Web3 in the Hospitality Industry. Where are We?

The other day, I was interviewed regarding the application of Web3 in the hospitality industry. The complete video will be released in a few weeks, but in the meantime, I'd like to share an excerpt of our discussion. Enjoy!

Hi Simone, can you tell us your story?

Sure! At 18, I aspired to become a philosophy teacher (sic!). However, to pay for my studies, I took a job as a hotel receptionist, which I initially thought was a dumb job. But as it turns out, the job was not simple at all. I quickly fell in love with the hospitality industry and worked my way up the ladder, becoming the general manager of a small chain of boutique hotels in Rome ( Dharma Hotel ), Italy, before I turned 30. Despite my success in the operational aspect of the hospitality industry, I yearned for a change and decided to shift my focus toward consulting and technology. This led me to move to Paris for a few years, where I worked in several web agencies, gaining valuable experience and knowledge. Finally, I decided to start my consulting firm, Travel Singularity , where I could utilize my expertise and knowledge to help others in the travel and hospitality industry. Since then, I have written and published four books and organized the first-ever travel and hospitality event in the Metaverse, Polybius, together with Hospitality Net . In addition, I am an MBA lecturer and member of the advisory board of several leading companies, including BWG Strategy LLC , RobosizeME - Process Automation in Hospitality , Vision Studio S.r.l. , TellTheHotel | Hotel Chatbot , E23 Retail , Playhotel Next , and Metaverse Evangelist for Fondazione Olitec Comitato Costituente .

How did you enter the world of Web3?

I believe it all started with my love of science fiction. I was deeply impacted when I first read William Gibson's "Neuromancer" as a teenager. The concept of cyberspace in the book captivated me. I was fortunate to have grown up in Italy, where there were many excellent translations of science fiction novels by authors like Philip K. Dick and James Ballard. These books, which in many ways predicted the Metaverse, opened my mind to the possibilities of the future at a young age. It's often said that "science fiction becomes science fact." Many works of science fiction have predicted real-world technologies, from H.G. Wells' prediction of the nuclear bomb to flat-screen TVs and Bluetooth technology in "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury to the iPad in Arthur Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey," and Google Translate in Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." If I'm being honest, I believe we should read more science fiction novels and fewer motivational books.

Tell us about how the world of hospitality intersects with web3. How is the hospitality industry embracing web3 tools now?

I have mixed emotions about the intersection of hospitality and web3. I can only name a few exciting projects in this field, which feel like déjà vu from the mid-90s. Many people seem to be suffering from "metaverse FOMO" currently, and numerous companies claim to be involved with crypto, blockchain, Metaverse, or Web3 without having any real connection to it. The environment design and development space are filled with amateurs, leading to glitchy and unpleasant custom metaverse environments. To reach the utopian Metaverse everyone dreams of, several infrastructures must be created, and shared standards and protocols must be established for interoperability. The Metaverse Standards Forum is working towards this, but there is no single metaverse, only many walled garden platforms. Currently, what we are experiencing today is a multiverse rather than a metaverse.

What's the best experience you've had in the Metaverse?

citizenM hotels stands out as a unique player in the industry, as they have taken the right approach to integrating the Metaverse and the real world. They have created a digital representation of their brand on The Sandbox, a virtual platform where users can interact and create digital content. CitizenM will fully utilize the revenues generated from this metaverse structure to finance a physical property. The property will be selected and voted on by the token holders, who will also play a significant role in decision-making for CitizenM. Integrating the Metaverse and the physical world will also bring value to digital artists, as they can sell their art pieces and receive profits. By giving a voice to the community through token ownership and decision-making power, CitizenM is paving the way for a new and exciting model of business that blends the virtual and physical worlds.

What is your vision for Polybius. Uncovering Web3 in Hospitality ?

From my first experience in the Metaverse, I learned that we need a diversity of perspectives to truly understand it. Social scientist Etienne Wenger once stated that the era of individual geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci is over and that solving complex problems today requires multiple perspectives. This idea is supported by Surowiecki's theory that a group of diverse individuals making independent decisions will make better predictions than a group of like-minded experts. Unfortunately, this was the critical flaw of my first metaverse event. The speakers were fantastic, but they approached the metaverse opportunities with a similar mindset. So I created Polybius, bringing together a group of thought leaders and experts from outside the hospitality industry, such as academics, developers, NFT artists, and even a metaverse lawyer. We risk missing significant developments just behind us by only looking in one direction.

Walk us through why selling hotel rooms as NFTs make sense.

The main goal is to democratize travel and hospitality through blockchain technology, streamline the hotel booking process, and reduce dependence on third-party platforms such as online travel agencies, bedbanks, and wholesalers. For example, if a hotel sells a room for $200 and an event causes the price for that night to skyrocket to $500, the traveler who originally bought the room for $200 can resell it for a higher price, creating value for both the hotel and the reselling user. Decentralized marketplaces have the potential to become the Ticketmaster of the industry, reflecting not only innovation but also the evolution of room distribution, especially among the crypto-native generation. Combining blockchain technology with a destination marketplace leads to the democratization of travel. By using decentralized systems to manage the distribution of hotel rooms and flight seats, there can be improved pricing and inventory management, leading to increased revenue. Travelers can purchase a non-fungible token (NFT) that represents their hotel booking, which can be connected to a travel exchange, allowing them to resell their travel at their desired price, creating a decentralized micro-economy. This makes a new secondary market for travel bookings, giving hotels complete visibility and access to the market and the ability to bid to buy back their rooms for revenue management purposes. Room tokenization benefits hotels and travelers by eliminating intermediaries, making the marketplace highly efficient and less expensive than traditional online travel agencies. This concept turns currently "dead" assets into valuable bookings, similar to how concert tickets are bought and sold today.

"What Zuckerberg has in mind for Horizon is a dystopian advertising nightmare." Strong words - tell us why?

Have you ever heard of Thea-Mai Baumann? She's an Australian artist and technologist whose Instagram account was removed after Facebook changed its name to Meta. She used the handle @metaverse for nearly a decade to document her life and work. Then, the account was disabled with a message saying it had been blocked for pretending to be someone else... Do you see where I am going with this? Building a centralized metaverse means creating the same issues of Web2 but on steroids... Focus less on realism and more on decentralization, or the Metaverse will be nothing more than 'The Sims' with ads...

We believe that the Metaverse and its related technologies must be used for good. Do you know any individuals or orgs that are using the Metaverse and/or other Web3 technologies for good?

Yes, and it's also Italian, so I am very proud. Fourteen young patients at the Santobono Hospital in Naples, Italy, watched the Champions League final match between Real Madrid and Liverpool through VR headsets. The VR experience, designed and produced by Meta-Experience and Cultura Immersiva companies, allowed the patients to feel as though they were watching the game from the Stade de France in Paris instead of a hospital room. This was the first social use of VR technology in a hospital setting in the world. The initiative's goal was to bring a smile to the faces of the children and provide them with a unique and memorable experience.

Do you have any practical tips that might help our Meta-curious watchers learn more about Web3 technologies? Where and how can they expand their Web3-repertoire?

Just make sure to divide the hype from the reality. If you have to pick one book, pick Matthew Ball 's "The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything." That's a great start. And then, of course, sign up for Polybius!