100 days to go until Expo Real

Munich (July 5, 2019). The countdown is on: 100 days to go until Expo Real, Europe's leading trade fair for commercial real estate and investment. This year, the fair will be expanded by one hall, and regarding the exhibitors with a focus on hospitality, things are in motion again as well. Here are the exhibitors under the roof of "World of Hospitality" in 2019.

Congested villages, overstretched chambermaids, masked algorithms

Dear Insiders,
Congested motorways, congested villages and exhausted hotel maids.... It's summer again! Welcome! Don't be alarmed if your guests get stuck in traffic even more often than usual this year, arriving annoyed after a trying journey: In high season, Austria closes the exits on several motorways so that its small villages are not clogged up by holiday traffic. Locals are able to continue to get to their baker in 5 and not in 30 minutes. German ADAC describes this new measure in Tyrol and in Salzburg Land as an "absurdity" in the holiday period. But the Austrians see no disadvantages for their tourism. Fred Fettner took a look at the delicate situation.
Tourism is booming. But anyone who believes that this might be a reason to pay maxed-out chambermaids in Germany, Austria or even Spain a little more money or to treat them any better is mistaken. Nothing has changed. In this "people business" there are managers who (have to) continue to outsource their housekeeping for cost reasons and who very well accept that the – independent – companies commissioned to provide these services are merciless in passing on the pressure to their cleaning staff in order to squeeze out greater profits themselves.
It’s a frustrating conclusion, after all the room is the very soul of a comfortable stay, and a carefully working hotel maid is the guarantor for good hotel reviews. But what controller is interested in checking this? We are curious to see what outrageous hotel maid stories the TV stations and social media will be bring us this summer.
And for algorithms, too, a look behind the scenes is necessary. Such automated, "masked" analysis tools can't simply be trusted blindly. And certainly not when it comes to recruitment: Crude decisions made by AI can stigmatise people. Nevertheless, Dr Jörg Dräger warns against extreme "either-or" thinking. The Bertelsmann Stiftung is currently researching the "ethics of algorithms" and its Chairman issues an appeal in an interview with Bärbel Schwertfeger today for people to control machines (AI).
Without AI and networked thinking/working, soon it will be a case of nothing working anymore. In a period of just eight months, students from a university in Baden-Württemberg have now succeeded in programming the digital property "seamlessly" – from property search, though to planning and financing and finally to property and operational data; today, a first impression of this project. But its reality check has yet to come.
In Italy, TripAdvisor is fined EUR 100,000 for deceiving consumers about its reviews. And from England comes a new franchise report for Europe with lots of figures. Enjoy reading (in the traffic jam?)...

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems, Editor in Chief

Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com

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