News & Stories
Brussels. The Platform to Business Regulation entered into force on Sunday 12 July and hotels and restaurants in Europe welcome this new piece of EU legislation. It promises increased transparency and fairer terms and conditions for hospitality businesses across Europe with Internet giants.
Paris/Corsica. In Corsica, a group of hoteliers decided to speak very clearly with the OTA Booking.com: They recently decided to stop working with the platform, at least for the whole month of August.
Berlin. After years of struggle by the industry, Germany has finally officially approved the solution of the digital registration form for hotels. The guest only has to identify himself electronically. This was the last hurdle to truly contactless check-in.
Munich/Wien. As early as April, Germany wanted to launch its official Corona Warning App. Now it started on Tuesday in the middle of the big restart. The Austrians, on the other hand, are very app-tired; the download is low. And there is still a long way to go before we have a uniform EU app.
Ahaus/Münster. When corona arrived and overnight meant that the hospitality and catering industry was forced to use digital tools and accept contactless payments, the software company Tobit was well prepared: Since 1986, the medium-sized company from Ahaus in the Münsterland region, Germany has been programming communication systems, and since 2007 it has also offered ordering, booking and payment systems for the industry. It's also testing them out in a little town of just 40,000 inhabitants, in its two unstaffed hotels, the Smartels, and for TKWY and the disco next. Everything digital, automated and contactless. hospitalityInside.com went to have a look.
Bern. For Swiss hotels, direct bookings via the hotel website are increasing slightly. Nevertheless, Booking.com continues to capture business. Commissions were at an all-time high in 2019. The situation remains tense.
London. The hotel management of the future must bid farewell to its silo-like structures: a new management muscle must grow up that allows for quick reactions and innovative adjustments to structures and products. The Corona impact is the imperative for this! The imperative imperative to act not just to survive, but to reinvent, become stronger and thrive. Tim Davis, founder and managing director of Pace Dimensions, London, on the fundamentals and current trends in the Corona context.
Augsburg. Within a very short time, unknown software companies sprouted up from the ground, offering solutions for contactless check-in and digital menus for the restart of the restaurant and hotel industry. Here are four examples.
Amsterdam. With exceptional times come exceptional measures. Around the world, governments are busy setting up rescue funds to help local businesses stay afloat. But when a successful company like Booking.com applies for state aid, taxpayers raise eyebrows and local politicians question the necessity to bail out one of the most profitable companies in the Netherlands. Also, a French platform is to by-pass Airbnb and Booking.com – initiated by the state.
Washington. Artificial intelligence must be useful. Corona helps here as well: The virus has already broken the hype in this field and exposes useless things. Unfortunately, however, AI tends to be the big opportunity for large companies rather than small ones, says Tom Seddon regretfully. Today he is one of the global thought leaders of AI. After 22 years in the hotel industry he studied Data Sciene. In an interview with hospitalityInside.com he explains which hotel activities executives should use AI for. Tom Seddon, CEO-in-residence of the software company Foundry in Washington, will enrich the virtual HospitalityInside Think Tank as a speaker on June 23, 2020.