Legends

CURATED Profiles are the New Guest Profiles! For years, hotels have relied heavily on staff to gather guest information and manually update guest profiles. At best, the more proactive hotels send out pre-arrival surveys, usually consisting of just a few basic questions about arrival time and room preferences. This approach doesn’t offer much insight, and the information quickly becomes outdated as soon as the guest checks out. But what if, instead, guests could build their own profiles? The idea of a “curated profile” isn’t exactly new—it was introduced by Sherry Turkle in her 2011 book "Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other". In her work, Turkle discusses how social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have pushed people to carefully curate their online identities, selectively sharing only certain aspects of their lives. With the rise of AI and personal digital agents, managing one’s own identity, including guest profiles, is becoming a seamless process. The real challenge now lies with hotels: how can they integrate their systems with these AI agents, standardise data across profiles, and ensure the information is both accurate and fraud-proof? Today, I think one of the closest technologies to achieving this in hospitality is Legends, with their “travel DNA” concept, which pulls insights from photo metadata. The evolution of guest profile is definitely a space to watch as it will have the most impact on guest experience. 

Alex Dichter provided a great overview at the Thayer Ventures Annual Meeting recently about how the industry has evolved over the past 24 years. See below. In 1999, $1B- was made by Delta Air Lines 4% - was the net profit margin in the airline industry 14 - was the average yield per mile for a paid ticket $20M - was the amount one client paid Digitas North America for a CRM 20% - of travelers were willing to spend extra for add-ons 59% - of Americans worried about Y2K $80 - was the average lodging daily rate 184 - was the number of Hyatt hotels in the world In 2023, $5B - was made by Delta Air Lines 3% - was the net profit margin in the airline industry 20 - was the average yield per passenger $0 - is the amount Delta Air Lines paid for personalization directly 53% - of travelers willing to splurge for better experiences 54% - concerned about climate change $155 - is the average daily rate 1376 - was the number of Hyatt hotels in the world Highlighting that: The #airline business is tough and always will be, and the #hotel business is better. Travelers are voting with their feet - they want to transact online and serve themselves and the companies need to get out of their own way to make it easier to do so. Most of the technology to solve the problems in these industries already exist and have been here for years. It's always about people in this industry. #LegendsTravel #ZeroPartyData #TravelDNA #LegendsTravelDNA Legends

🎉 Speaker Announcement! 🎉 We are excited to welcome Stephanie Daniel, Co-Founder & CEO of Legends, to Destination AI! Stephanie will be featured on the AI-Driven Marketing Innovations panel, where she’ll dive into cutting-edge AI technologies and how they are transforming marketing strategies in the hospitality industry. 🔗 Register today at destinationai2024.com #DestinationAI2024 #AIMarketing #MarketingInnovations #AIForHospitality #AITransformation

Thank you to Nicholas Cocks and Gladys Caligagan for inviting me to #Singapore to pitch at the #DigitalTravelAPAC 2024 event. It was a great opportunity for us to explore how we can digitize traveler preference profiles across different regions. The discussions underscored the significance of data-driven approaches and the challenges that come with implementing personalized experiences across airlines, hotels and OTAs. Some key highlights are below: Companies like Wego.com are leveraging personalized 1:1 algorithms for user retention and engagement. Their approach is a testament to the power of data-driven innovation. Shangri-La Group is focused on finding the right balance of customer desires with digital innovation. Across the board, companies like Finnair, Air India Limited, and Wego.com are grappling with challenges such as #dataintegration, #GDPR compliance, and the #operational difficulties of personalization. The need for industry-wide collaboration, is required for change to occur. However, the consensus at the summit was clear: personalization is non-negotiable before, during and after the trip. A great example of this is Explorer Hotels leveraging data to refine personas and deliver personalized customer support. Loyalty programs and post-trip engagement were also hot topics, with discussions on how to keep customers engaged even when intent is low. Shangri-La’s use of in-house spend data for loyalty programs and the evolution of programs like Avios highlight the growing importance of understanding and adapting to customer behavior. Congrats as well to my fellow pitch peers Hyojeong KIM (She/Her) and Darryl Han on building great products to help move the industry forward. #TravelPersonalization #DigitalTravelAPAC #CustomerExperience #TravelTech #LegendsTravel #LegendsTravelDNA #TravelDNAforAdvisors #Legends Legends