Welcome to another episode of HospitalityVerse! Join me today for a great conversation with Mushal Nishtar, Group Director of Revenue at Five Hotels and Resorts. 

When we last spoke, FIVE just made the headlines as one of the first hotels opening up to crypto payments. Today Mushal sheds more light on this project. We also chat about the FIVE's plans for 2023, including the new Net-Zero Luxury Living project that is expected to revolutionize sustainable living and begins with FIVE Jumeirah Village (read more here: https://www.fiveglobalholdings.com/net-zero-build-tech-by-five). Naturally, I also ask Mushal about plans for the metaverse and his views on new tech applications in prop-tech and hospitality. 

Enjoy and if you like this podcast, be sure to subscribe and follow HospitalityVerse on LinkedIn! 

Hello, welcome to another episode of HospitalityVerse! Today I have the pleasure to talk to Ralph Melis, co-founder of ExploreTECH.

ExploreTech is a new digital marketplace connecting Hospitality & Travel tech providers with industry professionals.

We all love the concept of online marketplaces, they’re designed to make our lives easier.

If you work in the hospitality or travel sector, ExploreTech is your one-stop shop for all things tech related – you can find and compare different solutions and receive subject matter expert advice that will help you improve your business.

As a vendor on the other hand, by positioning your product portfolio on the ExploreTech platform you immediately boost your brand visibility, audience engagement and lead generation.

In this episode, Ralph tells me what inspired his team to create ExploreTech, how the platform evolves and what features they’re adding to support the users and vendors. We also discuss hospitality tech trends and innovations, taking a temperature check on the metaverse and blockchain developments, which as you know by now, is one of my favourite topics. 

If you like this podcast, be sure to subscribe and follow HospitalityVerse on LinkedIn! 

In this episode we dive deeper into the topic of NFTs. I’ve invited Arek Kwoska, the CEO of Collectico Labs, to join me and discuss the ins and outs of the NFT projects. Collectico Labs is a growing NFT startup from Poland that I think is doing it right – they’ve created a platform that’s accessible and inclusive and what I mean by that is that it keeps all tech in the background and allows normal people to enter the world of NFTs without the all the hassle of crypto, digital wallets etc. As a practitioner, Arek explains how difficult it is to integrate NFTs with the hotel loyalty program and challenges the myth regarding the high costs and complexity of NFT projects. He says he hates the actual term NFT and thinks that in the next 5 years NFTs will be as popular as emails. I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you will too! Let’s dive in!

Hi, welcome to HospitalityVerse! In this episode, we discuss another cool thing - NFTs! Some say NFT-mania is over, sales are dropping and those who invested are crying their eyes out. I say - not at all!  Tune in to learn about 3 strong use cases for the tourism and hospitality industry! 

Head over to HospitalityVerse Linkedin page to share your views and check out https://hospitalityverse.io/ for the full transcript and additional resources! 

Thanks for listening! 

00:13 Intro

05:20 What is NFT

07:37 NFT utility

10:08 NFT flight tickets

13:30 Brand marketing and customer engagement

15:03 Loyalty and rewards

19:58 Fractional ownership and tokenized real estate

26:30 CSR and cause-driven NFTs

30:58 Conclusion

33:12 Outro

We've got a special guest today! Dr Sanjay Nadkarni, Director of Innovation and Research at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in Dubai, UAE, joins me on HospitalityVerse to chat about innovations in the hospitality industry. 

Sanjay shares his views on new tech adoption, challenges and industry perceptions. We discuss the role of education, the importance of innovative mindset development and the use of open source innovation frameworks. Sanjay explains why some innovations fail and why having a long-term vision and future-oriented leadership is crucial and gives examples of non-standard approaches that have been successful. 

Head over to https://hospitalityverse.io/ to get the full transcript of this episode.

In this episode we talk about Blockchain – a foundational technology that is expected to disrupt many industries and enable Web3.0 and Metaverse.

How can Blockchain be leveraged in hospitality? We’ll discuss a couple of use cases and examples, including cryptopayments acceptance, smart contracts and loyalty programs.

Go to https://hospitalityverse.io/ for a full transcript of this episode.

[00:35] Intro

[02:00] What is blockchain

[7:43] Use cases in hospitality

[08:05] Cryptopayments acceptance

[09:38] Disintermediation

[10:52] Identity management services and guest preferences

[13:45] Loyalty

[15:25] Reviews

[17:33] Smart contracts and supply chain management

[20:48] Summary

[22:00] Outro

Resources:

A journey to Blockchain. A Non-Technologist’s Guide to the Internet of Value

IATA to launch Travel Pass on Apple platform.

Marriott Bonvoy Logs into the Metaverse with Debut of Travel-Inspired NFTs

PwC (2020) Time for trust. The trillion-dollar reasons to rethink blockchain

World Economic Forum White Paper Inclusive Deployment of Blockchain: Case Studies and Learnings from the United Arab Emirates.

JA Manor allows guests to pay using crypto-currency after Binance tie-up

https://thenewscrypto.com/dubai-based-five-hotels-and-resorts-to-accept-crypto-payments/

https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2022/09/08/palazzo-versace-dubai-to-accept-crypto-payments/

Welcome to HospitalityVerse Podcast where we discuss all things hospitality tech related. If you want to get a quick digest of current trends, insights, use cases or hear industry professionals’ views and opinions on metaverse, nfts, robots and other innovations, this show is for you!  Hello everyone, this is Dominika Duziak, the HospitalityVerse host. This podcast is for all hospitality professionals that want to stay in the loop but are too busy to research and read all the articles online. My goal is to give you a brief breakdown of the most important trends and help you stay on top of all new tech and innovations that will impact your business.  We’re kicking off with a hot topic – the Metaverse. Considering the name of this Podcast I couldn't have picked anything but the Metaverse! In this episode, we're going to introduce the Metaverse and discuss 2 use cases that can prove very useful in the hotel business - virtual site inspections and virtual trainings. This is merely an intro, as Metaverse is evolving and I`m sure there will be many more interesting stories to share. If you want to connect with me, check out HospitalityVerse social media or visit hospitalityverse.io!