The dark side of hotel distribution

Berlin. Those who are looking for the fairy tale of selfless sharing will not find it in the Sharing Economy. On the contrary. A new branch of industry that makes use of missing resources and of missed developments within individual industries has sprung up before our eyes. "The Sharing Economy creates no better capitalism," believes Robert Wissmath, Managing Director DICON Marketing and Consulting Company, "but rather, it extends the present economic processes." It did not take long for Airbnb, the signboard for the Sharing Economy and great scapegoat of the hotel industry, to be the subject. The discussion of the "Sharing Economy" subject during the 10th "ITB Hospitality Day" at ITB Berlin at the beginning of March demonstrated that the hotel industry is now on the path toward loosening its opposition and thinking more strongly about synergies or even cooperations with sharing suppliers.

Berlin. Luxury and lifestyle and budget and lifestyle are not contradicting each other; both segments are now forming the most different of symbioses within the industry. Concepts such as those from the Adlon Kempinski in Berlin or Indigo and Ruby have something in common: That each is focussing intensely on the communication with the guest and on that which is relevant to their properties. "The lifestyle mega trend will change our world radically and in the long term." 70 percent of the listeners at the "Luxury/ Budget Lifestyle Panel" at the 10th "ITB Hospitality Day" agree with this statement. And with this, the conference visitors quite clearly gave the red card to the standardised hotels for Joe Q. Public.

Berlin. Two different concepts, but several parallels: The Yotel brand – renowned for its "sleep cabins" in windowless airport hotels and the "Yobot" robot – repeatedly causes surprises within the industry thanks to its innovative power. Freshly founded Barefoot Living follows an entirely different concept: it approaches the hotel business from an emotional aspect instead of solely trusting in design and hardware. An exciting contrast at the 10th "ITB Hospitality Day", the hotel conference of the world's largest tourism trade fair in Berlin early March.

Berlin. Google is an excellent assistant when it comes to illegally hacking other IT systems. Webcams can easily be used to observe and eavesdrop. And filtering the right password is often only a matter of time for the experienced hacker. The consequences of the widespread negligence in handling customer data were dramatically illustrated at the 10th ITB Hospitality Day at the ITB Berlin last week, live in front of an interested audience. "Check out - Hack in" was the title of the 'live hack' at the beginning of the conference. See it for yourself!