSG CRDS and income tax. New regulations detail investment options in savings plans, three new cases for early release of savings, and calculation methods for participation thresholds and tax exemption for companies with fewer than 50 employees. 📅

🌱 Luniwave, created in 2021, secured €1 million from Side Angels, Bpifrance, Super Capital, Campus Fund, and Inovexus. The raise aims to expand its eco-responsible footprint in the hospitality sector, targeting 100 establishments by next year, up from 20 current clients, including B&B, Accor, Best Western, Compagnie des Alpes, and soon Club Med. The startup's "green miles" system rewards sustainable actions and is piloting projects with Atout France in Meuse. Another funding round is anticipated in 2025.

🏅 TheFork reveals the impact of the Olympics on the French restaurant sector, showing a pre-Opening Ceremony loss of up to -30% in international bookings compared to Summer 2023. National tourist attendance dropped by 32% before the Games. However, a boost occurred with Paris experiencing +25% in foreign tourist reservations during the first week of the Games, and French tourists' bookings increased by 21% in the second week. Parisians' reservations grew by +9% in the second week of August and +13% in the first week of September. Nationally, international tourist attendance rose by +11% during and up to 2 weeks post-Games, with British tourists' bookings surging by +50% during the opening week compared to the previous year.

💻 Since 2016, HiJiffy has aimed to enhance communication between guests and hoteliers through AI, leading to the creation of a robust Guest Communications Hub. Their AI framework, Aplysia, features key components such as Chatbot NLP, Advanced AI capabilities, and Data analysis, all contributing to improved guest experiences in the hospitality sector. Features include message categorization, smart property identification, support for 130+ languages, proprietary NLP based on six years of data, and tools like Generative AI and AI Knowledge Scanner. Data analysis offers actionable insights for hoteliers.

🏨 In the evolving hotel industry, OpenAI's ChatGPT offers 50 tailored prompts to enhance customer interactions and streamline internal processes for hoteliers. These prompts cover client engagement, concierge services, and internal hotel operations, aiming to personalize the customer experience and increase satisfaction. Context is key to making ChatGPT's tailored responses more accurate and brand-aligned, improving customer service effectiveness and operational efficiency. Hoteliers are encouraged to integrate this AI technology to stay competitive and adapt to changing customer preferences.

📱 Maintaining good customer relations is essential for a business's health, enabling effective responses to client needs and long-term loyalty. Optimizing client contact improves team efficiency and customer satisfaction. Tools like CRM systems centralize information, speeding up responses to customer queries. Personalization of client interactions through marketing automation increases customer engagement and loyalty. Customer satisfaction can be improved by understanding client needs and using satisfaction surveys to gather feedback. Proactive management of unhappy customers involves understanding their dissatisfaction, providing appropriate and empathetic responses, and offering concrete solutions. Over 10,000 points of sale use Guest Suite for feedback management, which includes creating surveys, centralizing and analyzing reviews, automatic online review publication, and simplified or delegated response options. Guest Suite is an all-in-one solution for managing customer satisfaction and fostering growth.

🏅 In the first half of 2024, Paris welcomed 22 million tourists, a 700,000 increase compared to the same period in 2023, with over 12 million French tourists (+3%) and 10 million international tourists (+4%). The summer of 2024 saw a tourism spike due to the Games, especially on July 26, the opening ceremony day, attracting 360,000 tourists (62% international, with Americans making up 23%) and nearly 90% hotel occupancy in Paris. From July 24 to August 11, there was a +15% increase in tourist visits, with French tourist stays up by +22% and international ones by +9%.