The Hidden Technology Behind Every Hotel Booking

Glenn: [00:00:01] Hey, everybody, it’s your hospitality friend. Glenn, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of No Vacancy. I’m so excited to see you today. I’m excited today because we’re going to have a really fun conversation. I’m excited to learn a little bit because it’s the side of the technology business that we’re thinking about all the time, but because one of those technology businesses, it’s kind of there somewhere out there in the ether. So I don’t see it, can’t taste it, can’t touch it. So I need a little bit more understanding of what’s going on. But first, I want to thank our friends over at stable for sponsoring today’s show. They give you the power to profit. Please visit actabl.com. All right, so our guest today, let’s bring her on is Danielle Von Weyhrother. And she’s the head of Sales North America with HBX Group. How are you Danielle? Great to see you.

Danielle: [00:00:51] Oh, good. Thank you for having me, Glenn. I’m excited to be here.

Glenn: [00:00:55] Yeah. I’m excited. I got your name right. But between you and me, I got, you know, family that speaks Yiddish in the old Jews are like, oh, it’s way harder. So I just, I was able to, I was able to nail it. So I’m excited about it.

Danielle: [00:01:09] I hope it’s right. It’s my grandfather never really taught me how to say it properly, so I’m hoping.

Glenn: [00:01:13] I get asked all the time. Is it Housman. Housman. Howe. Housman. I’m like, I have I, I don’t know.

Danielle: [00:01:19] I’m as good as mine. Right?

Glenn: [00:01:21] Kind of winging it over here. Kind of like I’ve been winging my understanding about how all of this interconnectivity backchannels kind of works, right? The I’ve kind of been thinking about your company. I’ve been kind of seeing it. It’s like the, the, the web that the, the webs web kind of a thing. You’re kind of pulling everyone together in that kind of world, no matter what side you’re on, be it like hotels, tour operators, those kinds of people as well. Am I kind of correct at all? Or have we or should we just start this recording over again?

Danielle: [00:01:57] No, no, I think you’re pretty much right. We are really the intersection between all of the the suppliers, right. Where hotels, car rentals, experiences, all of that and our distribution channels. So really trying to maximize the exposure to those suppliers will have in the crazy distribution network that exists out there.

Glenn: [00:02:17] Okay, so I want to take it down to basics because we have a lot of young people also that watch this show. And just a clue, when I say young people, it means I don’t know what I’m talking about. Right. So tell me about how this whole kind of world kind of became a thing and how it actually operates, and how all of these different stakeholders find value in what you’re able to bring to the table by connecting everybody in this way.

Danielle: [00:02:43] That is a very good point. I think the easiest way to kind of explain this is that travel is a very fragmented, as we all know, right? Industry the, the structure behind the way one hotel even portrays themselves in the, in the online world versus another hotel was completely different.

Glenn: [00:03:04] Yeah. For example. Right. I’ve got one, one guest room house here at the house resort pool club and smokehouse. And that’s very different than, let’s say the Venetian in Las Vegas that’s got 7000 rooms, right? Although they’re probably even more profitable on a per room basis than we are over here. I’m really I’m. I keep giving it away for free. Danielle.

Danielle: [00:03:25] That is definitely going to be a issue. She’s talking about.

Glenn: [00:03:28] So that’s just one thing. Plus you got the airlines and all of that kind of stuff, right?

Danielle: [00:03:32] Exactly. And then you have all those distribution channels that are trying to achieve different things. Right. You have airlines, you have OTAs, you have points redemptions, you have employee benefits. And all of them are trying to distribute a product in a slightly different way from each other and trying to achieve different values and to the end consumer and so on. So really where we come to be is to be able to add value to both of them in a more structured way. And that’s why the API comes to me, so it’s really much easier than it sounds. When it comes to technology.

Glenn: [00:03:59] Yeah. You’re right. So basically I kind of figure I’ll equate this to the old school telephone operator where you kind of take the two connections and kind of plug them in together and you allow those, those parties to communicate, right?

Danielle: [00:04:16] I love that because the B2B world is, of course, part of our job is to make sure that the pipes are connecting and that the faucet is on and the inventory is flowing. But at the same time, I think where we really add value is to be able to connect those specific requests, right? Is that one hotel they smoke that has a smoke house with a client that really likes that type of hotel and make sure those two connect together. So it’s really not only to turn on the faucet, right?

Glenn: [00:04:45] Yeah. So all right. So why does this still matter though, like now? Because technology has moved so forward. So I kind of feel like we’re straddling this kind of world. Like, you know, it matters, but you could do it on your own, but it matters. But you could do it on your own. So how does this all work in that kind of context?

Danielle: [00:05:02] I wish we could do. Everyone could do that on their own, but it’s much harder than it looks, that’s for sure.

Glenn: [00:05:08] Well, I was just confused. How do I hit the link to get into our room here to to chat? So I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know, don’t ask me.

Danielle: [00:05:16] No, I think the idea is really where we can add value in the things that you cannot do at your own. Right. So we don’t want to replace direct business from the hotels. That’s not our business model. That’s not what we’re here for. We’re really trying to find incrementality. Where are the areas, the pockets of the industry that the hotel will be very hard to achieve by themselves, right. Because they’ll have to manage all the different currencies. They’ll have to manage all the different entities across the world. They’ll have to try to optimize their hotel with multiple agents. Right? So it’s really trying to make it simpler, a very complex and fragmented distribution Network.

Glenn: [00:05:53] So you’re able to really tap into people that love to hang out with ornery podcasters that also could provide ribs. So, right. So that’s what I’m trying to achieve.

Danielle: [00:06:08] Oh, absolutely. And I feel like it’s so, it’s so much fun. The, the time that we are in right now, because there’s so much changing. And I think part of the, the of my job that I really enjoy is to get to know those different businesses in those different ways that the clients are trying to achieve simplicity reach the customer looking for something that they are not being able to find right now. So I’m having a lot of conversations with startups and trying to understand where it’s going and what are people looking for? Because that’s the point, right? Is creating that incrementality even within our clients, what can you build that does not already exist, that can support and get to a part of the travel industry that is currently underserved.

Glenn: [00:06:55] Yeah. And that’s why I think that’s kind of why, like these kind of B2B partnerships are becoming more important for like hotels today. So being that we’re hotel specific, give me like an example of how that sort of relationship works, what the hotel gets out of it, and then what makes a relationship like that successful for everybody.

Danielle: [00:07:15] Yeah, I think the hotels, why they were connected to a B2B partners to be able to really access that very large distribution channel that we are able to have. We have over 100,000 clients all over the world. That includes travel agencies, airlines, all of that, right? It’s very hard to connect to 100,000 companies. And to be honest, they don’t want it to connect to two 300,000 hotels either, right, directly. So we’re being able to add that value. But like I mentioned in the beginning, I think the, the true art here and the value that a player like us can support because we, we’re still trying to create a scale, but we’re still trying to add value, right? So it’s understanding what is the plan like? What hotel, what what are you trying to achieve? Where, where are you not getting business from today that you want to have? Are you trying to increase your food and beverage? Are you trying to increase the long haul? Right. What are you trying to do? And then trying to find the right partner to support that partnership moving forward.

Glenn: [00:08:16] Yeah. So technology is really important to enable those kind of partnerships. Without it, we would really be in a place that you couldn’t even realize that they exist, let alone make productive connections with them. That’ll help move that sales needle for you out there. So how do you figure out what’s like a good partnership? What’s a good win for everybody, that sort of thing?

Danielle: [00:08:40] Yeah. I think that a good partnership is when we’re able to understand really where the client, where the hotel needs. So as an example, especially in Orlando, I know that they really want that international. The UK demand driven to their hotel. So it’s understanding what are the UK travelers looking for and having that conversation. So it’s not only about rates right. It’s about health and safety. It’s about certifications. It’s about content. Do we have the right content that will attract what they are, what they’re looking for? Right. So it’s trying to find those small pockets of where we can add other information and we can add value to both of them.

Glenn: [00:09:19] Yeah. And I would, I would guess like with the rise of AI and everybody’s intense focus on that, you’re able to leverage that in order to pull together even more insightful connections, creating actionable insights.

Danielle: [00:09:35] Yes. I think when you’re looking at the AI era, I think the biggest challenges today for hotels will be the content, right? Being able to give that uniqueness of the content of what we’re looking for, because you cannot personalize the access. The choice of hotels if they all look the same in the content, right? So you have to really highlight what is unique about you and why and what kind of people should be choosing you.

Glenn: [00:10:02] Interesting. All right. So I wrote a little note to myself here. Define content. What does that mean? It’s such a general phrase that I think people tend to not really understand the nuances of what we’re talking about here. So what could you explain content to me?

Danielle: [00:10:20] Yes of course. Well, we have the foundation, right. So the basics that everyone knows about, you need to have, please have room names that goes across all multiple channels, things like that, or the images, high quality images and all of this. But I feel like that is the basic that’s what we needed.

Glenn: [00:10:34] That’s why I’m asking because I think we’re getting to a place somewhere between what I perceive content as being this conversation versus good content that connects the, the, the brains of the internet to natural language to. I’ll let you speak. You’re the one who knows what you’re talking about. I’m. I’m making stuff up.

Danielle: [00:10:55] No, no, I actually think reviews, for example, it’s a very good source of content, right? Because it gives that unique perspective that normally the hotel will not put it on their page, but they should. Right. So for example, it could be as simple as we have a rainbow colored ice cream on, on our pool and the kid holding the rainbow color. Right. I have a six year old daughter, so having a rainbow ice cream is a big deal. And that will be one of the items that I will will show if they have that information as why that is a family friendly hotel, right. And I don’t think we think that level of detail when we’re thinking about content today.

Glenn: [00:11:33] We don’t think about that level of detail, which is interesting because psychologically we make that connection when we see those things represented and get to that cliche picture is worth a thousand words out there for sure. So how do you now, on the other side, think about what works well for you so you could bring people success.

Danielle: [00:11:56] I, I’m looking for clients that can add value, right? So that’s what I mentioned before of we’re here to find ways where we can connect those two parts of the puzzle. So clients that will be able to not only connect, but that want to create a partnership. And I talked a little bit about this in Market Hub a couple of weeks ago in Punta Cana of the transactional to the partnership level. And of course, we will connect clients that are just turning on the faucet, but sometimes not necessarily, but I think big, more important than a big client is a client that is in a strategic partnership with us. And that means that we are adding value to them and they are adding value to us and to our hotel partners and to our experience partners and to our partners in a way that is incremental value for all the chain. And that’s what we’re mostly looking for. And right now I’m particularly looking for as well, what the startups are up to and what is coming up in the market. Yeah, specific.

Glenn: [00:12:56] I love it. Well, we’re going to have to talk more about this going forward. But you know what? You’ve earned yourself a good plug. How can we learn more about Hbe X group.

Danielle: [00:13:07] Perfect. So go to group.com. Easy way to access all of our inventory and just set up as a client and as a supplier as well. But if you want to connect with me is Danny von W at LinkedIn. And I’ll be more than glad to have those conversations and to explore what else the industry can offer.

Glenn: [00:13:23] Yeah, you’re the best. I really appreciate it. Danielle. It was Von Vader. It was very, very great getting to to know you. I want to thank all of you for tuning today. I really appreciate it. Be sure to like, share, subscribe, all of that kind of good stuff. We’ll be back here next time. Remember, you’ve got one life, so blaze on. We’ll see you next time, everybody. Thanks.