AI to costly, African SaaS, Ryan Air vs Alcohol
Week 01-04: AI is all the hype, but will it stay cheap for normies?
TLDR: Too Long Didnโt Read
Hospitality design awards are judged by executives and designers, but who are they? ๐๐จ. Purple Elephant Ventures secures $4.5 million for its SaaS products aimed at the African market ๐ผ๐ฐ๐, and Ryanair calls for a two-drink limit at airports to reduce alcohol-fueled disruptions ๐ปโ๏ธ. Veltins sees growth while others report a decline in beer sales ๐บ๐.
In geopolitics, the Gaza-Israel conflict shows signs of cooling off ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต๐ธ๐, and the Arctic is becoming more viable for resource extraction โ๏ธโ๏ธ. Meanwhile, AI tools like ChatGPT face challenges with high costs ๐ค๐ธ, and hotels are looking into tech impacts on employee retention ๐จ๐ฉโ๐ป๐.
Lastly, academic studies are exploring innovative solutions like recycling cooking oil waste โป๏ธ๐ณ.
0. News snippets
Not important enough to expand on, but worth hearing about
Easyjet now offering packages in attempt to compete with Booking and others | Premier Inn is a few points below last year, profitability to be reached via restaurant to room conversion & automation | London still number 1 in Europe when it comes to hotel inventory (160t) with 80 new hotels in the pipeline, next is Paris and Berlin. |
1. Main Hospitality News
Core news related to the industry
Who decides on hospitality design awards?
There is an annual hospitality design prize awarded to those deemed good enough. But who are the people who decide on the winners, you might ask. Worry no longer, for the answer is here. In short its Executives of various hotel chains, especially those leading design in the corresponding companies and indeed a few designers themselves. Perhaps all it takes is to attend a few FF&E design conferences, make some long term friends and next thing you know, your business might be on the list of potential winners? (At least)
African SaaS Startup getting funding
Another start-up is getting 4.5 million dollars in funding. Who cares you might say? This is basically daily news at this point, except this one might be a litte more special. โPurple Elephant Venturesโ, is a tech start-up that is focused on the African continent, launching a package of SaaS products for local providers. Indeed an exciting business model, where you can simply take successful ideas from abroad, copy them and adapt to the African market. Or who knows, innovate and create software that the rest of the world might adopt later. More here.
Ryan air calling for an alcohol limit in airports
Irish are famous for their drinking (at least within some circles ;)), but their main airline isnโt too excited about it. Apparently occurrences of drunks disrupting entire flights have increased, costing Ryan air thousands of euros rerouting the plane. IAT found that 1 out every 480 flights gets disrupted like that. Conclusion? Ryan air wants to limit alcohol consumption in the airports themselves. So drink up, until you canโt anymore.
Beers sales go down, except not for Veltins
With all the talk of alcohol consumption decreasing across the board, there is an interesting exception called Veltins. 1 of top 3 beer producers in Germany. Has not only increased its beer production, but also reached its all time record last year. Why? It is a privately owner company and all the details of their sales are indeed private, nonetheless the owners commented that what has allowed them to grow was creating a more diversified offering of beers. More here.
2. Externalities
Econimics, finance, geopolitics. All have an impact on the hospitality sector.
ChatGPT is the future! Right?
With all the hype of AI, there is perhaps one very important topic that one should know before succumbing to general hysteria and implementing into every single item they own, including AI socks. OpenAI is currently loosing money every time you use it (almost every time). Last year OpenAI made 3.7 Billion USD and lost 8.7 billion due to costs. โComputeโ costs are not minimal, and the more complex the prompt, the costlier server processing power used. With half a trillion in investments, that might become a little easier, but unless electricty becomes a whole lot cheaper or AI calculations become more effecient, chatgpt might become a luxury for the few.
The Gaza - Israel war over?
Gaza, Israel conflict is finally cooling off. Both are exchanging prisoners and hopefully some form of peace can be formed. In a weird way, today the news were listed in this specific order. First, prisoners exchanged. Second, Trump allows 2.000 pound bombs to be delivered to Israel. Third, Trump is pushing Egypt and Jordan to accept Palestinian refugees. Does that sound like a recipe to long term peace to you?
Before we fly to Mars, humanity might colonize the Arctic
Global warming, is not having a positive effect on most places this days. Except, the Arctic? Due the place becoming less hostile, the Arctic might become a hospitable enough place to start mining all the juicy resources one might need to make iPhones. More here. Perhaps a hotel or 2 as well? Why go to Mars when you can open a 4 star resort in the arctic.
3. Academia
Scientific papers related to the topics above. For those who want to know for sure ;)
Employee retention impacted by software used?
A study of hotel employees showed, that 38% of staff decided whether to leave was based on what software did the business use. Specifically that of the PMS. More here. While the study is done together with a PMS provider โCloudbedsโ, and therefore can be a little bias, it still provides valuable insight.
Up cycling cooking oil waste
Using materials, others consider garbage and turning a profit, has long been quite an interesting business model. Whether its coconut shells being turned into plates or bio garbage into gas and thus electricity. A recent study takes a look into converting cooking oil waste into lubricants, oils and more. As always academia exploring new ideas, while hopefully business utilizing in real life in the future.
4. Readables
Books, podcasts & the big stuff.
Where do we get our tech news?
With this segment we wanted to remind you that Le Portee is only a humble hospitality newsletter, written and researched by people who come from the industry. NOT AI engineers or developers. If you want to follow industry tech news, we highly recommend the โFireshipโ youtube channel. A weekly tech report, explaining tech news from a perspective of someone who actually understands them (at least way better than us).
5. Tips & Tricks Tools & SaaS
Any new software you can use? Industry tricks you missed?
Mews CEO take on their journey so far.
CEO & co-founder of Mews, a leading PMS system for hotels & hostels has given an interview outlining his journey since the founding. In many ways a glorification of mews itself, yet some good insights into where there was a gap in the sector and how mews managed to fill it. Source here.
What do people of all ages want?
A report by Virtuoso and YouGov has looked into, for the first time, 7 generations of people traveling together. In a nutshell, one can try to offer a variety of generation specific services to people from all age groups and indeed cover a wide net. Attracting guests and customers from all ages. More here.