It's easy to feel intimidated by today's travel distribution landscape. Travelers are changing the way they buy, new players are disrupting existing monopolies, OTAs are buying each other, and hoteliers have access to so much data that it's become a full-time job to interpret it and put it into use. The key is to find ways to interpret this data, act on it quickly and leveraging technologies that can help with this. As long as you continue to strive to understand the market - and, most importantly, your guests - you'll be able to tap into the opportunities that, as a whole, make all the difference to your bottom line. READ MORE

First it was bookings, then it was mobile, and now it's the Internet of Things (IoT) - a trillion dollar consumer market that is poised to disrupt the hospitality industry. Hotel chains such as Marriott, Hilton and Best Western are already piloting IoT initiatives in the pursuit of improving their guests' experiences and reducing energy and maintenance costs. Some are even building custom Alexa devices to fundamentally change the way guests communicate with their staff. But IoT doesn't need to be complicated or eat up an entire hotel budget - boutique hotels can also leverage IoT strategies and see quick return on their investments. READ MORE

Technology impacts every facet of our lives. From smart devices to mobile apps, we rely on innovative products to provide convenient and valuable services each day. Not surprisingly, the application of technology has made its way into the hotel industry. Technological integration has become an expectation of hotel guests and an opportunity for hotel managers to improve their bottom line. Well-known technological applications such as mobile check-in, smart TVs, enhanced Wi-Fi and mobile room keys are already present in many hotels. However, there are other ways to use technology in hotel settings that are less well known. READ MORE

What's the next big thing in a hotel room? For today's hotel guests, casting personal content from their smart device to the hotel TV is the “next big thing” in innovative technology. It's been proven to work, and better yet, it's been proven to be affordable. Today's hotel guests want their in-room entertainment to be as good or even better than their home experience. They want to watch their own content from all their devices, whether iOS or Android, and most importantly, they want it to be easy. It falls to the hoteliers to keep casting as simple as possible. READ MORE

Despite all the recent hype around influencer marketing, it is really nothing new. In fact, I ran my first influencer marketing campaign for a large brand in 2006. We did not call it influencer marketing, it was called blogger outreach, but the premise was the same. We developed relationships with bloggers who had a large following and wrote about our niche. In this particular case, it was about cars. At the time the goal was to increase awareness. Our efforts were similar to a traditional media pitch and blogs were seen as “new media.” READ MORE