Here are few of the stories that caught our attention over the week with some of our takeaways.
Hotel Loyalty’s 14.5% Surge: The Power Play Transforming Occupancy Strategies
Hotel Dive reports on CBRE’s latest findings and comments on the remarkable surge in hotel loyalty programme memberships across five major brand families (Choice, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and Wyndham) – growing by 14.5% year-over-year to over 675 million members in 2024.
Several critical factors are converging to create this fascinating dynamic:
The Occupancy Insurance Effect
Loyalty programmes have transformed from simple “frequent-traveller retention tools” into powerful occupancy drivers – especially when it comes to the largest brands. The average loyalty member contribution to occupancy rose to 52.8% in 2024 industry-wide – essentially making these programmes your hotel’s occupancy insurance policy.
The Brand Launch Accelerator
A record 21 brand launches and partnerships in 2024 turbocharged loyalty programme growth. Examples include Marriott’s agreement with Trailborn, Hyatt’s partnership with Under Canvas, and Hilton’s collaboration with AutoCamp, along with Choice’s relaunch of several Radisson brands.
The Commercial Balancing Act
For the first time in years, loyalty programme revenues and liabilities balanced out in 2024. However, there’s a concerning layer beneath this apparent equilibrium – decreased liability cost per member indicates smaller point savings per member, potentially hindering future redemption travel.
The stronger the loyalty programme metrics appear on the surface, the more closely we should look at the underlying dynamics. Loyalty programme fees paid by hotels increased 4.4% year-over-year in 2024, outpacing total revenue growth of 2.7%. While currently offering “cost-effective occupancy insurance,” it is worth monitoring this escalating cost trend.
Most notably, room nights per member actually fell in 2024. Despite delivering 12% more room nights overall, this drop signals a potential shift in member behaviour – are we seeing more dormant members, overlapping programme memberships, or infrequent travellers earning points through credit cards rather than hotel stays?
Marriott Bonvoy continues to lead by member count with 228 million members, followed by Hilton Honors (210 million), Wyndham Rewards (114 million), Choice Privileges (69 million) and World of Hyatt (54 million).
The commercial implications are clear: while loyalty programmes are more vital than ever for driving occupancy, the evolving cost structure and changing member engagement patterns demand vigilance.
HBX Group’s eWallet: Reimagining B2B Travel Payments
According to PYMENTS, the travel industry’s B2B payment infrastructure is getting a significant upgrade with HBX Group’s launch of a new payments platform called the HBX Group eWallet.
This digital wallet solution aims to modernise and streamline B2B payments within the travel industry by facilitating instant, cross-border transactions, integrated financing, invoice access, and full transaction traceability.
The Commercial Pain Point
The platform addresses a significant commercial challenge in our industry. According to a PYMNTS Intelligence report, 20% of travel and tourism businesses report B2B payouts as a “very or extremely significant pain point,” with another 43% considering them “somewhat significant.” That’s nearly two-thirds of businesses struggling with the current payment ecosystem.
Beyond Basic Payments
The HBX Group eWallet offers more than just payment processing – it includes integrated financing, invoice access, and full transaction traceability. Daniel Nordholm, Chief Product and New Business Officer at HBX Group, emphasizes their goal of “modernizing B2B payments in the travel ecosystem” and “setting a new standard for efficiency and security in the sector.”
The Strategic Rollout
Developed in collaboration with FinPay, a regulated eMoney institution, the platform will initially launch in Spain this month (April 2025) before expanding to OECD countries in June. This phased approach allows for testing and refinement before broader implementation.
The initiative signals progress in travel industry finances. As the PYMNTS Intelligence report notes, “Digital innovations can help these businesses reimagine their approaches to accounts receivable and accounts payable optimization and position themselves for success on the international stage.”
For distribution leaders, this represents an opportunity to reimagine not just how we sell travel products, but bring more focus on how we handle the payments infrastructure that underpins our entire commercial ecosystem – and is a very expensive line item when it comes to calculating cost of sale by channel.
European Hotel Investors Bullish on 2025: Where’s the Money Flowing?
CBRE’s European Hotel Investor Intentions Survey paints a compelling picture of continued investor confidence in the European hotel sector heading into 2025.
The commercial momentum is striking – over 90% of European hotel investors plan to maintain or increase their capital allocation to hotel assets in 2025. Real estate funds, developers, and owner-operators are particularly attracted by the sector’s optimistic return prospects and potential outperformance against other asset classes.
The Geographic Money Trail
Spain remains the top investment destination for the second year running, while Italy has overtaken the UK to claim second place. At the city level, London retains its position as the leading investment choice, with Madrid solidifying its second-place status. Rome has climbed to third, overtaking Paris, with Lisbon and Barcelona rounding out the top five.
The Strategy Shift
Value-add strategies have gained significant momentum, with 66% of investors favouring this approach in 2025 (up from 51% in 2024). This signals a strong belief in the potential to enhance asset value through repositioning, refurbishment, and operational improvements.
Upper-upscale (48%) and luxury (40%) hotels remain the most attractive investment segments, driven by their strong post-pandemic performance, sustained demand from high-net-worth travellers, and demonstrated pricing power.
The Commercial Drivers
What’s fuelling this confidence? Investors overwhelmingly cite the favourable supply-demand dynamic in European hotels (50%) as the key attractiveness factor, followed by competitive yields relative to other asset classes (34%) and more optimistic total return prospects (29%).
The Storm Clouds
Despite the bullish outlook, investors aren’t blind to challenges. Rising labour costs top the list of concerns (35%, up from 31% in 2024), reflecting ongoing wage pressures and labour shortages. Geopolitical risks have become more prominent, potentially tempering the pace of increased investment. The survey was conducted before recent geopolitical challenges became more apparent in Q1 2025 – so it is more than likely that these concerns may have an even greater impact than anticipated.
European hotel investment volumes reached €20 billion in 2024, a 37% year-on-year increase. CBRE forecasts a further 5-10% growth in 2025, contingent on avoiding major geopolitical disruptions. With 55% of respondents expecting no discount or even bidding above asking prices, hotels appear positioned to experience the least downward pressure on pricing compared to other real estate asset classes.
Finding Signal in the Noise: Fred Bean of HotelPORT on Distribution Challenges
PhocusWire’s recent interview with Fred Bean, founder of HotelPORT, offers valuable insights into persistent content distribution challenges and innovative solutions.
With over 30 years in the travel industry, Bean has built HotelPORT as a bootstrapped company focused on addressing fundamental gaps in hotel distribution – creating a technology platform that utilises AI and machine learning to monitor and audit hotel content across various online channels.
The Core Distribution Challenge
Bean articulates what many distribution professionals intuitively know: “Even with the changes in technology, with AI and other things that are coming in, we still haven’t got the basics right in the industry.” Despite technological advancements, the fundamental problems in hotel content distribution remain largely unsolved.
The PropertyVIEW Solution
HotelPORT’s core offering, PropertyVIEW, directly tackles the persistent problem of inaccurate content across distribution channels. The platform leverages AI and machine learning for:
- Amenity Mapping: Streamlining the process of mapping and normalising hotel amenities across various source content and third-party channels
- Artificial Vision for Image Auditing: Identifying outdated, incorrect, or unapproved property photos across online listings
- Content Analytics: Developing capabilities to provide hotels with competitive insights on attribute performance and potential revenue left unrealised due to missing or misflagged amenities
The Industry Adoption Challenge
Bean observes that hospitality tends to be slow in adopting new technologies, noting that “the industry has to be sort of dragged along kicking and screaming” due to competing priorities for hoteliers. He highlights a concerning trend of declining expertise in hotel distribution “plumbing,” which weakens the industry as a whole.
The AI Balancing Act
While being a “big fan of AI,” Bean emphasises a “trust but verify” approach, expressing concerns about potential inaccuracies in AI-generated content. He cites examples of incorrect AI summaries on review channels with no easy fix, highlighting the importance of auditing and correcting AI-generated content.
The commercial takeaway is significant: while it is good to see progress in content distribution supported by AI-driven solutions, we must remain vigilant about the accuracy of the content we’re distributing and develop robust verification mechanisms.
Hotel Tech Funding Accelerates: Five Startups Raise $57 Million in Two Weeks
Skift’s round up suggests that despite a slowdown in overall startup funding this year, business travel and hotel technology sectors are consistently attracting investment. Over a two-week period, five startups collectively raised $57 million, highlighting continued innovation and investor confidence in these crucial segments.
Several funded startups focus on automating guest interactions and operational processes like Conduit with its AI-powered bots that handle text and voice conversations and SuiteOp connecting hospitality teams, back-office staff, and guests in one place to manage smart devices
But one that caught my eye was Diamo that raised $4 million in seed funding for its comprehensive revenue management and marketing solution tailored for independent hotels with fewer than 150 rooms. Their platform combines automated room pricing, digital marketing, booking engine, and expert revenue support in one intuitive platform, claiming to increase hotel revenue by 35%.
From what I can see, what differentiates Diamo from typical AI pricing automation tools is their integration of digital marketing components alongside revenue management. I see real value when hotels can connect pricing decisions directly with marketing execution across channels, including metasearch, SEM, and sponsored placements on OTAs – all within a single platform. The upcoming AI assistant will automatically configure revenue strategy with recommendations spanning pricing, digital marketing, and distribution.
This integrated approach allows independent hotels to implement sophisticated commercial strategies typically available only to larger brands with dedicated teams – potentially redefining how we think about revenue management technology.
Two other companies in the round up focus on making corporate travel more efficient and sustainable. Onfly secured a significant $40 million Series B round for its corporate travel and expense management platform focused on Latin America, enabling employees to book and manage various travel components while handling expenses. Goodwings raised $3 million for its sustainability-focused platform that allows clients to book travel while setting and tracking emissions targets, offering suggestions for climate-friendly options.
And HeadBox received $4 million to expand its platform that helps meeting planners find venues, source supplies, manage events, and delegate hotel accommodations, with a focus on APAC expansion.
Across all these investments, the funds will primarily support product development and market expansion, signalling a phase of growth and continued innovation within specialised niches.