SnapShot’s 2016 Year in Review:

Hospitality & Travel Tech

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2016 turned out to be a very exciting year for the hotel tech industry. Most of all, it was a year where new technology was finally widely discussed and speculated upon, and even introduced and tested. New tools like analytics, messaging, chatbots and the like are now being adopted by hotels around the world. We as an industry are moving quickly forward in improving and modernizing the tools and workflows we use everyday in running our hotels and in building hotel technology.

Let’s give ourselves a major round of applause for a year well done. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2017.

For this roundup, we'll start with the most recent news and work our way back through the year. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into the top hospitality and travel tech news of 2016.

Here’s to a fantastic new year!

- Clay and The SnapShot Team

Editorial A look back at the top hospitality tech news in 2016.

Find out more about what we do:visit us at www.snapshot.travel

One of our most popular posts came right at the end of the year. It’s our updated Hotel

Distribution Tech Chart. It's been over a year since we published the original chart, and a lot has

changed in the industry since then. Many have written to us asking to be included in "V2" or

offered suggestions on how we could improve upon the chart. So we made a few big updates to it.

Use it to better understand the current hotel technology landscape.

View on our blog

The Hotel Distribution Technology Chart: 2017

One of the biggest themes in the greater tech

industry in general this year has been artificial

intelligence, and we’re beginning to see it

trickle down into enterprise software and even

hotel tech. Artificial Intelligence or so-called

neural-networks of learning computers have

already vastly improved Google’s most

popular apps like Translate, Google’s speech

tools, and Image search. It’s only a matter of

time until A.I. is used to improve the

capabilities of travel technology.

Read on NY Times

The Great A.I. Awakening

Leonardo on some of the major innovations, upsets, and happenings that

influenced hotel marketing in 2016: Facebook updates, Tripadvisor changes,

Voice-activated booking. Give this informative post a read!

Read on Leonardo’s Blog

Major Changes in 2016 That Impacted Hotel Marketing

It's no secret that the airline industry is often a

few steps ahead of the hotel industry when it

comes to embracing state-of-the-art technology.

Read this article that details some of the

strategies we could adopt, specifically regarding

revenue management.

Read on eHotelier

What Hoteliers Can Learn from the Way

Airlines Handle Revenue Management

In November we brought back our Hotel Tech

Insiders series with a conversation with Hotel

Christian IV general manager Kasper Linnet

Jørgensen about the pros and cons of being a small,

independent hotel using modern hotel tech.

Read on our blog

A.I. and machine learning are certainly buzz words in the world of technology, but not all of it is

really directly relevant to what we do. Thankfully, someone’s made this very comprehensive

guide to machine learning and AI, including current players, trends, and the overall industry.

Read on Medium

The Non-Technical Guide to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

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HOTEL ANALYTICS

Also in November, Skift chatted with Facebook's Head of Travel on Facebook's aggressive

investment in the travel sector and how our industry can leverage that to their advantage.

Read on Skift

Interview: Facebook’s Head of Travel Reveals How Brands are Winning on the Platform

Mews, a new cloud-based PMS, put out a lot of great content this year. We always enjoyed reading their

personal yet informative blog posts. Here is one of our favorites that offers seven potential changes GMs could

make to improve their operations in each department. Take a look, maybe you'll find some inspiration, too!

Read on Mew’s blog

7 Changes a GM Can Make Across Every Department

Net Affinity was certainly another one of our favorite industry insiders when it comes to

high-quality, informative and fun content, and this blog post is a perfect example: It’s a

comprehensive look at various strategies revenue managers can use when working with

data, with practical, usable information at the forefront.

Read on Net Affinity’s blog

How Do Revenue Managers Use Data?

Not only has Google employed their vast amount of user and historic data to notify customers

before flight prices suddenly jump, they're also now doing the same for hotel prices. Whether it’s

good or bad, data-powered functionality will inevitably become more commonplace in travel tech.

Read on VentureBeat

Google Now Tells You When To Book Cheap Flights and Hotel Rooms

If you're considering making the switch to a different

PMS system, here are the big questions you should

be asking before making the leap.

Read on our eHotelier

Next-Generation Property Management Systems: Is Now The Right Time To Upgrade?

The Hotel Technology Index is a community-updated knowledge base for the hotel tech and hospitality

industries. Software, applications, providers and terms! It's the result of hundreds of hours of research

and we're very excited to share it with you. Learn more about it and how we made it on our blog.

Read on our blog

There are many ways hotels can use chatbots

to enhance the customer experience. This

article gives some useful examples for the entire

customer journey from before their arrival to

after their departure.

Read more

Five Ways Chatbots Could Change The

Hotel Industry

Travelers want more amenities for cheaper prices, hence the promotion of packages.

But what, specifically, can hotels capitalize on?

Read on Skift

How Hotels Can Drive Revenue by Rethinking the Hotel Package

We sat down with the experts and put together a detailed chart exploring the connections

between data sets you can find at your hotel. What happens when you compare your various

types of metrics? Our Infographic can help you find out!

Read on our blog

David Chestler of Siteminder gives an interesting look at the potential future of hospitality tech,

including what the future might hold for OTAs, distribution, and more.

Find out more

Hotel Distribution, OTAs, and the Future Of Hotel Technology

Towards the end of the summer, Tnooz and Triptease published this great infographic outlining

the battle between OTAs and hotels. So let's take a moment to walk down memory lane! Check

out how metasearch engines have evolved since the mid 1990s, in the educational infographic.

Read on Tnooz

Direct Hotel Booking Battle: A Historic Infographic

We put together this guide to how to use Google Analytics for a hotel, including detailed examples of UTM

tagging, e-commerce setup, and a free reference doc. There are other guides out there, but we made this one

because there was a clear need for a very useful guide for hotels. Take a look!

Read on our blog

As one of the world’s fastest growing chains, Yotel’s has always been ahead of the curve with

hospitality technology, and they've got big plans ahead of them. Learn how they’re “disrupting”

hospitality in this interesting profile in Digiday.

Read on Digiday

How Yotel is Disrupting the Hotel Industry

Here’s another disruptive, forward-thinking hotel.

Yet, with just one hotel up and running, Virgin hotels

have already made a big splash. By embracing

innovative digital marketing and a responsive booking

engine, Virgin’s further raising the bar for hoteliers who

want to look further into the future of the industry. This

one’s a nice one to compare with the earlier Yotel piece.

Read more on Tnooz

How Virgin Hotels’ Digital Marketing Strategy has

taken Shape

It’s always good to keep up on the

developments in how shoppers are using

(and feeling) about OTAs. Tnooz compiled

some key takeaways from a recent

Phocuswright study that looks at exactly

that.

Read on Tnooz

The State of Online Travel Agency Bookings in Charts

They say 80% of your future business will come

from 20% of your current customers. Customer

retention should be a top priority in order for

your business to survive. Here are some tips on

how to keep it up and stay in the game.

Learn more here

How to Improve Customer Retention

in 2016: 10 Best Practices

(Infographic)

There is no doubt that Google tends to

overshadow other apps, but so far they've shied

away from travel apps (aside from Maps, of

course, and their Flights website, used by

advanced travel hackers). Google Destinations

seems to be their first major contender in the

space. Must say, it looks pretty cool.

Read on Travel and Leisure

Everything You Need to Know

About Google’s Crazy New Travel

Planner

An important read on recent changes made in tripadvisor that may influence your web traffic, and what you can do about it.

Read on Pulse

Has Your TripAdvisor Traffic Plummeted? If So, This May Be Why

Our in-house Demand and Revenue Management Consultant, Linda Girrbach's practical guide to

developing a modern, effective segmentation strategy for hotels.

Read on our blog

How To Set Up Modern Hotel Segmentation

Our friends at StayNTouch put together this

list of tips for hotels using cloud tech. The

trend is undeniable: Many hotels are moving

to cloud-based tech. Here are some reasons

to consider making the leap.

Read on StayNTouch

4 Ways Independent Hotels Can Get Ahead with Cloud Technology

opensmjle put

together a great list of Internet Booking

Engines AKA IBEs for our educational

enjoyment. You have to sign up for the full list

but you can still get a good idea from the

article here (though it's worth the sign up).

Read on opensmjle

Internet Booking Engine Provider Overview - 2016

Data can be complex, so data analytics is

important to reveal the story data has to tell. It

is up to hotels themselves to give them a clear

and useful meaning. More often used for

marketing purposes, how does data also

empower employees?

Read on Skift

Data and Analytics are Defining the Future of Hotel Employee-Guest Relations

The title really says it all. But it doesn’t need to be that way! There are many ways, both in the front-of-house

and back-of-house that hotels can improve guest experience and operations, done simply by implementing

smart technological upgrades. Read more on Skift.

Read on Skift

Hotels Struggle to Exit the Analog Age

What's wrong with hospitality I.T. and hotel tech integrations? What can we do about it? The infamous

Spaghetti Chart holds the key. Get a better idea of why hotel tech often hits roadblocks, and what you can

do about it. Darja and Anton explain.

Read on our blog

The Sad State of Hotel Tech Integrations:The Spaghetti Chart

Not every hotel owner immediately

understands the value of revenue

management. Thankfully, we have

resources like this to help owners better

understand how their hotel can benefit from

solid revenue management.

Read on eHotelier

How to Demonstrate The Value of Revenue

Management to Property Owners

While it costs a pretty penny to view the full

report, you can get a very nice overview of it

from the executive summary, which is worth

reading on its own. It's a look at the industry

as it both consolidates and is disrupted by

numerous companies who are thinking

outside the standard hotel tech box.

Read on Skift

The Strategic Guide to a Modern Hotel Technology Stack

Social media can be powerful marketing

tools for hotels, but how to judge success

on various platforms can be confusing.

Nevertheless, Facebook is a serious tool

for acquiring new customers and keeping

old ones happy. Here are some tips on

how to see how well your hotel is doing on

Facebook from eHotelier.

Read on Net Affinity

The Facebook Metrics that

Matter for Hotels

We’ve share a few similar lists before, but this Hubspot list of data visualization tools adds a new layer of

usefulness. Lots in here from digging up publicly-available data to visualizing that data.

Read on Hubspot’s blog

17 Data Visualization Tools & Resources You Should Bookmark

"Data is only as good as its use."

“

”Image source: Tableau

The Definitive Oral History of Online Travel

This extensive read that Skift put out this

past spring was one of the major highlights

for us this year. Major props to Skift for

this oral history of the Online Travel

industry. In it they chat with some of the

original founders of the businesses that

got the industry going as well as today's

mover's and shakers.

Read on Skift

There’s a lot of data out there. I mean, the hospitality industry has more guest data than almost any other industry, so it can

be naturally kind of intimidating. Once that data is organized, however, it starts to make a lot more sense. That’s what this

Types of Hotel Data Infographic is all about. It’s the Wheel of Discovering Your Hotel Data… Or something like that. No

matter what you call it, this chart will help you understand the types of data your hotel encounters: big data, small data, their

sources, and the tools used, so take a look and get a better handle on your data today.

Read on our blog

The Hotel Data Types Chart 2016

Alice was another tech insider that

regularly published stellar content. Here’s

one of their best, an eBook on the

data-driven hotelier. From an average

morning in the life of a big city GM to use

cases for data, this eBook is a great

introduction to how GMs can use data to

improve their day-to-day operations. Not

just informative tips but a look at real hotels

leveraging data and analytics. Any hotel

interested in doing the same should check

this out.

Get the eBook from ALICE

The Data-Driven Hotelier

An eBook

If you’re looking for a all-in-one no-B.S.

guide to what your hotel website should look

like in 2016, take a look at this guide put

together by our friends at Tambourine. It’s

an awesome checklist of features that any

successful hotel website should have. After

all, it’s one of the most important marketing

tools at your disposal, so make the most of

it!

The 25 Most Important Features Of Your Hotel Website

Read on Tambourine’s Blog

Here’s a look at how you can use tech

and data to customize and improve the

guest experience, from the time they

book through arrival. (It's pretty useful

during their stay and after their

departure, too). Everything from

destination marketing, personalized

emails (and other communication tools),

and building better guest profiles.

Read on Net Affinity

10 Key Trends for Modern Revenue

Management

Why must we subjugate ourselves to frankly boring Excel charts and uninspired graphs? How you communicate information

doesn’t end at the data used, but actually how it’s presented. Human beings are visual learners so when data is presented

in easily understandable ways that are also aesthetically pleasing, more information is retained. With that in mind, here is a

great list of data visualization tools for both non-techies and developers. Why look at never-ending lists of numbers when

you can look at pretty (and informative pictures?) Get those XML files ready!

Read on Next Web

The 14 Best Data Visualization Tools

Hotel marketers often get concerned with getting good stats rather than investigating whether they are actually using the

right metrics. This article lists some highly useful tips on the hotel marketing numbers that actually matter today. Agreed on

the important categories mentioned here by Vikram, and also will use any reason to sneak an awesome dinosaur picture

into these slides.

Read on Words of Vikram

Dinosaur Metrics Are Taking a Bite Out of Your Hotel Marketing Performance

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This list showcases the top trends of hotel

tech that started in 2016, which are,

unsurprisingly, mostly data related. From data

security, to location-based data, to improving

mobile engagement, hotels are beginning to

make better use out of the current tech tools

available to them. Check out this list for all the

interesting stats and get a head start on

understanding where the industry is headed.

Read more

6 Mega-Trends In Hotel Technology

Data isn’t numbers, it’s people.

“

”- Riley Newmann

Data Scientist, Airbnb

Image source: Tableau

Airbnb’s Insights from 5 Years of HypergrowthData science belongs everywhere at Airbnb

Airbnb was one again of the hottest topics in

the industry this year. Their "disruptive"

approach to hospitality can teach a thing or

two, regardless of how you feel about the

company. One of their biggest resources for

growth is their forward-thinking use of data.

"Data is not numbers, it's people." That sums

it up pretty well. Read more on their Nerds

blog post about how data factors into just

about everything they do.

Read on Airbnb's blog

Many in hospitality use Excel on a daily basis. But like most applications, we stick to what we know. This highly informative

eBook on how to use Excel will show you some useful tricks you'll want to have handy. As the author correctly states, “You

may know how to plug in numbers and add up cells in a column, but that's not going to get you far when it comes to

reporting on your metrics.”

Read on Hubspot

How to Use ExcelA Must-Have Guide

Around the beginning of 2016, Net Affinity

published these useful tips on how to build a

beautiful landing page for your hotel that actually

converts guests to book direct. It’s a compilation of

posts from various sources that give you a

well-rounded understanding of landing page best

practices in the hospitality industry.

Read on Net Affinity

Landing Pages: Hot Tips For

Your Hotel

And finally, for one of the first posts we shared this year, also one of our favorites that we keep returning to, it’s: “Designing

Data-Driven Interfaces.” Because telling the story behind your data is just as important as the data itself. Here’s a great look

at how to think about representing and presenting data by one of Uber’s designers.

Read on Truth Labs

Designing Data-Driven Interfaces

At SnapShot, we believe hoteliers should have

a right to their data, and a right to use it

intelligently. That's why we built SnapShot

Analytics. Analytics is a cloud-based hotel

analytics tool that presents a comprehensive

overview of your hotel data on a powerful yet

intuitive dashboard. Everything you need in

one place: PMS data, benchmarking, pricing,

web analytics, and social media stats. Dig as

deep as you want, or keep it surface level for

immediately actionable intelligence. Click

below to learn more about us.

Learn more

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HOTEL ANALYTICS

www.snapshot.travel

This Hotel Data and Analytics 2016 roundup

is brought to you by Clay and the SnapShot

team. Thanks for reading!

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