In an effort to create consistency add depth to product descriptions for users as well as save time for vendors having to write them, we have infused AI into product descriptions to automatically generate an in-depth description based on the following data sources:

• AI Generated Review Summaries (view example)
• AI Generated Partner Recommendation Summaries (view example)
• Company Description field in the profile editor (view example)

Today we rolled out an update to HTR's hotels database and hotel lookup on the site where we migrated from Google Places as the core search to Tripadvisor.

TL;DR

• At the core of HTR is our hotels database
• Since inception, we have used Google Places as our hotel lookup to find hotels
• PROBLEM #1. The issue with Google Places as our core lookup is that its not specialized for hotels which meant that the database was able to have hotels that weren't even hotels (ie. users could select their city or any other type of location in Google) and Google often doesn't have the best hotel specific content
• PROBLEM #2. In order to launch HTR's upcoming AI Tech Stack Advisor tool we needed a stronger foundation of a hotel lookup that could accurately on-the-fly build a model of a hotel with key attributes like location, size, ADR, chain scale, amenities and hotel type while ensuring that the only results in the hotel lookup field were real and valid hotels
• New Hotel Lookup Component. As such, we rebuilt our entire hotels db and hotel lookup throughout the site with a new component built on a foundation of Tripadvisor's API with custom logic and mappings for things like keywords, attributes and guest type to further enrich and segment the database and ensure accurate hotel lookup and model building in real time on-the-fly
• Historical Data Migration. A major undertaking in this project was to run the old hotels database of 100k+ hotels through the new hotel lookup component to verify, validate, enrich and de-dupe hotels which impacts historical data in the database 

How will this impact my company?

Migrating historical data is a massive undertaking and will be rolled out over the next several weeks gradually updating ~5,000-10,000 hotels per day.  During this time you will likely notice some changes to the flags on reviews on your profile as existing/legacy hotels in the database get mapped to Tripadvisor hotels and then enriched via the new hotel lookup.  If you have any concerns or see any data that you believe to be inaccurate please let us know.

Users can now easily search reviews to quickly find specific content or data points that they are most interested in.

Earlier this week HTR officially rolled out AI Review Summaries.  We will be staging the rollout of this feature over the coming weeks with new products being analyzed by AI each day so keep an eye out for the new 'AI Summaries' badge on your profile.  

This feature will help hoteliers extract key topics, keywords and insights from thousands of reviews in a matter of seconds helping them make better decisions faster.

• Want to check out some examples of products that have already run? Check out: Duve, Oaky and Mews. 
• Want your product to be analyzed sooner? Reach out via the live chat to request to fast track your profile

Things to Keep in Mind

• Eligibility: Only products with a trustworthy profile (25-reviews) will have access to this feature.
• Content Control & Curation: HTR does not control the content generated from the AI Summaries feature.  We use OpenAI's API to analyze reviews and this is automated and executed programmatically based on the content of your product's reviews and partner recommendations.
  
• Updating for Freshness: Content is updated for summaries automatically for both hotelier reviews and partner recommendations when a given product generates an incremental 25-reviews (ex. if you have 50 reviews today and AI runs, then it will re-run when you reach 75-reviews, etc)

Today we rolled out a few enhancements to the dashboard to simplify navigation and create a more intuitive user experience which means that some features have been relocated within the dashboard.  The primary goal of this update was to reduce the levels of nesting within the side navigation, highlight the most commonly used features and help simplify finding things within the dashboard for new users.  These changes were intended to make the dashboard more intuitive so they should be clear as you navigate the tool, but here are the items that changed:

1. Profiles tab
   1. Products switched from dropdown to tabbed view
   2. Integrations have been moved from their own tab to a sub-tab within the profile editor
2. Reputation Tab
   1. Sidebar sub-menu options have been re-organized into new simplified tabbed view with accordion options
   2. Automated Review Manager
      1. Moved to a single tab and renamed 'Automated Campaigns'
      2. Sub-pages have been moved into the Shortcuts menu
      3. Filters have been re-organized for simplicity  
3. Leads Tab
   1. Instant Connect settings have been moved from the side bar to the new 'Lead Targeting' tab
   2. CRM Forwarding has been moved from sidebar to new tab
4. Posting Tab
   1. Posting types have been moved from the sidebar into tabbed view
      
5. Agency Tab
   1. Sidebar options have been migrated to shortcuts
6. Settings
   1. Settings shortcuts added to side-navigation
   2. Settings is now a single page and options been migrated into new horizontal tabbed view

Listen now

Today we rolled out several updates that aim to make profiles more helpful for buyers.  These updates come as a result of several feature requests from both hoteliers in the community as well as vendors and serve to make profiles easier to scan, digest and understand.

Feature Requests from Vendors 👉 Profile Enhancements

1. See review counts by filters
2. Review tags for country, size and type to more easily find relevant reviews
3. Increased visibility for partner recommendations by moving them out of a tabbed view within the reviews section into their own new dedicated section
4. Add-on modules have been separated into their own dedicated section on profiles

Feature Requests from Users (hoteliers) 👉 Geographic Relevance Indicators

1. Review segmentation and geographic popularity of a product by country
2. Alerts to warn users if a given product may not be popular or serve their country 
   1. Alert #1: No reviews from the user's country
   2. Alert #2: More than 50%+ of a product's reviews are from the same country
3. Ability to find relevant reviews with country flags on reviews
4. Filter reviews by country

Several companies in the HTR community have pointed out the frustration that comes with having to list integrations at the product level which is time consuming, difficult to manage and creates lots of duplicative work.  We've taken your feedback and refactored the way integrations work on the site.

What's New:

• Company-level integrations. Integrations have been refactored from product<>product to company<>company
• Data migration. All historical integrations have been migrated
• Easier management. Simpler management of single company<>company integrations.  Now companies only need to verify that they have an integration with another company (instead of verifying each integration from each of your products to each of your partners' products)
• Rankings impact. The HT Score has been refactored to look at company-level verified integrations (instead of product level)
• Verification flow and favorites.  New 2-way verification modal that allows each company to manage (a) which products of their integrate (b) share what you love about the partner's product/s (c) favorite the apps that pair best with yours 
• Redesigned Profile Component.  Full redesign of the integrations component on basic and premium profiles 
• Redesigned Partner Marketplaces.  Your partner marketplaces have gotten a full redesign to help you showcase the top apps that pair best with your solution.

Added Perks for Premium Members: 

• Boosted visibility on the redesigned integration component on profiles (sorted first by Premium then by review count)
• Boosted visibility on the partner marketplace pages (sorted first by Premium then by review count)

Many users who come to Hotel Tech Report are not looking to (or simply cannot) switch out their current PMS which means they start their journey with a fixed variable, their PMS.  That's why we're introducing a new tool and user flow on the site to guide users to be able to find the top products that integrate with their existing PMS.

What's New:

• New navigation option in the  site wide nav bar for PMS App Finders in the 'get advice' dropdown
• Users can quickly navigate to the top rated apps specifically for their PMS

Added Perks for Premium Members: 

• Boosted visibility in PMS App Stores (sorted by Premium then by review count)

Today we rolled out some updates to the vendor dashboard that bring a new look and feel, simplified navigation and some new functionality to launch outbound campaigns.

What's New:

• New home screen. Redesigned and simplified home screen with actionable tips to optimize your presence to drive more visibility and leads
• Nav UI updates.  New sidebar nav UI for simplified navigation along with some reorganization.  Report card is now under reputation and all self-serve posting options can be found under the new 'posting' tab.
• New agency tab.  We added a new tab to be able to order, track and manage outbound campaigns (advertising, demand gen, sponsored content) that you partner with HTR Agency on.

Added Perks for Premium Members: 

• Gold and Platinum Members now have easy access to their 12-month marketing execution plan and HTR success checklist for managing campaigns