What do you do when customer acquisition costs drop 19% in one breath… and digital media prices explode 20–40% in the next?

In this episode of Travel Market Life, I bring together three incredible experts: Christina Lemme (Senior Director, Global Media at Sojern), Caryl Helsel (Founder & CEO, Dragonfly Strategists), and Lee Hawkins (Founder, InsideOut Solutions) to dissect the just-released 2025 Hotel Digital Marketing Performance Index and separate signal from noise.

What You’ll Learn

- The AI Paradox: Why Google’s Performance Max for Travel Goals slashed CAC 19% and delivered 4× booking growth - while the rest of the market got hammered by soaring costs.

- The Desktop Surprise: 63% of actual bookings (and 71% of revenue) still come from desktop, even in a mobile-obsessed world.

- Consent Mode Chaos: How Google Consent Mode v2 is hiding conversions, inflating CPA by up to 38%, and quietly wrecking hotel ad performance.

From OTA bidding wars and shrinking ad inventory to the looming impact of ChatGPT-powered search, we cut through the headlines to deliver the practical moves independent hotels and groups need to make right now.

Travel Market Life is one of FeedSpot's top Hospitality Podcasts and is produced by Urban Podcasts.

In a world drowning in ads, why do we still rush to book with the brands that feel like old friends and how can travel marketers build that magic?

In this episode, I am joined by panellists Claire, Will, and James, plus special guests Jasman Ahmad (Strategy Director, Accord Marketing) and Andy Headington (CEO & Founder, Adido). We unpack what really sucks us in as consumers, the power of long-term brand consistency, the pitfalls of short-termism, and why AI won’t replace bold, human-centred marketing anytime soon.

What You’ll Learn

- Generational Pull: How Lego keeps reinventing itself across ages and the travel brands that could learn from its franchise magic.

- Consistency Over Chaos: Why sticking to your brand voice for 3–5 years beats chasing trends, and how Accor builds emotional connections beyond the logo.

- Investor vs Vision Tension: The real struggle between quick wins for shareholders and the patient craft of unforgettable marketing.

This episode is a masterclass in cutting through the noise: great marketing isn’t louder ads - it’s smarter stories that make travellers choose you again and again.

Travel Market Life is one of FeedSpot's top Hospitality Podcasts and is produced by Urban Podcasts.

Imagine your inbox as a frantic hotel lobby at checkout - hundreds of group booking enquiries piling up, phones ringing off the hook, and teams scrambling just to keep the doors open.

In this episode Tavel Market Life, I am joined by Mandy Stam, Senior Director of Business Solutions at Radisson Hotel Group, and Felix Undeutsch, CEO & Co-founder of Hivr.ai. They pull back the curtain on Radisson’s three-year quest to automate the flood of M&E requests, from painful manual processes to a scalable AI-powered partnership that’s already slashing response times and boosting conversions.

What You’ll Learn

- The Hidden Pain: Why meetings and events enquiries are the Wild West of hotel sales - high volume, low visibility, and teams drowning in copy-paste chaos.

- Pilot-First Trust: How Radisson and Hivr.ai built confidence with small-property trials, real metrics, and radical transparency instead of glossy promises.

- Measurement Over Magic: The power of finally seeing your baseline - conversion rates, timeouts, bottlenecks and turning blind spots into actionable wins.

Mandy and Felix’s journey is a masterclass in practical automation: start small, measure everything, trust the data, and watch scattered enquiries become streamlined revenue.

For more on the solution, visit hivr.ai.

Travel Market Life is one of FeedSpot's top Hospitality Podcasts and is produced by Urban Podcasts.