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The collective noun for a group of birds is a flock and you call a group of elephants a herd. But what do you call a group of code gurus? Answers on a post card please.&nbsp;


There are a great many false stereotypes about IT programmers and software engineers. But perhaps the two most inaccurate are that they spend their whole lives behind a screen, and that they work alone.

To prove that this is not the case, a delegation of more than 40 people from the Hotelbeds Group IT department recently attended the Codemotion event celebrated this year in Madrid. Their goal? To share knowledge and network with other professionals from the fast-growing travel tech industry.


Codemotion is a multi-language and multiplatform event that brings together developers from the Java, Cloud, Mobile, Rails, Javascript, HTML5, and CSS3 communities. There are annual conferences in Rome, Milan, Madrid, Berlin and Tel Aviv, with Madrid’s event growing since its foundation to become a fixture in the technological events calendar – with leading sponsors such as Microsoft and Google.


Under the theme ´machine learning´, this year more than 250 code gurus gathered in Madrid in a relaxed atmosphere to discuss topics such as ´Continuous Integration &amp; Delivery´ (or how to deliver new software functionality faster and better) and ´Infrastructure as a code´ (or how to automate hardware operation and provisioning).

This is the second time Hotelbeds Group has attended codemotion and based on feedback we´ll be returning again next year. In fact, Roberto Calvo, IT Development Manager at Hotelbeds Group commented that “based on discussions with other professionals it was reassuring to know that we have a great team and we brought back a lot of inspiration and ideas that will add value to our partners over the coming years”.



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 What is the collective noun for a group of code gurus? 


Tourism defines Mallorca. It provides over one in five jobs and an even bigger share of the local GDP.

So what audience could be more interested in learning about the latest trends in tourism than a group of Mallorcan economists?


Last Friday the Mallorcan College of Economists held its annual awards evening and the keynote speech was given by Joan Vilà, Hotelbeds Group´s Executive Chairman.

Local dignitaries in attendance included the President of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, along with local media outlets to cover the news. Joan was interviewed shortly before his speech by the local Balearics television broadcaster IB3 to speak about the role Hotelbeds Group plays as the employer of over 1,650 people locally (with over 8,300 globally).

Joan spoke for over 30 minutes on a variety of topics impacting the global travel and tourism industry currently. Topics included the potential effects of artificial intelligence on bookings, trends for mobile phone reservations, how hotels need to adapt to the needs of millennial travellers, and the significant economic benefits of tourism on destinations. He also highlighted many important facts and figures, for example that the sector provides 10% of the world´s jobs.

All this took place in perhaps the most emblematic of locations, the Gran Melia Victoria located by the marina in Palma de Mallorca. The beautiful venue is one of the flagship hotels for Melia, which is a locally founded business that is currently the 13th largest hotel chain globally with properties the world over.

Just like Hotelbeds Group, despite having grown into a truly global business, Melia remains headquartered on the island. Equally there are many other travel &amp; tourism companies based locally that have international reach.

Together they make Mallorca not just one of the biggest holiday destinations in Europe, but more importantly a global hub for the travel &amp; tourism industry itself.







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Global trends for a local audience – Mallorca as a travel & tourism hub, not just a destination  

Can growing amusing facial hair help prevent men from dying prematurely? Many employees at Hotelbeds Group think so.&nbsp;

Nothing joins together hundreds of employees around the world quite like a charity fundraiser and they make no exception for Movember, an annual campaign that takes places during November whereby men grow outrageous moustaches to increase awareness of men’s health issues.

This year a great number of colleagues have grown a moustache and, most importantly, together raised over €10,000 to donate to the Movember Foundation – who in turn invest in studies and campaigns that have one clear objective: to stop too many men dying younger than they should. &nbsp;

This is an issue close to our hearts as sadly we have amongst us some colleagues that have been through critical and frightening health problems before they were even 40 years old (but consider themselves lucky to have survived). This encouraged our team to help others to be aware of the early detection of prostate and testicular cancer, mental health issues, and other illnesses afflicting men.

Although Movember began in 2004, it was only in 2012 that a few employees started taking part. Since then the team has grown from just four people raising €700, to over 60 people this year raising over €10,000. Over the years the team has had many names, including Le Moustache, Tash-a-Lash-a-Ding-Dong and HBGrizly. But this year they settled on Rebel Tash and henceforth will use this moniker every year from now on.

Funds have been raised by a variety of ingenious methods, including a pin-the-tail-on-your boss competition, a 5km fun run (with a beer break in the middle!), cake sales and of course the old fashioned method of soliciting individual donations.

Thirteen years after its creation, Movember is still the only global charity focused solely on male illnesses, changing the face of men’s health by encouraging awareness, check-ups and healthier lifestyles to stop preventable deaths.

Next year the team is setting its sights even higher and aims to smash the €15,000 mark!

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Hotelbeds Group employees help stop men dying too young by growing silly moustaches and raising over €10,000 

Receiving any kind of award is always a matter for celebration and provides great motivation to all those who are recognized. But when your business receives nine awards in just one year, some of them for the 4th year running, the message is loud and clear: keep up the good work.

Bedsonline has often been recognized for its incredible offering and service through a variety of different awards (and even more nominations). But over the last year the recognitions have rained down.&nbsp; This makes us exceptionally proud of all the team´s hard work and achievements.&nbsp; But additionally it gives us enormous pride because many of these were ‘readers choice´ awards – thus reflecting just how close we are to our travel agencies.

At Bedsonline we focus solely on working with travel agencies. For us they are more than just clients, they are our partners in a long-term and win-win relationship developed over years of sharing mutual interests and expertise.

As we come close to the end of the year, we wanted to recap all of the awards received across all of the different markets in 2017. &nbsp;We want to recognize the dedication of our Bedsonline teams across the globe and thank all of our partners for their continued support.

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UK


	Globe Travel Awards for `Best Accommodation-Only Operator´
	Travel Bulletin Star Award for the `Accommodation-Only Provider´ for the 4th year running
	The Selling Travel Agents Choice Awards 2017
	Nomination for the Globe Travel Awards 2018


Ireland


	Irish Travel Industry Awards for the `Best Supplier Sales Representative´
	Trade Partner Representative of the Year at The Worldchoice Ireland Conference for the 2nd year in a row


Netherlands


	Trav Media Vakantie Awards 2017 for the `Best Up-Cross Selling Partner´


Portugal


	The RAVT Awards for the `Best Booking Platform´


Spain


	The Agenttravel Travelranking Award for the `Best Hotel Reservation Center´ in Spain
	The Group AVA award for the `Best Booking Platform 2016´ in the Balearic Islands


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An award winning year for Bedsonline

It has been a real pleasure this week to be here again at the Phocuswright Conference in Fort Lauderdale alongside several of my senior colleagues from Hotelbeds Group and our various brands. We´ve been hearing from virtually all of the industry´s leading figures from the airline, hotel, cruise and travel-technology sectors via speeches, debates and in some cases even face-to-face during the breaks.

Coming together like this as an industry is essential and this event more than any other sets the agenda for the coming year, leaving us all with a lot of food for thought.

Clearly the highlight for me has been seeing our Executive Chairman, Joan Vilà, participate in the Executive Roundtable ´Accommodation Upended´ that took place on Thursday – exploring how the distribution landscape is rapidly evolving for hotel providers. The talk was hosted by Lorraine Sileo from Phocuswright and the other panelists included Patrick Bosworth from Duetto, Tammy Peter from Wyndham Hotel Group, and Sam Shank from HotelTonight.

Another highlight was to hear the news that Phocuswright has officially launched its own publication, PhocusWire.&nbsp; With ex-Tnooz Editor Kevin May at the helm no doubt it will be a great success and I look forward to reading its articles and watching its videos. Visit its website to learn more: https://www.phocuswire.com/

Already I´m looking forward to the Phocuswright Europe event in Amsterdam in May next year, where again Joan will be a guest speaker. Watch this space for more information.


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A letter from Phocuswright 

Chaired by Sam Turner, our Sales Director for Hotelbeds Group, the topic up for discussion was “The future of hotel distribution technology” and Sam was joined by panelists Markus Keller, Senior Vice President at Accor Hotels, Jonny Marsh, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Loveholidays, and Bluecy Zhang,&nbsp;Vice President of Sourcing&nbsp;at Haoqia. Together they explored their views on the challenges and opportunities hotels are facing from disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, along with the entrance into the field of new gatekeepers such as TripAdvisor and voice search tools such as Google Home. &nbsp;

To find out more about the impact of voice search tools on travel, during the panel we conducted a survey of the approximately 200 audience members. The results were very revealing: &nbsp;


	Around half of the audience had never booked accommodation or a flight via their mobile device.
	Only 10% of the audience owned a voice activated device like Google Home or Amazon Echo.
	None of those who owned such a home device had ever used it to search for a travel product.


Following the debate, Sam showed his surprise that in a room full of travel professionals no one had experimented with this exciting technology, reflecting that perhaps millennials are the ones currently more used to using mobile or home devices for voice search. Nevertheless, he felt that “whilst it is still in its infancy, this is definitely the way forward”.

To watch the audience survey and see Sam´s response, watch this video recording we made following the panel.

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Voice recognition and travel reservations: audience survey at World Travel Market

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