Cendyn makes CRM technology more accessible to speed up hotel recovery
An existing pressure on hotels to adapt to evolving technology and customer behaviours has only intensified during the pandemic and travel disruption, as managers struggle to gather and make sense of data while rebuilding customer trust with reduced manpower.
Painting a picture of hotels’ customer relationship management (CRM) journey today, Brad Noe, chief technology officer with Cendyn, said: “Hotels are now completely reliant on the data they gather themselves and the technology they use to manage their data. Hotels need to combine data with the human experience to enhance operating procedures, so they’re fit for purpose. Finding ways for these two elements to interact is how we can adapt to evolving guest expectations and therefore revolutionise the guest experience.”
Hotels need to combine data with
the human experience to enhance
operating procedures, so they’re fit for purpose.
– Brad Noe, chief technology officer with Cendyn
However, hoteliers are also faced with a “sheer volume of data points being captured across the entire tech stack”.
“Without a way to wrangle this fragmented data and unite it into a single view, hoteliers are unable to truly leverage their data insights,” said Noe, who added that Cendyn is on a mission to make CRM technology more accessible and easier to use for hoteliers and their customers.
Noe believes that a customer data platform (CDP) has the potential to revolutionise a hotel’s operations to make it more efficient and guest-centric. A unified guest profile from the CDP, coupled with data that is constantly in sync and available across departments, primes the hotel for peak performance.
Cendyn’s recent convergence of its CDP with Pegasus’s central reservations system (CRS) will enable the company to deliver on its mission of personalising and enriching the guest journey, opined Noe.
“Hotels now have a way to collect data and then leverage it to increase revenue — all through one trusted vendor,” he said.
The Cendyn-Pegasus merger sets the foundation for the Cendyn Hospitality Cloud, which gives hotels the tools to take control of their direct-booking channel, enhance brand loyalty, and drive profitability.
The Cendyn Hospitality Cloud is a vertically integrated, cloud-based platform that empowers revenue, ecommerce, distribution, marketing, and sales teams with a single source of truth. It offers a unified view of every guest, and a system of record for rates and reservations.
“The combination of these critical data elements in one platform ensures teams across the business can act on their data to automate, personalise, and transform the experience for every guest at every step of their journey,” explained Noe, adding that the platform is all the more valuable “at a time when hoteliers are being forced to do more with less”.
“They are looking for strategic technology partners who can provide them with the scale, reach, and stability to drive efficiencies and performance as the industry returns to recovery and growth. That’s where the focus of the Cendyn Hospitality Cloud comes in.”
Noe shared that the Cendyn Hospitality Cloud was made possible by Cendyn’s two decades of expertise and “the incredible companies we have merged and acquired over the past few years”.
The company is on track to launch more new and enhanced products within the Cendyn Hospitality Cloud throughout 2022.
Meanwhile, Cendyn’s representatives will continue to conduct and speak on numerous webinars on hospitality technology.
In 1H2022, representatives will attend the HSMAI Revenue Optimization Conference Asia. Later in the year, it plans to be at ITB Asia 2022 and Travel Tech Asia 2022.
Time for harvest
IHG’s revenue was up 40 per cent to US$1.4 billion in 2021, over 2020. Operating profit was up 144 per cent to US$534 million, thanks to a cost base reduction. But Asia lagged behind while China was volatile. How do you feel about this?
Actually 2021 is telling us about the ability of the industry to recover. I feel confident. When I look across the markets that I have the privilege to be responsible for, there are multiple confirmations that a combination of vaccine development, and improvements in the treatment, is raising governments’ confidence, which means that restrictions are relaxed and, as soon as that happens, the industry recovers.
Does the Ukraine crisis throw a spanner in the works?
We remain optimistic for the recovery of travel in our EMEAA (Europe, Middle East, Asia & Africa) region – and around the world – in 2022. The situation in Ukraine and Russia provides a salient reminder of the need to continue to support our people, owners and hotels, especially when they need us most.
So how are you budgeting for Asia this year? I would also love to hear your thoughts on this on Greater China, since you were CEO of the region before becoming CEO of EMEAA.
Well, firstly, we’ve got to stay with the distinct approaches that are being signalled. China is being clear that it is going to continue with the current strategy, that quarantine requirements on international travel will continue for some time. But as soon as conditions are right within China, the Chinese domestic market recovers quickly, as we have seen.
We are highly respectful of the approach that China is taking, and recognise that with a zero-Covid strategy, there will be some volatility.
Other countries in Asia-Pacific are taking more of the living with Covid approach. And that’s where the level of vaccination, the competence of the healthcare systems, the confidence that governments have, come into effect. Different countries are in different stages. But the key is, our projections are of markets coming back.
That means we can confidently invest in our business. We can confidently talk to our partners, owners and colleagues about growth, and signing new deals.
But Asia depends heavily on China. How do you support your owners and hotels if the Chinese aren’t able to travel?
The external situation is whatever it is. You can’t control that. So let’s focus on what we can influence.
Take Thailand as an example. It has opened up, so we’ll then identify the markets where travel corridors are available for Thailand.
The advantage that we bring is the global reach of our brands, and the enterprise platform (IHG Concerto) that we’ve got.
Our partners know that we’re using our marketing campaigns, loyalty programme and other commercial drivers that we’ve got, to source demand and quality revenue into our hotels.
We’ve done a lot of this as markets opened and closed. We have an obligation to do that, because we are standing with our partners, and our colleagues in the hotels.
And this year, we’re bringing a new IHG rewards programme into the business.
We’re also enhancing our digital capability. An example is the next-generation IHG App, which is in pilot stage, with full roll-out planned for this year.
So, whatever it is that governments serve up to us, we’re just going to keep adapting and keep driving the right thing possible.
While on China, despite the strict zero-Covid approach, 40 per cent of all signings globally last year were in China. IHG does not have master licence agreements in China unlike some of the other chains.
We have an impressive team in China, and tremendous scale, as we’ve consistently invested in the China business for many years now. Again, it’s about the strength of the relationships we have with owners, the brand portfolio that we’ve got and the extent to which our business in China is localised.
But there’s also a lot of growth outside China.
Yes, the rest of Asia-Pacific saw fairly good signings – 40 last year. Was that in line with expectations and what is the target this year?
I’m pleased with the result. It’s not just 40 signings but 40 across important markets to us in Asia-Pacific. I deeply believe in the resilience and the growth potential of markets in Asia-Pacific. Coming through the year, the industry in terms of asset ownership has become more confident. Our teams continue to identify opportunities and to talk about what it is that IHG brings to them, and about our expanded brand portfolio.
So, what are you looking at for signings this year?
We don’t give (forward-looking projections) but an important part of our (2021) results message is the confidence that we have in getting back this year to the kind of growth level that’s more like 2018 level, and year after more like 2019 growth level.
I really believe we can build on 2021 – the teams we’ve put in place, our expanding portfolio with Voco, Vignette Collection and others, and the work we’ve done to strengthen our enterprise.
Voco is our fastest-ever global brand launch. It’s now growing in all three regions. Vignette is an important addition that allows us to bring independent hotels into the system yet enable them to retain the vast majority of their unique identity.
I really want to do everything I can to support teams to be successful. Coming out of this (crisis), my role is not to give them big targets and say, just deliver those. Right now, we’ve all got to support each other to be as successful as possible.
That’s partly why I’m here, to find out: What do we all need to do together? How do I support you? And how do I make sure we deliver that promise to our owners what they expect from us?
Speaking of support, I recall IHG was first to be leaner by restructuring in 2017, then again in late 2019, with the aim to be “closer to markets”. It was the first move by Keith Barr when he became CEO. But during earnings call last month, Keith also spoke about cost-cutting and achieving a linear cost base in 2021. I can’t help wondering, how much else could you cut without affecting the support you give to owners?
At the global level, we delivered US$75 million of sustained level of cost savings in 2021 and there’s also a further US$25 million savings. And we said to investors they should expect us to reinvest this into our business.
Clearly, with Covid, we needed to be prudent. We took an approach of making sure that our close-to-market teams were as little impacted as we could because, as you know, we spent a lot of time to build this structure and it’s not just a model for us but for our owners and our hotel teams.
So having built it, we tried to cut it back as little as we could. We retained a lot of capabilities that are close to market. In fact, I’d say we invested in additional capabilities in 2021, supporting our hotels and our guests in an enhanced way.
Banyan Tree Group marks Phuket for debut of new wellness brand
Banyan Tree Veya will join Banyan Tree Group’s multi-brand ecosystem this Friday with the opening of the flagship Banyan Tree Veya Phuket within the Laguna Phuket integrated resort.
Banyan Tree Veya Phuket is positioned as a resort that offers bespoke wellness programmes that are built on Banyan Tree’s proprietary eight pillars of well-being. The Veya experience is led by certified multidisciplinary well-being hosts around a three-step protocol of Awareness, Discovery, and Sustenance.
Created in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Banyan Tree Veya aims to address a world with an urgent need for reconnecting mind and body on a daily basis.
“With our hyper-stimulated modern life, our nervous systems cannot truly relax and therefore, rest; chronic stress erodes our natural immunity and regenerative capacity. Our ethos #OwnYourPresence guides our mission of inspiring individuals’ to travel inwards and become conscious of how their daily actions, thoughts, and emotions interact with their physical being,” said Ho Ren Yung, senior vice president, brand and commercial of Banyan Tree Group.
Luxury accommodations are emphasised at Banyan Tree Veya Phuket, and guests are able to pursue well-being practices in the privacy of their room. Amenities including a well-being minibar, yoga mats, sound therapy bowls, exercise stretch bands and more.
Attention is paid to healthy meals, with Veya offering plant-forward cuisine that weaves together Asian and Mediterranean influences in a creative, flexitarian approach that respects ingredient provenance.
Menu signatures include bowls, broths and reinterpreted iconic local dishes around a Fuel-Balance-Repair daily sequence. Resident ‘Nutrition Sommeliers’ assist guests in curating a tailored menu during their stay to fulfil dietary needs and preferences.
Banyan Tree Veya Phuket puts guests within easy reach of Bangtao Beach.
Flight Centre secures majority stake in TPConnects Technologies
Flight Centre Travel Group (FLT) has increased its equity interest in Dubai-based TPConnects Technologies (TPC) from 22.5 per cent to 70 per cent.
It first invested in TPC in February 2020 with a view to supercharging the development of TPC’s innovative technology platform, which aggregates content from multiple sources including GDSs; low-cost carriers; emerging supplier-direct channels, specifically airlines’ New Distribution Capability (NDC) offerings; and other third party NDC aggregators.
FLT’s leisure and supply chief executive officer Melanie Waters-Ryan explained that the traditional airline distribution model was being disrupted by growing direct buyer-seller connections, new commercial models, increasing presence of new entrant technology providers, and continuing connectivity enhancements.
Waters-Ryan said investing in TPC would enable FLT to ensure it could “source and deliver the best content to our leisure and corporate customers globally” amid the ever-changing distribution landscape.
“TPC has been at the heart of the evolution in airfare distribution during the past decade, and is now engrained in our business and integral to the new operating systems and platforms we are delivering in both the leisure and corporate sectors,” she added.
“By investing further in the business, we have greater influence over future developments and the product’s ongoing evolution, while ensuring we continue to deliver the widest choice of airfares to our customers. Fast-tracking future developments will also provide FLT with a better opportunity to be ahead of our competitors’ comparable solutions,” she said.
FLT’s majority stake in TPC will also bring other commercial benefits such as lower costs in accessing NDC content, access to NDC-related incentives that airlines are increasingly offering to their travel agency partners, and access to new revenue streams through TPC’s offerings to airlines and other travel agency groups, among others.
Rajendran Vellapalath, CEO of TPC, said: “FLT’s investment comes at an important time, given the rapid changes that are taking place in the distribution of air content and with the development of the Airline Retailing Maturity Index, which IATA is now pioneering.”
He believes that “the strong relationship between TPC and FLT will ensure that both companies remain at the forefront of this ongoing change and play a lead role in the future evolution of distribution”.
Julian Wipper now heads New World Millennium Hong Kong Hotel
Seasoned hotelier Julian Wipper has been appointed general manager of New World Millennium Hong Kong Hotel.
The German brings with him 25 years of luxury hospitality experience around the world.
Wipper joins the hotel from JEN Singapore Orchardgateway by Shangri-La where he was general manager for three years, while concurrently serving as regional champion rooms & guest experience for South-east and Australasia hotels.
Alma Resort embarks on solar power project
Vietnam’s Alma Resort is installing 5,634 solar panels on its extensive infrastructure as part of an ambitious solar power project that is expected to reduce the property’s carbon dioxide emissions by up to 72,670 tonnes over a 25-year period and save up to US$16.85 million in electricity bills.
The panels will be mounted on 196 pavilions, two V-shaped towers housing various hotel facilities, and the utility building. Operating at a capacity of 2,480 kilowatts peak, the system will power almost half of the resort’s energy needs, depending on its occupancy rate.
According to a statement from Alma, Vietnam has overtaken Thailand as South-east Asia’s largest solar market with hundreds of solar projects under construction. Alma’s managing director Herbert Laubichler-Pichler believes it will soon be incumbent for five-star resorts across the country to follow suit.
“With the weather we have in Cam Ranh, it makes total sense for us to take advantage of an abundance of sunlight and embrace a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly alternative to electricity,” said Laubichler-Pichler.
The solar rooftop modules throughout the resort are engineered, implemented and financed by German companies C Melchers (Vietnam), Aschoff Solar and a German financial institution.
The resort will pay for the system in savings made on its electricity bills within the first decade of operation.
“After the costs are taken out to pay for the solar technology, Alma will still save an additional US$1.96 million on electricity within this 10-year timeframe,” Laubichler-Pichler said.
The resort’s solar project is expected to generate 3.83 million kilowatt hours of energy in its first year of operation. Excess solar energy from one part of the system is used by other facilities on the grid.
The resort also launched a mobile app called Alma Resort last year, which allows contactless communication between guests and staff in real-time during the pandemic, and also serves as a sustainable solution with digital menus, resort maps, and more.
Qantas expands use of SAF with second major fuel deal
Qantas is tapping into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supplies in California to help reduce carbon emissions on its flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Australia, through a new deal that will see the use of almost 20 million litres of biofuels each year from 2025.
Supplies will come from US-based biofuels company Aemetis. The SAF will be produced at Aemetis’ plant currently under development in Riverbank, California. It will come from certified feedstock from waste products that is then blended with normal jet fuel.
This is Qantas’ second major offshore purchase of SAF, with the first benefitting flights from London since the start of this year.
The airline is pursuing a number of additional SAF deals, and aims to be net carbon neutral by 2050. It will outline an interim target later this month.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said SAFs were critical to aviation’s transition to a low emissions future.
“Climate change is front of mind for Qantas, our customers, employees and investors, and it is a key focus for us as we move through our recovery from the pandemic,” Joyce said.
“Operating our aircraft with sustainable aviation fuel is the single biggest thing we can do to directly reduce our emissions. We’re actively looking to source sustainable aviation fuel for our operations, and the deal we’re announcing today is hopefully one of many we’ll make as the market catches up to demand globally.”
Joyce explained that the airline is only able to buy sustainable fuels offshore. “The US, the UK and Europe have industries that have developed with a lot of government support because this is a new field and the long term benefits for those countries are obvious,” he stated.
The airline has pumped A$50 million (US$36.4 million) into the development of an SAF industry in Australia, and will be its biggest customer. Joyce said the move would reduce the nation’s dependence on imported fuels.
“For now, SAF is more expensive than traditional fossil fuels but with the right investment it could grow to a scale where the cost is on par,” added Joyce.
Bart Callens to lead SAii Resorts in Koh Phi Phi, Phuket
S Hotels and Resorts has appointed Bart Callens as the new cluster general manager of SAii Phi Phi Island Village and SAii Laguna Phuket, two five-star resorts in southern Thailand.
Callens has more than 25 years’ experience in the hospitality industry, with a career spanning four continents – Europe, North America, Africa and Asia – and roles with some of the world’s leading hotel brands. He is also an F&B expert, having led the culinary teams in many major hotels and resorts around the globe, and even a year on a Cunard cruise liner.
He has held leadership roles in South-east Asia for more than a decade.
The Clan Hotel Singapore rolls out first anniversary deals
The Clan Hotel Singapore by Far East Hospitality is celebrating its first anniversary with a new stay package and a host of special activities.
The Clan Anniversary Package features a two-night stay in the MASTER Series Premier Room or Grand Premier Room, daily breakfast, a five-course Anniversary Feast for two at QĪN Restaurant & Bar, and two bottles of The Celebratory Brew, curated in partnership with local brewery The 1925 Brewing Co. just for the celebration.
Guests who book The Clan Anniversary Package get to attend a Supermama Bento Workshop Experience during their stay, where they can customise their own porcelain plates with decal designs from the brand’s heritage series.
Furthermore, the hotel has partnered with local bath and body brand, Rough Beauty, to launch a limited-edition Clan Care Kit that can be redeemed by guests who book directly on the hotel’s official website this month.
A giveaway for five lucky guests is available during the celebratory period, with a one-night stay in a MASTER Series Premier Room with breakfast for two to be won.
The Clan Anniversary Package is available for booking until April 30, with a minimum five-day advance booking required.
W Hotels Worldwide and Cercle, the renowned French music media company known for producing stunning live performances, have kicked off a series of livestreamed concerts and parties at and around W Hotels across the globe.
The first live experience in The World is Our Stage: The W Hotels x Cercle series was launched in Goa, India on March 5. Featured artists included Colyn, Teho, W Goa Music Curator Ayush Avo, and Cercle Duo Phil & Derek. Two days later, a set by Colyn was livestreamed from Jatayu Earth’s Center in Kerala, India, a park set 366m above sea level.
The World is Our Stage: The W Hotels x Cercle series continues onwards to iconic destinations, with it calling at Petra, Jordan on March 21. Subsequent locations [ theangle.whotels.com/cercle ] be revealed closer to the event. At each stop, Cercle will stage one of their iconic livestreams at a cultural landmark, with W playing host to an in-person party at a nearby W Hotel.