Travel Technology
Hyatt Hotels | September 22, 2023
Hyatt Hotels Corporation embarks on a strategic expansion journey with over 30 luxury and lifestyle hotels planned for the Americas by 2025.
The brand's rapid growth includes doubling luxury room inventory and increasing lifestyle rooms, making it a premier choice for high-end travelers.
The strategic acquisitions of Mr & Mrs Smith and Dream Hotel Group enhance Hyatt's offerings for members of the World of Hyatt.
The Hyatt Hotels Corporation has strengthened the brand with ambitious plans to expand its luxury and lifestyle presence throughout the Americas. With a robust development pipeline encompassing more than 30 planned hotels and resorts slated for completion by 2025, Hyatt is poised to make a significant impact. This strategic initiative includes venturing into new markets, reflecting the company's unwavering commitment to enhancing its brand offerings. Over the past half-decade, Hyatt has achieved remarkable milestones on a global scale, including doubling luxury room inventory, tripling the number of resort rooms, and quadrupling the availability of lifestyle rooms. The momentum behind this growth shows no signs of abating. Hyatt now proudly stands as the fastest-growing luxury portfolio, with luxury, lifestyle, and resort properties constituting over 40% of its extensive portfolio. This success solidifies Hyatt's position as the ultimate choice for discerning high-end travelers seeking unparalleled experiences.
This brand expansion has new properties in sought-after destinations, including the Hyatt Centric Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Cas en Bas Beach Resort in Saint Lucia, and Hyatt Centric Querétaro in Mexico. Additionally, Hyatt is introducing Boundless Collection hotels, featuring Thompson Hotels in various U.S. and Mexican locations. Timeless Collection hotels will offer a home away from home experience, with Park Hyatt Los Cabos in Mexico and Grand Hyatt Scottsdale in Arizona among the highlights. The Inclusive Collection will welcome new resorts in the Caribbean and Mexico, including Secrets St. Lucia Resort & Spa and more. Several luxury and lifestyle Hyatt hotels have recently opened in the Americas, with exciting additions like Andaz Mexico City Condesa and Dreams Flora Resort & Spa in Punta Cana. The Fordson Hotel in Oklahoma City will soon join The Unbound Collection by Hyatt.
Hyatt's transformative growth journey extends further through strategic acquisitions that enhance the offerings for its valued guests and members. The recent acquisition of Mr & Mrs Smith, a global travel platform renowned for its curated collection of boutique and luxury properties, is a testament to Hyatt's commitment to delivering exceptional experiences. This move significantly enriches the choices available to World of Hyatt members, providing them with an even more comprehensive array of rewarding stays and memorable experiences. In addition to this, Hyatt's earlier acquisition of Dream Hotel Group in early 2023 has opened up new horizons for World of Hyatt members, enabling them to access an expanded portfolio of stay options and lifestyle experiences in vibrant destinations like Nashville, Hollywood, South Beach, and New York City.
Additionally, this acquisition catalyzes Hyatt's brand expansion into an emerging leisure market in Mexico, with the upcoming Dream Valle de Guadalupe (slated for 2024). Nestled across 35 sprawling acres in the picturesque Baja California region, this property will feature a sprawling vineyard, 61 well-appointed guestrooms and villas, a luxurious spa and wellness facility, and a trio of vibrant dining and nightlife venues, including an exclusive tasting room and pool bar.
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Business Travel
prnewswire | July 17, 2023
Sabre Corporation, a leading software and technology provider that powers the global travel industry, today announced a new agreement with HRS, a leading software as a service (SaaS) provider, to support airlines on their digitalization journey. By integrating HRS Crew & Passenger Solutions technologies with existing Sabre solutions, the two companies can provide airlines with innovative automation that delivers lodging and financial reimbursement services when disruptions impact passengers.
Sabre's intelligent service recovery solutions are used by airlines around the world to support passenger re-booking challenges, including providing self-service options to allow passengers to choose their own flights, designed to help improve the overall traveler experience.
HRS' Crew & Passenger Solutions compliments Sabre's existing expertise by enabling airlines globally to provide passengers with instantly bookable hotel accommodations, local transportation, meals, and monetary compensation directly when disruption strikes. When a passenger's flight is disrupted, options are communicated via SMS, email, or voice call directly to a passenger's mobile device. Additionally, HRS' reimbursement technology allows passengers to simply take photos of their receipts, upload digital images, and be instantly reimbursed for appropriate expenses such as meals and refreshments. This capability eliminates the need for paper vouchers that typically entail lengthy administrative processes.
"When disruption strikes, an airline is tasked not just with getting its network running optimally again, but with passengers who may face hours in an airport, may need overnight accommodation, or may have missed connecting flights. Traditionally, airlines have had to dedicate an array of people and hard-to-secure resources to handle hotel rooms, taxis, shuttles and meal vouchers for stranded passengers," said Yvo van der Tol, CCO of HRS Crew & Passenger Solutions. "It is vital that carriers have the advanced automation needed to make time-process savings and efficiency gains for airline operations, while quickly turning what is usually a negative experience for passengers into a positive one. That's why this collaboration with Sabre, reaching a broader universe of airlines, represents the right solution for modern air travel."
"Today's travelers have higher expectations than ever before," said Corrie DeCamp, Senior Vice President, Product Management for Sabre Travel Solutions. "So, when disruptions happen, it is important that airlines have the technology they need to swiftly deal with the immediate situation, while converting those service recovery moments into opportunities to enhance passenger loyalty in the future. That's why we're thrilled to announce this new partnership with HRS, to help our airline partners protect their reputations, comply with dynamic regulatory compensation requirements, and provide passengers with what they need, all with a solution they can easily integrate into their existing recovery strategy."
"This collaboration helps close one of the biggest operational gaps airlines have today. While some regulations are already in place globally to protect passenger rights when disruption happens, the issue has risen in prominence in recent years," added HRS' van der Tol. "The need for speed of change is clear. Passengers who reflexively use mobile devices in times of disruption also expect digital answers to their travel challenges. Beyond time and resource savings, airlines will thrive on data transparency that helps steer service levels. We look forward to integrating our solutions."
About HRS
HRS is reinventing how businesses and governments work, stay and pay in today's evolving global marketplace. Our technology brings together hotel procurement, booking, payment and reconciliation data to drive newfound transparency and savings for program management while making everyday business travel better for employees. HRS' unique platform approach to corporate lodging elevates hotel automation to new heights, while the company's award-winning Green Stay Initiative technology helps companies achieve their climate targets. HRS' groundbreaking Crew & Passenger Solutions leverages automation to enhance experiences for air and rail operations.
About Sabre Corporation
Sabre Corporation is a leading software and technology company that powers the global travel industry, serving a wide range of travel companies including airlines, hoteliers, travel agencies and other suppliers. The company provides retailing, distribution and fulfilment solutions that help its customers operate more efficiently, drive revenue and offer personalized traveller experiences. Through its leading travel marketplace, Sabre connects travel suppliers with buyers from around the globe. Sabre's technology platform manages more than $260B worth of global travel spend annually. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world.
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Travel Technology
PRNewswire | August 24, 2023
BeCause, a startup enterprise software company that is transforming how companies in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries manage their sustainability data, has announced a new partnership with easyJet holidays to help the tour operator more efficiently collect and communicate hotel sustainability data.
BeCause will collect data on hotels certified according to 33 recognized Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) standards and integrate that data into the easyJet holidays system. That sustainability data will help inform the tour operator's "eco-certified" hotel collection.
Efficient and scalable sustainability data management
BeCause's sustainability data management solution replaces easyJet holidays' current manual update processes. Under the new partnership, hotel sustainability data will be automatically updated in the easyJet holidays database, ensuring that users and travelers always have up-to-date sustainability information about eco-certified accommodation options.
"Through our shared involvement with GSTC, we quickly recognized both easyJet holidays' need for a scalable sustainability data solution and their genuine commitment to industry transformation," said Frederik Rubens Steensgaard, CEO and co-founder of BeCause. "We look forward to a long and productive relationship and helping to make real headway on reducing travel's impact on the environment."
Supporting easyJet holidays' eco-friendly goals
Part of the easyJet group, easyJet holidays is the UK's fastest-growing tour operator, projected to grow by 60% year-on-year this summer. The company, who were the winners of The Globes' Sustainable Future Award, is committed to making sustainable holidays mainstream and, in addition to the GSTC, partners with the University of Oxford and the UNWTO to help drive forward the development of sustainable travel.
"We're committed to our holidays being a force for good and making a positive impact on the environment and local communities in the destinations our customers visit," said Matt Callaghan, Director of Customer & Operations for easyJet holidays. "We know that holidaymakers are caring more than ever about the eco credentials of the hotels they're choosing to stay at. So, we needed a partner to help us connect and communicate hotel sustainability data more efficiently and scale with us as we grow, and BeCause delivered on those criteria."
BeCause's technology framework connects certification entities like GSTC and Green Key with travel providers and distributors, enabling over 11,000 hotels, tour operators and OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) to provide travelers with accurate and reliable sustainability data. These processes, traditionally handled via spreadsheets, emails and unconnected niche systems, are ripe for transformation, and managing them more efficiently allows travel and tourism companies like easyJet to accelerate their sustainability efforts across their consumer-facing platforms.
About easyJet holidays
easyJet holidays is the UK's fastest-growing tour operator, having carried 1.3 million people in its first fully operational year and being named Rising Brand of the Year by Travolution. It offers great-value beach, city and lakes holidays to over 5000 hotels, in more than 100 destinations across Europe, directly through its website and through over 5000 travel agent partners. The ATOL-protected holidays can be secured with a deposit of just £60 per person, including flights, hotel, 23kg luggage and transfers on beach holidays. easyJet holidays is a member of ABTA, and all packages are covered by its Ultimate Flexibility, offering freedom to change a booking, a refund guarantee, and best price guarantee.
Winners of the Sustainable Future Award at the Globe Travel Awards 2022, easyJet holidays has a sustainability strategy focusing on three key pillars – create better holiday choices which is about making sustainable travel affordable and accessible to everyone; keep our holidays special, which is maximising the benefits and minimising the negative impacts of travel and tourism, and transform travel for everyone which means embedding sustainability into business decisions and behaviours and driving meaningful change in the industry. Through ongoing collaboration with the University of Oxford and as a member of the GSTC, easyJet holidays is focused on building its research, partnerships and certifications and taking action to make a positive impact on the people and places that make its destinations so special.
easyJet holidays has been named one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2023 – being called out as one of the most loved employers and highly commended as a great place to work for LGBTQIA+ employees, as well as being named The Best Workplace in Travel 2023.
About BeCause
BeCause is an enterprise software company that enables sustainability data to flow more simpler, faster and cheaper so travel and tourism companies can positively impact people, the planet and their profits. BeCause works with over 11,000+ companies, including sustainability-certified hotels, eco-labels, certification entities like GreenKey, industry partners including UN GSTC and marketplaces including Booking.com. The BeCause Sustainability Management Hub allows organizations to collect and display all their communication about their sustainability efforts in one place, empowering them to make sustainability manageable for their operations and a competitive advantage for their business.
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