News Briefs

Visito, a leading conversational AI platform for independent hotels, today announced that its comprehensive guest communication platform has facilitated over two million interactions in 2024.

The company’s AI-powered messaging tools enable independent hotels to boost guest engagement and provide real-time assistance with minimal human intervention. Launched with the mission to streamline guest communication, the platform helps hoteliers manage high message volumes, automate repetitive responses, and overcome language barriers.

Pormer Sarram, CEO of Visito, said: “Reaching two million guest interactions this year is a testament to the value we bring to independent hotels. Through conversational AI, we’re equipping hoteliers with fully automated tools to improve guest engagement and scale their operations. This milestone reflects both the demand for cutting-edge AI solutions in hospitality and the trust our partners have in Visito.”

Visito empowers hotels to resolve 97% of guest messages across popular channels such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. By reducing manual effort and operational costs, the platform delivers substantial efficiency gains while elevating guest satisfaction.

With customers in 15+ countries, Visito now serves more than 150,000 guests globally. The platform integrates seamlessly with leading property management systems, helping hotels to minimize support costs, increase direct bookings, and enhance the overall guest experience.

Flexa has teamed up with Nighthawk Wallet, a self-custody digital wallet, to expand how digital assets are used in everyday life. Through this integration, Nighthawk Wallet users can now make instant, fraud-proof payments at over 41,000 retail locations across the United States and Canada, marking a major step forward for the usability of digital currencies. 

Flexa Components, now embedded within the Nighthawk Wallet app, ensures that transactions are processed instantly, privately, and securely. By combining Nighthawk’s user-friendly wallet design with Flexa’s powerful payment platform, users can seamlessly spend digital asset ZEC for everyday purchases—whether at restaurants, coffee shops, or other merchants. With guaranteed settlement and zero chargebacks for merchants, this integration also simplifies payment acceptance for businesses, further driving the adoption of digital currencies.

“Digital payments are now simpler, faster, and more secure with Flexa,” said Daniel McCabe, cofounder and CEO of Flexa. “With Flexa Components integrated into Nighthawk Wallet, we are enabling users to transform their digital assets from static holdings to tools for seamless commerce—while ensuring critical benefits like privacy and guaranteed fraud protection for our merchant partners.”

Nighthawk founder Aditya Bharadwaj notes, “Spending with Flexa opens up more in-person retail trade and use cases for digital currencies, a pioneering use case since the early days of crypto. The Flexa team has built a scalable platform that redefines the way we think about digital payments, offering merchants and consumers a seamless and secure experience that rivals traditional credit card payments, with no predatory fees or concerns about customer data privacy. We are committed to maintaining our high standards of transparency as we bring this innovative solution to our user base.”

This collaboration bridges the gap between digital assets and everyday commerce, making payments more efficient, private, and accessible.

• Property Management: Easy-to-use property management system for vacation rentals to measure performance and manage inquiries, recurring guests, distribution channels, owners and staff in one place.
• Channel Management: Hostaway's proprietary channel manager is the core of the platform, providing sophisticated two-way API connection to all major online travel agencies, including Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Marriott, and Google Travel.
• AI: Powerful tools that enhance your listings and guest communications - includes AI suggested message responses, enhanced listing descriptions for SEO, and more.
• Automation Tools: Automates repetitive tasks with automated messages, reviews, tasks and payments.
• Analytics & Reporting: Customizable reports give property managers valuable insights into their business.
• Communication: All the communication tools a property manager needs, with an industry-leading unified inbox with support for email, text messages, and WhatsApp.
• Marketing: Market properties with easy booking website set up, WordPress plugin, coupon management, website builder, and direct booking tools.
• Operations: Supports daily operations with automation and features such as guest invoicing, flexible payment processing, and task management services. 

• Guest messaging 24 hours a day: a lifesaver for boutique hotels without a 24-hour front desk — and connected to your central PMS to create maintenance tasks, staff follow-ups, and personalization for guests.
• AI sales agent: an AI trained on your policies and room information capable of selling to and negotiating with guests in any language, increasing occupancy at the best rates.
• Maintenance and scheduling: removing the headaches of manually working out the best times to perform tasks.
• AI-powered reporting: AI can process information much faster than a human, allowing hoteliers to pull out the most important data on their performance in an instant.
• Review summaries and follow-up: Boom reads and summarizes reviews, creating follow-up tasks for the relevant staff and responding to guests.

HBX Group, an independent B2B TravelTech company, has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) solution designed to improve the training of customer service agents. The system simulates conversations with customers, allowing them to practice in realistic environments and prepare more effectively for real interactions.

The AI trainer can generate conversations in 13 languages and adapt to hundreds of different customer service scenarios. In addition, it offers a choice of four levels of difficulty, from beginner to experienced agents, providing personalized and scalable training. Not only does this facilitate self-paced training, but it also reduces the need for trainer supervision, allowing trainers to focus on valuable tasks such as data analysis and improving team performance.

‘The AI ‘trainer’ is a game-changer for customer service,” says Xabi Zabala, Chief Operations Officer of HBX Group. “It helps agents simulate a multitude of realistic situations and gain confidence much faster. They are better prepared to deliver excellent service, which improves customer experience.”

HBX Group plans to expand the use of this technology to other operational and commercial areas, with a secure and efficient deployment to lead the forefront of innovation in the TravelTech sector.

Accentuated by upticks in brand loyalty and outbound tourism, Americans expressed their strong appetite for travel in the “Winter Edition” of MMGY’s Portrait of American Travelers^® study released today. A quarterly examination of the evolving habits, preferences and behaviors of today’s U.S. travel consumers, the survey found that nearly 8 in 10 U.S. adults plan to take a vacation in the next 12 months, a 7% increase since winter 2023. 

Americans are eager to explore in 2025, with plans to spend significantly more and take more trips in the year ahead as the average vacation budget climbs to $5,051 and travel frequency rises to 4.1 trips per person. 

“Americans’ intent to travel is reaching its highest level in almost four years, eclipsing even the spikes we saw in the immediate post-pandemic surge,” said Simon Moriarty, MMGY Travel Intelligence’s Vice President of Research and Analytics. “Our survey found that Americans are increasingly devoting larger portions of their disposable incomes to vacations, signaling a conscious choice to prioritize experiences and a robust commitment to travel in 2025."

Additional highlights from the report follow.

• Brand Loyalty: Signaling the rising importance of driving repeat business, the survey identified a significant increase in brand loyalty across all sectors – with airlines and hotels witnessing extensive growth in their loyalty program memberships. Hotel loyalty program members grew 6% since 2023, while airlines observed an even larger growth of 8%. 

• Shifting Influences: Though their perceived authenticity may be waning over time, social media content creators and influencers were found to be more influential than celebrities when it comes to travel decisions. More than half (51%) of respondents said that they had been influenced “somewhat” or “a great deal” by influencers, compared to 41% by celebrities. 

• Traveling Abroad: Interest in international travel over the next six months is at its highest level since 2020, with far more travelers than in previous years planning trips between November and April. The low-cost and less-crowded nature of off-peak vacations continues to be alluring to American travelers. 

Featuring these findings and more, the “Winter Edition” of Portrait of American Travelers^® is now available for purchase or as part of an all-access subscription to MMGY’s Intel Library. To learn more, visit store.mmgyintel.com.