BOOKING WITH A BIG ‘ THUMBS UP ’
ROOM SERVICE DISRUPTION
RADISSON REGROUPS
EVOLUTION OF LOYALTY
GO TIME
FORGET MILLENNIALS – IT ’ S ALL ABOUT THE EVEN YOUNGER KIDS
LAGNIAPPE
BOOKING WITH A BIG ‘ THUMBS UP ’
Leave it to Marriott International to embrace corporate bookings via Slack , the cloud-based workplace chat tool . In October , the hotel chain introduced a new extension that lets teams browse and book hotel rooms directly in their chats . Enter a city and dates and then everyone in the chat gets the chance to vote using Slack emoji to pick the option they want . Once the votes are cast , a leader is then able to book the most popular hotel right from Slack . So far it appears Marriott ’ s one of the bigger brands leading the charge on Slackbased bookings . When will we see more brands jumping on board ?— C . R .
ROOM SERVICE DISRUPTION
Uber Eats launched in 2016 , but that doesn ’ t mean the hotel industry has paid much attention . Now it ’ s the most popular food-delivery app in the U . S ., according to data site Thinknum . As the New Yorker also recently pointed out , as hotel guests increasingly use those kinds of services to get food to their doors , more traditional approaches ( ahem , room service ) are looking relics of the past and taking revenue with them . Hotels had better counter by seriously upping their grab-and-go game .— C . R .
RADISSON REGROUPS
The now HNA Group-owned and renamed Radisson Hotel Group has finally rebranded under the core name , and new leadership has a 25-point plan to re-energize a group of brands that had lost a lot of the confidence of the development world . The name does have some equity , however , and has played well in Europe for years . The question now is how well leaders Federico Gonzalez and John Kidd execute to recover in the United States and how that resonates elsewhere .— J . W .
EVOLUTION OF LOYALTY
Many of the details of Marriott International ’ s loyalty program , which will merge Marriott , Starwood and Ritz-Carlton into one behemoth play , remain a mystery . The as-yet-unnamed program will debut in August . But as one observer told HOTELS , “ If you own the market , you don ’ t have to give as much . And then ( Marriott ) can go to the franchisees and the owners and say , ‘ See , we ’ re not giving away the store .’” I don ’ t think Marriott will give away the store , but I am curious to see exactly how elite those elite members will have to be to feel like they aren ’ t just another number — and , once the program rolls out , whether other hotel companies will follow Marriott ’ s lead .— B . B .
GO TIME
Heavyweights Marriott and Hilton are doing all they can to make owners happier and make good on promises . One way : Cut commissions on group bookings , with a few exceptions for the biggest revenue generators . That addresses another problem — higher costs of outsourced group business . Some smaller hotel brands are raising commissions rates in hopes of stealing groups . But expect brands to hold firm or get even tougher on agents looking to hike commissions in the next round of negotiations . — J . W .
FORGET MILLENNIALS – IT ’ S ALL ABOUT THE EVEN YOUNGER KIDS
Oh , to be 4 years old again and helping a marine biologist feed specimens at a coral nursery in the tropics ( wait a minute , at that age I ’ m pretty sure I was watching cartoons and throwing back sugary breakfast cereal ). But these kids are part of the new luxury generation : a milliennial-minded world where experience is king , even for the tykes . Hotels have started to milk this via more structured lessons and kids programming , but is there even more room to boost ROI from experience-hungry parents looking for their kid ’ s next fix ? We sure think so .— C . R .
72 hotelsmag . com June 2018