max starkov
What Level of Digitization Is Optimum for the Hospitality Industry?
Max Starkov | February 12, 2024
By Max Starkov Digitalization is the future of hospitality, there is no doubt about it! The old-fashion theses that only human-provided service is excellent customer service is being debunked as we speak! Whether hoteliers like it or not, the hospitality industry is moving from low-tech and high-touch to high-tech and high-touch. But what kind of high-tech and high-touch? Achieved with fewer, well-trained and well-paid employees using technology to provide stellar service. AI, mobile technologies, contactless experience, automation, robotics, IoT, blockchain, etc. can help fewer well-paid, educated and trained humans to deliver far supe...
Why Rate Parity Still Has To Be “The Law of the Land” in Hospitality?
Max Starkov | November 14, 2023
By Max Starkov There was a recent discussion on LinkedIn about the need for maintaining rate parity in hospitality and its implications. Just to clarify for the non-revenue management folks here, Rate Parity traditionally means maintaining the same publicly available rate for the same room/same stay across all public distribution channels i.e. channels available to any member of the public that is not a loyalty member or member of some guest appreciation or reward program. Rate Parity is not a new online policy specifically designed for the OTAs. It existed long before the “commercial internet" came into being and there was only ...
Why Hoteliers Should Be Offering Local Tours and Activities?
Max Starkov | July 11, 2023
By Max Starkov Last week Sabre acquired Techsembly, an automated online retailing platform hotels can use to sell on- and off-property experiences and other add-ons. Local tours and activities are the last travel sector to embrace online distribution. In spite of all the industry buzz and its huge potential, less than 15% of local tours and activities are bookable online, some experts even claim this figure to be 10%. Why is that? There are two main reasons: the highly fragmented nature of this sector and historic travel consumer preferences. The local tours and activities sector is greatly fragmented, consisting of millions of small...
Who Are the Winners and Losers From ChatGPT?
Max Starkov | March 31, 2023
By Max Starkov This week I asked a ChatGPT-powered itinerary builder to suggest a week vacation in Kyoto, Japan. Within seconds it spat out a recommended itinerary that was exactly - experience by experience - like the tourist program I did in Kyoto during my recent visit there. I definitely see a huge role of AI in the Dreaming and Planning Phases of the Digital Customer Journey. The question is - who will be the winners and losers from the new generative Al technology like Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard or Anthropic’s Claude? Here is my take. The Winners: The OTAs, which have already implemented ChatGPT plug-ins to ...
Hotelier’s Last Untapped Potential for Profitability in 2022: Improving Website Conversions
Max Starkov | June 17, 2022
By Max Starkov Background: As the digital customer journey continues to become increasingly more complex, hoteliers need to be looking for more impactful ways to engage, convert and retain their best potential guests. Today’s typical online travel consumer is exposed to over 250,000 micro-moments a year and undertake a complicated journey of 45 touchpoints (websites, apps, content) via multiple devices before making a hotel booking (Google). Hotels are not just competing with OTAs, their competitive set, and short-term rental accommodations on platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking, they are also competing with every micro-moment that ...
How Can Your Property Emerge as a Winner In 2021?
Max Starkov | March 22, 2021
By Max Starkov STR just released another set of disturbing hospitality industry data: due to the pandemic, in 2020 hoteliers slashed their marketing spending by 51.5% compared to 2019 (STR, 2021). Sales and Marketing Labor Costs decreased by similar percentage, which indicated an even bigger calamity: not only the property's marketing presence diminished by more than half, but the institutional marketing knowledge and expertise was decimated. Unfortunately, many hoteliers are continuing with similar shortsighted budgeting decisions in 2021, without considering the long-term implications. This year hoteliers must make the hard choice ...
Is Hospitality Ready for the Army of Robots Coming to a Hotel Near You?
Max Starkov | December 11, 2020
By Max Starkov - Adjunct Professor NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality and Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant By 2025, over 85 million existing jobs will be lost due to the seismic shift toward robotization and automation, according to estimates in the "Future of Jobs Report 2020" published by the World Economic Forum. Dangerous, mundane and repetitive jobs performed by manual laborers, unskilled and low skilled workers, assembly and factory workers will be affected the hardest. This same report estimates that some 97 million new roles - the "jobs of tomorrow" - will emerge over the next decade, jobs that are more in tune wi...
Hospitality Digital Technology: Challenges, Priorities and Buzzwords
March 6, 2019
Max Starkov Background: Today's typical online travel consumer is exposed to more than 38,983 micro-moments in a 60-day timeframe and visits an average of 18 websites via multiple devices across eight sessions before making a hotel booking (Google Research). With the explosion of the "digital way of life", the customer journey has become increasingly complex, forcing hoteliers to overhaul not only their corporate and marketing strategies, but also their technology stack in order to engage, acquire, service and retain these digitally-enabled travel consumers across multiple digital touch points and across all digital channels and devices...
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