Tell Newsletter #79
Optimus attending rooms? The oldest distribution tech is growing fastest. They're printing hotels in Texas. Luxury brands getting into sweatpants, sorry Mr. Lagerfeld.
Hello,
Happy to have a newsletter focused on innovation. I didn’t manage to put everything in here. Historically the hotel industry used innovation as a marketing advantage, we can do more of that.
Best, Martin
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Is the GDS Underutilized?
Not so long ago when speaking to a senior executive at Amadeus, I asked him how is it that GDS is still a thing? His reply was generic but it did make me think, “it exists because it provides value” he said. A recent study seems to confirm this even for independent hotels, growing faster than any other channel over the last 12 months (probably due to corporate travel increasing) it is also the channel with the highest ADR - maybe for the same reasons. It is fascinating that the oldest distribution system of the travel industry is still relevant today despite OTAs, metasearch, websites etc.
GDS HOTEL CHANNEL
Robots in Housekeeping, for real?
We keep talking about robots in hotels, but it is just not an easy problem to solve. And I’m not sure a Roomba is going to bring enough improvement to justify the investment and hassle. However the new Optimus robot prototypes shown at the Tesla event definitely seem like something that could work. There’s evidence that these were not autonomous, but even if they were remote operated the physical strain of housekeeping could be reduced until the machine learning figures out how to do those tasks. Where not there yet, and they’re likely going to be a whole bunch slower than a real person. But the technology is on the way.
ROBOTS DOING EVERYTHING
Let’s Print a Hotel
I love a new technology idea, probably more than the next person. Despite the rapid rise and fall of AI Pin, I still believe there’s something to that form-factor. But I digress. This 3D printed hotel concept is pretty cool. Is it more efficient, faster, stronger, cheaper than other methods (see containers below)? It doesn’t matter. Our industry has traditionally been pioneers of new technology. A hotel is the best place to test new ideas like this plus it is a marketing angle to attract new guests and increases travel. Let’s try more new ideas.
3D-PRINTED HOTEL
About me: I'm a fractional CMO for large travel technology companies helping turn them into industry leaders. I'm also the co-founder of 10minutes.news a hotel news media that is unsensational, factual and keeps hoteliers updated on the industry. AI Voice bookings
Is voice booking of travel the holy grail? I’m not certain of that. Booking travel is expensive and ephemeral, with great opportunity for bad surprises (i.e. “oh that was non-refundable, sorry”). I don’t necessarily have the research to back this up but I think voice bookings are great when one has the reassurance of speaking to a human who can help us and who will be accountable if a mistake was made. The other option is just weeks of painful online research. However AI voice calls to filter out the main options, brief on rates and possibilites? That would be amazing. This could be done as a series of voice messages, those frustrating messages that AI bots will be totally OK with. And latency wouldn’t be an issue.
AI TRAVEL DISRUPTION
EV Charging and hospitality
About 120 years ago Michelin launched a restaurant guide to convince people to wear down the tires of their cars so they could sell more of them. Mobility created a whole new travel category. With the shift to EV, travel will experience changes, in France most of the Tesla chargers are in Accor hotels. This is creating a small ecosystem in those hotels. There’s opportunities to expand services. For highway hotels and Motels a low-cost over-night slow charge would be sufficient to attract new customers. And just like the car-owners of 120 years ago, those who buy EVs today can spend more.
MOBILITY TRANSITION
Podcast: I was invited on the Hospitality Daily Podcast and spoke about technology in hospitality, some thoughts on what wont change in hospitality, and why I co-founded 10minutes.news. Best, MartinTHOUGHTS:
Luxury brands, changing their styles
It has been quite interesting to see how LVMH is entering the sports market recently. Olympics, Formula 1, and Paris football club. Typically sports and luxury haven’t necessarily been close (outside of watches). Sports fashion was owned by Nike and Adidas and a few designers. Was often a scientific and winner positioning.
The super-rich athletes (mostly football) wore luxury brands but as a sign of success, brand endorsement wasn’t a thing.
But as the casualization of the world continues, sportswear is increasingly the main clothing. And despite Karl Lagerfeld’s view that "Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life, so you bought some sweatpants.”, we’re seeing the luxury brands evolve.
Ritz-Carlton collaboration with Late Checkout (they did make sweat-pants), following Ritz Paris collab with Frame.
Will LVMH launch a luxury sports brand? LVMH isn’t a consumer brand - so it was surprising to see how much public marketing they’ve been doing lately. And even though their CEO insists that they don’t do marketing, let’s all agree that marketing is most of what they do.
If you’re into brand marketing, watch this space. The one thing that luxury brands master better than anyone is brand marketing. There’s so much to learn from them. For example don’t all switch your logos to sans-serif logotype.
