When I requested Andrew Rubinacci to explain the early days of his illustrious hospitality profession, his reply was one you won’t anticipate—“I was a guinea pig,” he’ll say with a smile. “I was, quite literally, the first revenue manager at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).”
Today, Rubinacci is a widely known title in an business of resort income and know-how specialists, bringing over 25 years of economic management expertise to the desk and a resume that features quite a few govt positions starting from Chief Commercial Officer at Omni Hotels & Resorts to Senior Vice President of Distribution & Revenue Management for InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). Recently, I had the chance to sit down down with Rubinacci and focus on his foray into the various completely different corners of the hospitality enterprise, his new function at FLYR for Hospitality, and his predictions for the business transferring ahead – together with the significance of human enter in income administration, and the impression of AI on the job panorama.
“I went to school at Florida State University where I earned my Bachelor of Science focused on Hospitality Administration and Marketing, and then found my way into the world of hotel operations with Holiday World Inn back in the day – now IHG. For the better part of a decade, I gained experience in essentially every position within IHG and later became a GM,” he explains. “But at a certain point, it was suggested that I would be good at the revenue management side of business. At that time, Marriott had just started a revenue management program, so my task was simple – go figure it out and tell IHG what to do. So, that’s exactly what I did – I became a revenue management guinea pig.” Eventually, Rubinacci discovered his method into the distribution facet of the business, extra particularly, serving to to facilitate the primary offers between inns and on-line journey businesses (OTAs) equivalent to Hotels.com and Travelocity. “From there, I settled into a role as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Omni and, after that, I headed up the commercial teams at Aimbridge,” he shared. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate. Navigating seemingly every corner of the hospitality landscape has been equally rewarding and fun.”
While his affect as a hospitality chief is simple, his function as a income administration pioneer is, maybe, most noteworthy after we think about the most recent iteration of his profession: his new function because the Chief Advisory Officer of FLYR for Hospitality. “My career has allowed me to see what worked and what didn’t work in our industry – as well as what was new and on the horizon,” he notes. “So when Artificial Intelligence started to explode in the last 18 months, I knew it would be the next big thing, and I didn’t want to be the old guy who doesn’t understand the latest innovations. With this in mind, I took some classes at MIT and, eventually – and entirely by chance – I met the FLYER team. It was clear that they had built out a fantastic, AI-driven revenue management solution, and now this fantastic BI platform as well. I’ve sat on everyone’s advisory boards and installed just about every revenue management system – but FLYR’s was different, and the team was great, so I’m thrilled to be a part of it now.”
The base algorithms of those programs, Rubinacci notes, are sometimes derived from two years of historical past and 12-week developments. “FLYR’s system is fundamentally different; the algorithms create an entire machine learning engine. It’s not a set of prescriptive algorithms – it’s constantly changing and dealing with much bigger and more relevant data sets. It learns and moves,” he explains. “Don’t get me wrong, there are some great systems out there. But after extracting the data, our platform can start getting recommendations in as little as four to five days, with 80% of our customers advancing to full automation in about two weeks and over a 95% percent acceptance rate.” After all, at present’s hospitality panorama affords a unique enjoying area than legacy platforms. Hotel manufacturers face a world of various expectations, and the know-how they make the most of should adapt to this market intelligently and effectively. Only trendy know-how will assist remedy trendy issues.
“What I like about our system is the marriage of machine learning, for all its predictive capabilities and smart automation, with human input,” Rubinacci explains. “I’ve worked on many systems that re-optimize after that input is added, and this creates a constant tug-of-war that requires you to manage the system continuously. But with our system, if you know something is going on, you can add that input, and the engine will adjust to it rather than override it. This is critical because we are still dealing with people – we’re still dealing with customers, so a human element will always need to be a key part of revenue optimization.”
Of course, because the business strikes to embrace new know-how, there are certain to be some challenges related to integrating a product forward of the sport with an outdated system. “We obviously connect to the PMS in most cases, and we can connect to the CRS as well,” Rubinacci shares. “Some of the more advanced PMS systems obviously make integration much easier, and the data is richer – you can do a little more with it. But when we look at the big picture, as an industry, we have to get more progressive in our approach to technology adoption and investment and understand what our customers want while considering the entire technology ecosystem from a holistic POV.”
Part of the problem, Rubinacci notes, is how we speak about – and place – know-how inside the business. “There are typically three entities in every asset, right? There’s an owner, a brand, and a manager, and they’re all buying and owning different things,” he explains. “This means they care about different things, and we have to speak directly to each of those perspectives and position solutions accordingly. So hospitality technology companies must start understanding the real estate market as it relates to our industry; after all, the owner is our customer – if we don’t understand where they’re coming from, we’re unable to sell them the tools they need, right?”
AI and machine studying capabilities will undoubtedly remodel the hospitality business. In reality, that transformation is already effectively underway. However, it’s not the one factor that Rubinacci is worked up about as he appears to the street forward. “I think the democratization of data—even without the influence of AI—is huge for our industry and can help us meaningfully increase productivity and enhance customer satisfaction,” he shares.
In some instances, the mainstream adoption of latest know-how is met with trepidation. In the case of AI, there may be nice pleasure, however there are additionally questions concerning the impression of those platforms on the job panorama. Will AI change human employees? Is this one thing to worry?
“Recently, I was asked this question on stage while speaking about this changing job landscape, and it made me think about my career,” Rubinacci notes. “Realistically, 80% of the roles I’ve had throughout my tenure did not even exist when I started. Will the landscape change from a job perspective? Definitely, but while some roles go away, just as many – if not more – will be created. Of course, I can’t tell you what they’ll be, but the opportunities will present themselves, so I’m not fearful of that change.”
Rubinacci notes that income administration will lean in direction of industrial technique and enhancing the asset’s total income, which the business has been discussing for 25-30 years. “Just look at ancillary revenues,” he provides. “We’re finally putting the infrastructure in for AI to handle all the combinations of permutations and present the right thing to the right customer at the right time.”
Ultimately, new know-how will enable inns to establish developments earlier than they turn out to be obvious to people, which will likely be tremendously highly effective from a efficiency perspective. “Going back to owners and their POV – technology vendors can finally assure them they won’t have as many dips or misses because we’re going to know what’s happening. We can affect change more meaningfully and proactively than we ever have, opening the industry up to so many opportunities,” Rubinacci explains. “I think we’re at the beginning of this journey, and it will change everything. I don’t know how it all changes, but it’s going to be fun to figure out, and I know I want to be at the forefront of it all.”
About Puzzle Partner
Puzzle Partner is a advertising company targeted solely on the advanced B2B initiatives of hospitality and journey know-how innovators. By combining business experience, strategic considering, and fervour for delivering distinctive outcomes, the company helps purchasers obtain their enterprise aims and keep forward in aggressive markets. With its deep understanding of the hospitality and journey sectors, Puzzle Partner has established itself as a trusted advisor to main international manufacturers. The company’s insights and holistic methodologies have helped purchasers navigate the evolving advertising panorama, maximize model publicity, and drive income development.
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Alan Young
Puzzle Partner Ltd.
705-718-5153
Puzzle Partner Ltd.