Hotels are Enhancing Guest Experience

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let’s head to our weekly curation of the top news, trends, and startup stories in the travel industry:

  • Luxury for new moms and babies. If you want to go deeper on the changing landscape of “family travel”, you can’t miss this article. It dives into the author’s experience at a Taipei hotel designed specifically for new moms and their babies. Exactly: hotels that roll out the red carpet for moms riding the rollercoaster of post-birth emotions? That’s intriguingly brilliant and a bit perplexing, if you ask me. “These days, Taiwan tends to leave the postpartum month to professionals. New mothers can stay in one of approximately two hundred and eighty specialized hotels, where they will receive food, round-the-clock child care, doctor visits, and miscellaneous perks such as yoga classes and milk pumping.”
  • One market at a time. Dutch company focused on enhancing inbound tourism through technology, Destino, has acquired Doblemente, a Spanish developer of ERPs for travel booking and contracting. This acquisition aligns with Destino’s strategy to establish a leading platform for inbound tourism in Spain and the Americas. Founded by Eddie Lubbers, Destino Holdings aims for global expansion, leveraging digital transformation in travel. Doblemente, known for managing over €1 billion in bookings, brings valuable technology to Destino’s portfolio, promising significant growth and innovation in the travel industry.
  • Easing the way for every guestD-EDGE has acquired LoungeUp, a leading CRM platform for the hospitality sector, aiming to create a comprehensive suite of solutions for the hotel industry. This merger intends to enhance guest experiences, increase profitability, and streamline operations by integrating LoungeUp’s CRM capabilities with D-EDGE’s Central Reservation System. The collaboration will cover the entire guest journey, promising a unified and simplified management and distribution system for hotels.
  • Heavyweights handshake. American Express Global Business Travel announced this week that they are buying CWT, a global business travel and meetings solutions provider, for about $570 million. This deal hints potential for further sector mergers and acquisitions. Expected to close in the second half of the year, pending regulatory approvals, this deal will bring 4,000 new customers to Amex GBT, expanding its software and services. CWT’s integration aligns with Amex GBT’s tech-driven vision for business travel, promising enhanced customer experiences and significant revenue and EBITDA growth in 2024. This acquisition is seen as a strategic move to consolidate the market and enhance profitability through economies of scale.
  • Rewards refresh & easy pay. Breeze Airways is launching a new cobranded credit card together with Barclays, alongside revamping its loyalty program, now called “Breezy Rewards.” The card offers up to 10 points per dollar on purchases, with perks like priority boarding and free Wi-Fi. The updates aim to enhance customer experience and drive towards profitability, with the airline also transitioning to an all-Airbus A220 fleet to improve operations and launching in five more cities in the US.