On Crypto and Blockchain
Travala.com customers can now pay for hotels on Booking.com with both the proprietary AVA token and 20 other cryptocurrencies, thanks to a new partnership. Travala CEO, Matt Luczynski, referred to the partnership as “another huge step towards mass cryptocurrency adoption.” To confirm the trend, the first airline ticket through a blockchain has been issued this week: the first three blockchain passengers are Maksim Izmaylov and Davide Montali, respectively Founder and CIO of Winding Tree, and Frederick Nowotny, head of sales engineering at Hahn Air.

The “most open PMS in the industry,” apaleo, announced it currently has 250 properties on board. “Its innovative, API-first approach,” co-founder and CMO, Margaret Ady, stated, “drastically reduces set-up times, eliminates integration and interface fees, and allows new properties to go live in minutes.” The company is expanding its team and is looking for “superheroes who are ready to fight the good fight.” If you’re up for the challenge, apply

Bad news for Uber (and for all of us, frequent travelers): Transportation authority stated it would not renew the company’s license to operate in London, due to generic “passenger safety concerns.” Uber is likely to appeal the decision.

Oaky partnered with Radisson Hotel Group. Radisson will implement Oaky’s upselling solution on 200+ of the group’s EMEA properties, providing customized, hyper-personalized, tailor-made experiences for its guests. (Re)Watch the chat I had with Oaky co-Founder, Erik Tengen, during the last edition of WTM.

Over 1TB data breach for Accor Hotels’ subsidiary, Gekko Group. The breach affected sensible information, such as regular, virtual and prepaid credit cards.

Hotel check-ins can become way faster, thanks to e-Visitor Authentication. “Participating hotels,” Singapore Tourism Board + Singapore Hotel Association stated, “can use facial recognition technology to authenticate their guests’ identities, and the guest data will be sent to the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority to verify the validity of their stay.” Ascott Orchard, Swissotel The Stamford, and Grand Park City Hall will beta-test the technology. This is nothing new, though: according to Business Insider, in fact, Facebook developed “an internal mobile app between 2015 and 2016 that used facial recognition to identify coworkers and their friends. You only had to point the phone at someone to get their name and profile picture — helpful if you were struggling to remember the name of a colleague you met at a party once.” Privacy concerns aside, I would sign up for that but, unfortunately, the app has been discontinued.

Overbookings happen. Yup, even to Glenn Fogel. Booking Holdings’ CEO stormed over Hilton for over ten minutes while onstage at last week’s Phocuswright Conference. The reason? Rob Torres (Managing Director at Google Travel) got a room, and he didn’t.

Over the last couple of days, you may have received an email from Booking.com, stating that, starting from 2 December, you’ll “gain access to a larger audience as your Genius rates will be offered to the most frequent travelers across other companies within the Booking Holdings family.” According to the company-formerly-known-as-Priceline, the new feature is “an effective way to increase your visibility and bookings with a similar audience.” The email explains that the absence of an active response from the hotels will be considered as “silent consent.” “If you’re happy to extend your Genius rates to this new group of customers,” the email continues, “there is no further action required.” As this could be an open highway for even more rate leakage, make sure that, if you’re not happy with the new Genius policy, you disable the feature by following the instructions here.

Swedish startup, Atomize, announced the launch of the first-ever RMS supporting real-time price optimization. “By retrieving and analyzing live market data,” official press release states, the RMS can exploit all those revenue opportunities that, otherwise, would “be gone in a matter of minutes or even seconds.” “Revenue managers,” Atomize CEO, Alexander Edström, commented, “can no longer afford to base pricing decisions on outdated market information (and) leave money on the table.” Atomize RMS relies on robust real-time optimization algorithms and a 2-way connection with the PMS. Read the official PR here.

Due to investments in “automation and cutting-edge technology,” HotelBeds has fired around 5% of its workforce in the Tel Aviv, London, Dubai, Orlando, and Zurich offices.