Posts

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Christian Barbier - Ibis Cambridge Central Station

I would say that the main characteristics of the hotel industry in this part of the world is the professionalism and specialization of each domain. Most of the support functions in a hotel, like Revenue Management, Human Resources our Accounting are externalized. So are most of the team, as you will probably outsource your housekeeping or your security team. Ibis Cambridge and its 231 rooms is not a standard hotel on the market. In this boiling and creative city, the hotel introduced Chill, the new Coffee Shop & Bar concept. It is also the first hotel of the brand with no physical front desk. A team of welcomers is checking the guests online, using mobile phones. The concept might surprise however it always convinces the guests that you can associate a warm welcome with new technologies.
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Aneta Korobkina - k-a.world

Talking about the trends, I would say that one of the first ones is the true local experience. This also is a threat to hotels because many tourists use Airbnb. One reason for this might be because it is more affordable but also because it gives you an opportunity to experience an authentic way of life in the location you are visiting. Hotels need to be really creative to catch up with this trend. The other day I had a friend traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg for a weekend and she booked an apartment with her family for an actually much higher price than a hotel. When I asked: “Why?” She responded: “We wanted to feel living in an apartment in the city center and experience the life of the locals.” I am not a huge fan of Airbnb, but I tried it when traveling to Vienna once and, to be honest, that was a great local experience.