EDITOR'S COMMENT
I'm excited to be attending my third VRMA International Conference this week in Phoenix, Arizona and I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with leading figures from the industry and meeting plenty of fresh faces too. I'm here with my colleague Sam Cooper, our head of growth at STRz, so do send me a message at my email below or on LinkedIn if you'd like to meet in person.
With seven different tracks across a packed two-day agenda, I'm particularly interested in hearing the discussions around the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence [AI] and the challenges associated with the regulatory landscape, especially to see how the US market is both learning from other markets across the world and informing them.
One of the major benefits of attending industry events is being able to take stock of the latest trends, opportunities and challenges across the industry with innovators, disruptors and advocates from across the world, who want to share their knowledge and educate audiences.
In this week's STRz podcast, we spoke to Siddhi Mittal, co-founder and co-CEO of private chef marketplace yhangry, about the startup's expansion into the short-term rental space, her trajectory since appearing on the BBC's Dragons' Den, and the increasing curation of searches on platforms like yhangry, Airbnb and Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy to provide more bespoke experiences to guests. With Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky recently hinting that his own company might look to diversify into similar personalised offerings, it makes sense that demand for this extra layer of hospitality is now not only desired but expected, and property owners / managers should always be open to exploring new partnerships and ideas.
• We're now less than a month out from our second STRz Summit in London and it is shaping up to be an incredible event with a host of high-calibre industry leaders speaking across a diverse, critical agenda of sessions. Tickets for the Summit, which precedes Scale UK and World Travel Market, can be bought now at this link. See you on 5 November!
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