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The HotelTechInsider podcast interviews the top leaders at the convergence of hotels, travel and technology. Guests include founders, executives, top hoteliers and industry organization leadership. Find all of the episodes at hoteltechreport.com
The main thing that a business can do is make choice or give the choice to the consumer to check-in or interact with a hotel in the manner they want. It's about the customer experience, and it's about what they want.
Speaker 2:From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider, a show about the future of hotels and the technology that powers them.
Speaker 3:On today's episode, we're talking with Matt Dybing, the cofounder and COO of Nuvo. Nuvo advises hotels all over the world on revenue management, sales, marketing, and more. So Matt brings a really interesting perspective on the industry and how technology can deliver great results. Let's dive in. Matthias, looking forward to speaking with you and learning more about your business.
Speaker 3:To start things off, please go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your role and your business.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I'm Matt Dybing. Yeah. Matt will be easier than Matthias. I'm the co founder of a business called Nuvo.
Speaker 1:Nuvo provide outsourcing services in revenue management, sales, and marketing for the sales. We also provide tech as well. So we always set off a couple of vendors over here in Australia, and we operate both in Australia and in The UK and service at the moment close to 200 hotels.
Speaker 3:Can you tell me a bit about the typical hotel that you work with?
Speaker 1:It's a wide range. It could be a 25 room hotel in regional Australia, all the way up to best luxury boutique hotels in the world. So it's a wide range of clients that we've got. Anything in between, we work with campgrounds as well. I guess any business, accommodation business that needs revenue management, sales, marketing, we can essentially service.
Speaker 3:Well, I imagine you see such an interesting perspective of the industry working with a variety of properties in different locations. Can you tell me any trends or common challenges that you see across the hotels that you work with?
Speaker 1:You know, what you see in term of the inflation that obviously occurred after COVID, the raise in wages or cost of essentially owing staff, their expectations as well, a bit of lack of talent, to be honest. In our industry, we've never been that good to stimulate the grassroots level that a lot of people see hospitality or accommodation as a job as opposed to a career. So that means there's a lot of turnover and transient stuff. So I think that's a big challenge. Then there is the challenge on the cost side.
Speaker 1:Any cost items on the p and l of a hotel or an accommodation business, hospitality business for that matter, have gone up. Food cost, the cost of linen, the cost of housekeeping, and the likes commissions from OTAs as well. So when you sort of bundle that all together with a cost of living crisis, with people being more careful or consumer being more careful with their money, which puts some pressure on revenue. If you operate an accommodation business these days, it can be quite hard. So I think that's why people, if we look at tech now and start transitioning to that and look at AI and the rise of AI, I think in the accommodation business, there's a lot of operators that are now fully reviewing their stack essentially to try to see where they can automate.
Speaker 1:I think automation is a big thing to try to do it in a way that doesn't impact the guest experience. So you obviously see, you know, online check ins, you know, the ability to open the door of a room with your phone, automating a lot of the process when it comes to check-in, check out, and the like. You're going to see a lot of that. I think a lot of operators now reviewing their property management systems as well in terms of enabling all those apps to actually be able to connect. So you can see the rise of certain text type like Muse and the likes, which have open APIs that allow essentially to connect with as many apps as an operator can want.
Speaker 1:Applio as well as another one on the rise in Europe, and that's all making their way into global environment. So I think those type of vendors are basically, you know, at the moment. And then on the other side, you will have a lot of automation tech that do come in in terms of being able to, you know, facilitate online check-in, make housekeeping more efficient, you know, calculating how far an outskeeper will be traveling and what would be the most efficient things to do that, especially in the resorts. So it is really, really interesting. Then if you look at what we do in term of the distribution part of it and the revenue management side of it, marketing, sales, there's a lot of movement as well in that.
Speaker 1:Personally, know, at Novo, we work quite closely with Argenie in terms of automating pricing, with Lighthouse in terms of automating our BI tools. We do work with a few different vendors as well, which probably not hospitality focused, but BlackVoice, for example from a CRM perspective. And we started really investigating other that are not just the top of the line or best necessarily the what we consider being best in class at the moment vendors. We started looking at more smaller vendors as well that may have think about the problem in a different manner and started breaking it down, putting it back together, and created tools that allow really to be a lot more efficient and on the board. So, you know, it could be the four sides, for example, for CRM, or it could be guest review also.
Speaker 1:So there's a few vendors that we're looking at the moment to streamline our operation further.
Speaker 3:Thinking along that vein of your tech stack, we hear so much about AI, obviously. Do you have some best practices for hotels who want to implement AI but haven't found the right method of doing it, or maybe they're intimidated by the plethora of products in the marketplace right now? Where would you recommend starting?
Speaker 1:We started with TikTok. We essentially just went on TikTok and just try to actually find as much information as can. It's a lot of treasure trove in terms of understanding AI. It's video content. It's short and snappy.
Speaker 1:But then after that, you can actually understand and try to read more about it. AI is not just all encompassing world. There's different section of AI. So really understanding those different form of AI is really, really important. I think it is for the general knowledge.
Speaker 1:So then once you've got that knowledge of understanding what are the keys for AI components, then you try to evaluate within the industry if there are any vendors that are essentially utilizing AI for the industry. What are they doing with it? Where are they going with it? Essentially, that's important. Then it's again going back to the right vendors that you're using.
Speaker 1:If not, who are they connecting to? And are you willing to again change your tech stack to be able to allow this new technology to be in your business and to help your business. But I think it starts with really understanding what AI is because that world is overused at the moment, and it sort of needs to be human, needs to understand what are the different components of AI.
Speaker 3:I'm curious if you have maybe one or two quick success stories you could share from some hotels you've worked with. Maybe on the automation side, if you have a couple examples of something that you've helped a hotel implement or something the hotel has done to save time for their teams or increase efficiency. I would love to hear some examples.
Speaker 1:Yeah. One of the success story was we had a luxury lodge, or we work with a luxury hotel, and we've been for many years. And it's interesting because that links to leadership and a willingness to try different things. There were a couple of GMs that essentially initially were filtering everything to others. And essentially, we're managing the business in a way they thought was the best, telling the owners what they wanted to hear, not necessarily what they needed to hear.
Speaker 1:Anyway, those couple of GMs actually moved on, we got to talk directly to the owners. And the first question from the owners was, what can we do to actually perform better? Those previously had a view that if you needed to maintain your brand equity, you needed to charge really high, really high price. Just happened the consumer wasn't there, and the alternative in and around those property, that property to ours from Sydney essentially was that the other hotels were better, better price, better value and the likes. So we repositioned properly with the owner's blessing.
Speaker 1:The second thing was that we implemented the revenue management system that meant that when there was opportunity to yield, it was automated, optimized multiple times a day. The third thing was marketing. A property, luxury properties, generally need to be in market and need to be marketed. And they need to be aspirational. They need to be a certain language, certain videography or photography, and they need to be active on social as well and build that awareness and have a regular media plan, not reactive, but more proactive.
Speaker 1:So planning ahead essentially for the next eighteen months. So that's what we implemented from that. Now, the reason for that is that their turnover is up 50%. Another thing that we did is we work with a colleague that specialized in outsourced finance, Camille. And Camille was sort of brought in by the new GM that knew and we sort of recommended Camille services to actually come in and automate a lot of the finance part of it, finance systems, finance reporting, to really understand what was the ins and outs of cash flow to look at, where efficiency could be brought in, and the likes.
Speaker 1:That property now is making money. They never used to make money from a GOP perspective. And that property completely turned on. The technology was one part of it, but you also need to have a philosophy linked to that technology. So there is an element of value format for the consumer, being cross positioned for the right level of demand, really thinking about running your own OS, and then the technology can actually assist with that.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, it's really getting knowledge as well, getting the right information. So from a finance perspective, those owners never used to get the right P and L, never used to get the right reporting on demand, and that was brought to them, and they were able to make our decision based on that. So that's one part. I suppose the other part is with most of our hotels, we actually try specifically on the distribution side. Because the consumer is searching on the TS, our goal in life is to get those hotels on page one of booking.com or Expedia.
Speaker 1:The reason is is 90% of all visits or all searches and clicks happen on page one. And if the hotel is there, the hotel is the most visible. So it's better to be on page one than to be on page two. If I were to compare it to that analogy I made earlier about, you know, shopping malls or shopping center, if you're on page one of booking.com or Expedia, you are essentially in that Westfield Shopping Center in a prime location. You're not and if you're on page two or page three of those OTAs, the consumer doesn't scroll as much.
Speaker 1:And therefore, it's like having your shop in suburbia where the foot traffic is very, very difficult. So we tend to do that. So we've got a certain setup that we set up for all our clients. We obviously look at optimizing content, optimizing the OS structure, optimizing the pricing positioning of the properties we look after. And then once we get obviously more clicks, which has the same conversion equates to more booking, that also creates more traffic direct.
Speaker 1:So what we make sure we have for clients is that they have the right website, they have the right booking technology to convert that traffic direct as well. We make sure that our clients also understand the key touch points that the consumer will touch before leading into booking direct essentially. And the way you need to think about it in a nutshell is why would the consumer book my hotel over another? So that's question number one. Then once you respond to that and you've got the right positioning and the consumer sees value for money in terms of choosing you, Then the second question is why would they book direct?
Speaker 1:Because that's the way they search. They first compare you to other hotels, and then they will want they choose the hotel. They will then go and look for the better price for that hotel for the same date, for the same room time, because that's what they saw on the three Wagyu ads. And so it's really important to distinct that is for hotels that think they should not be working with OTAs closely. I think you're making a mistake.
Speaker 1:I think you need to use the OTAs as much as they use us, and therefore, you need to use the exposure they can provide. And you need to work closely to be able to get up that listing closely with them as opposed to not inviting them for coffee every now and then. The first thing we do is we actually engage with the TAs, because we want to understand the way they think so we can align with the way the algorithm think. And then that means you can treat the algorithm and get a higher listing. And then the right technology in term of booking engine technology, never take, never take, please never take the cheapest website or the cheapest booking engine.
Speaker 1:You need to have the right tools to be able to convert that traffic direct. And if you choose the cheapest, you'll get what you pay for. You essentially will leave money on the table because your technology will not be able to convert those guests.
Speaker 3:I'm curious, especially curious based on your work with so many different hotels. What is one thing that you believe about technology in the hotel space that your peers or or maybe the hotels that you work with would actually disagree with?
Speaker 1:There is this perspective that if you automate the guest experience, let's say the online check-in instead of having no reception, if you allow people to basically go to their homes right away without experience in the lobby or things like that, that the consumer will not get the right guest experience. Especially in luxury hotel, they do think that the consumer will love to actually be sitting down for fifteen minutes while somebody personally explain to them what's happening in the hotel, where everything is, etc. Guess what? That's not true. Luxury is choice.
Speaker 1:And a lot of GM when I sort of explain this, I totally disagree. But the worst thing, I'm a fast luxury client, but I also like to go camping on the weekend. So essentially, I'm the same customer, but in this one context, I like to do different things. The worst thing that could happen to me at check-in is somebody sitting me down for fifteen minutes when all I want is to get to my So the main thing that a business can do is make choice or give the choice to the consumer to check-in or interact with a hotel in the manner they want. It's about the customer experience, and it's about what they want as opposed to a hotel pushing their own agenda to a guest when that guest may not want it.
Speaker 1:And I'm not saying that all guests are like that. They want to check-in like they would be doing with an airline and go strive to to the gate and, you know, strive to their own. Some consumer would love to be pampered, but not all of them. So that's the main thing I think. Sometimes we're having a disagreement with hoteliers.
Speaker 1:I think fundamentally also another disagreement sometime that I have is on pricing. I believe that pricing is quality divided by price or value is quality divided by price. And therefore, even a good hotel sometimes need to align to the market and you know, go down to meet where the market is at, to be able to get bookings and steal share from competitors. And again, you've got the GMs or hoteliers that do things that keeping their price up is going to drive them the ADR they want. But often it doesn't, and give them the net income they want because you need to bring the ADR to the bank as well.
Speaker 1:So if the consumer is at a certain level, because most of the market is at that level, and if you are a hotel that think that you can beat the market on ADR by pricing higher, the consumer will look for the better value. And if your price is not aligned with your quality, consumer will stay away from your product. So really important to actually position the property or regardless of the property class to meet the consumer expectation based on the alternative hotels that that consumer have access to. And that links to why will the consumer book your hotel first? And then you can start thinking about the rest.
Speaker 3:Well, you so much, Matt. It was really great speaking with you. Thank you so much for sharing all of your insights. And and I think all our listeners will find it very valuable.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you very much, Henry.
Speaker 2:That's all for today's episode. Thanks for listening to Hotel Tech Insider produced by hoteltechreport.com. Our goal with this podcast is to show you how the best in the business are leveraging technology to grow their properties and outperform the concept by using innovative digital tools and strategies. I encourage all of our listeners to go try at least one of these strategies or tools that you learned from today's episode. Successful digital transformation is all about consistent small experiments over a long period of time, so don't wait until tomorrow to try something new.
Speaker 1:Do you
Speaker 2:know a hotelier who would be great to feature on this show, or do you think that your story would bring a lot of value to our audience? Reach out to me directly on LinkedIn by searching for Jordan Hollander. For more episodes like this, follow Hotel Tech Insider on all major streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.