News & Stories
In the hotel industry they can now mix drinks, serve, provide information, vacuum, or carry out cooking processes independently, and in many other branches of industry they have long been indispensable: the spread of industrial robots in Europe is growing steadily. And this despite the fact that demand from the automotive industry in Germany, Italy and Poland is clearly declining.
Robotics and automation in Germany are on their way to another record: the industry is forecasting a 13% increase in revenues to 16.2 billion euros in 2023. In 2022, companies already recorded a 5% increase in revenues to 14.3 billion euros.
Brussels. The European Parliament is convinced of the dangers of Artificial Intelligence and has now adopted rules on AI to promote the uptake of human-centric and trustworthy AI and protect the health, safety, fundamental rights and democracy from its harmful effects.
Munich. Cost pressures and staff shortages are - finally - raising awareness of the need for greater digitalization in hotels, especially in back office. Everyone is talking about it, but Ruby Hotels has been doing it for ten years already, since the group was founded in fact. Digitalization was essential for the lifestyle brand being able to grow at all in line with its "Lean Luxury” motto. CEO Michael Struck permits a look behind the scenes and into Ruby's digital and automated structures. It’s clear that Ruby is far ahead of many other groups here.
Merano. In northern Italy, the Hoteliers and Innkeepers Association operates the platform Booking South Tyrol. With its current 40 percent increase in turnover, it now plays a leading role. In addition, the marketing company of the province operates the website suedtirol.info and wants to show off soon with the new "Marketplace Südtirol".
Menlo Park/California. Meta, formerly Facebook will have to pay 1.2 billion euros for ignoring EU data privacy regulations. This fine is the largest GDPR fine ever.
Bern. More and more guests are booking overnight stays via the hotel's own website. For Swiss hoteliers, this is a pleasing trend that is still continuing. The ban on parity clauses has contributed greatly to this. After all, the OTAs still remain a force.
Brussels. While fighting against monopolies and abusive conduct on the market, the EU has so far not monitored any companies in the hospitality sector. This has ended now. Booking.com is one of the first 19 companies whose anti-competitive practices will be monitored closely. Surprisingly, Airbnb and Expedia don’t fall under the new rules.
Budapest/Vienna. OTA success stories outside of the small group of majors like Booking.com, Expedia and Trip.com are few and far between. Budapest-based Szallas Group has carved out a niche for itself in the Central & Eastern European region through leveraging its local knowledge and contacts. The success story has developed since 2015, also because tens of thousands of hotels in Poland alone are not yet represented on any OTA platform.
Strasbourg. Innovation increasingly relies on data, especially in the AI sector. Not least for this reason, the EU has this week drafted a data law with new rules for fair access to and use of industry data. It clarifies who can access non-personalised data and under what conditions.