Online presence and published work
November 18, 2024 | Technically Speaking
In this episode of Technically Speaking, we are joined by Ira Vouk, a hospitality tech entrepreneur and industry leader, who takes us through her inspiring journey from cleaning hotel rooms to revolutionizing the hospitality tech landscape. Ira shares how her immigrant experience and humble beginnings in the hotel industry shaped her passion for innovation and growth. Today, as the founder of a cutting-edge hospitality tech company, she is at the forefront of using AI to drive revenue management and empower hoteliers to take control of their businesses.
October 23, 2024 | GAIN
We’ve all seen those charts of the typical hotel tech stack: complicated. But does it really have to be that way? Tech veteran and published author Ira Vouk, says – no it doesn’t. She joined our LinkedIn Live session to speak to us about:
- How hotel tech got so complicated, and why.
- Why you should bypass expensive tech consultancy.
- Integrations, AI for hospitality, and more.
Plus a sneak peek into her latest book.
July 5, 2024 | hertelier
Ira Vouk, Founder of Hospitality 2.0 Consulting, delivered an impressive productivity workshop presentation on the tools available to harness the power of ChatGPT. Ira commanded the stage of a packed room providing first-hand experience to the free tools available (i.e. ChatPDF, Midjourney, Perplexity) for use to enhance the prompts for better AI results.
July 2, 2024 | HospitalityNet
During HITEC 2024, Hospitality Net’s Simone Puorto sat down with Ira Vouk, a multifaceted leader in the hospitality industry, to discuss the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in hospitality. Vouk, an educator, consultant, author, and tech entrepreneur, shared her insights on AI’s evolving role and its future implications for the industry. This interview is part of our HITEC 2024 series, where industry leaders share their predictions for the future of hospitality technology.
June 24, 2024 | HFTP
Ira Vouk led her renowned AI workshop for HITEC attendees (standing room only) and moderated an insightful discussion on AI adoption in hospitality with other industry leaders.
June 24, 2024 | Tech Fin Hospitality Magazine by HFTP
An article written by Ira Vouk for the inaugural issue of the Fin Tech magazine produced by HFTP and distributed during HITEC Charlotte. The author presents a guide to all possible use cases of AI adoption in the hospitality industry that is based on thorough industry research conducted by her in May 2024. The use cases are grouped into five categories of technology.
May 1, 2024 | Hotel Business Magazine
Ira Vouk was interviewed for a cover story in one of the lates issues of the Hotel Business Magazine on the controversial topic of Artificial Intelligence and its adoption in the hospitality industry. “I don’t think it really matters how we feel about it. -we can’t stop it,” said Ira Vouk, industry consultant and author of the book Hospitality 2.0. “You can try to deny it or resist it. If you do, then you are not going to be up to speed on the recent developments and the new technologies, and you are not going to learn the skill that is required to be competitive in the new environment.”
May 1, 2024 | Hospitality for Hospitality
Omri Shalev, our host and also the co-founder & CTO of Reeco, hasIra Vouk as a guest. Ira, a seasoned consultant, author, and lecturer in hospitality technology, shares her tremendous expertise on integrating technology into hotels seamlessly, especially for those accustomed to traditional methods and manual processes.
Together, we will explore the challenges of adopting technology within the hospitality industry, such as why it’s so difficult to introduce new technology to hotels, the investments required from the team, and how to stay up-to-date in 2024. Ira will share her insights along with real stories and examples.
Jan 11, 2024 | Diego De Ponga
In the age of information and innovation, 2024 is shaping up to be a crucial year for professionals seeking to excel in sales, technology and revenue management. The key to staying relevant in these areas is to constantly be learning and adapting. And what better way to do it than by following the most prominent experts in the sector?
Ira Vouk has been featured in this list as one of the top Hospitality Technology experts.
Sep 27, 2023 | Ira Vouk Consulting
After thoroughly examining and dissecting a variety of diagrams and maps of hotel technology from various sources, I have put together a comprehensive, yet user-friendly outline of our Hotel Technology Ecosystem, which I’m excited to share with the industry.
This is your new, cleaned-up, organized hotel technology ecosystem of Hospitality 2.0, now with extra glitter.
This diagram explains the current hotel technology map by arranging existing tools into color-coded categories while also placing them on the spectrum of guest-facing vs back-office tools.
For a detailed overview of this map, join my online learning course “A Deep Dive into the Hospitality Technology Ecosystem“.
Sep 11, 2023 | Tourism Economics
Ira Vouk co-authored this article with other hospitality professors.
This article proposes the k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) algorithm as a forecasting approach that can transition the “black box” to a “glass box.” The benefits of the k-NN are discussed in detail and compared with neural networks. The results indicate similar performance for both techniques, leading to an important discussion on model evaluation outside of accuracy. In particular, the article discusses some of the unique advantages k-NN provides for the RM discipline.
Nov 16, 2023 | Dojo Live
In this interview, Ira Vouk shares how to navigate in the complex environment of hospitality technology.
Oct 23, 2023 | Hospitality Daily
Even though I’ve spent most of my career working in hospitality tech, it all still feels so complicated. And I’m not alone. The person we’re learning from today, Ira Vouk, recently created a simple illustration of a hotel tech stack – all the pieces you need to run a modern hotel efficiently – and it went viral, with tens of thousands of people viewing and quickly sharing it.
Ira explains the hotel tech landscape, teaches us how to shop for technology, and then gives her predictions on how technology will evolve.
Aug 17, 2023 | TravelPreneur
Joining us today is Ira Vouk, a visionary leader in the hospitality industry with a profound passion for automation and travel technology. She works as a hospitality technology and revenue management consultant. As the founder of Hospitality 2.0 Consulting, Ira has dedicated the past several years to bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and the world of hotels and hospitality tech vendors.
We are delighted to have Ira Vouk join us today to delve into her journey, passion for technology, and the transformative role Hospitality 2.0 Consulting plays in shaping the future of the hospitality industry. Stay tuned for an enlightening conversation on how innovation is reshaping the way hotels operate and engage with technology.
Jun 26, 2023 | HFTP
Ira Vouk, hospitality consultant and author, moderated an eye-opening session devoted to one of her favorite topics: the intersection of profit optimization, analytics and technology.
“Things you didn’t know about RevPAR: leveraging data to boost profits”
Ira also participated in the “Introduction to HITEC” session as a panelist to welcome newcomers to the HITEC-verse and walk them through the main aspects of this major industry tech conference.
Jun 1, 2023 | MACHINELAB
At the tender age of 21, armed with nothing more than a mere $100 in her pocket and a heart brimming with aspirations, today Ira Vouk is one of the most sought-after figures in the global hospitality arena.
While the journey wasn’t the easiest, Ira reveals to Machinelab Ventures that she secretly revelled in the curveballs thrown her way – why? It helped her evolve and launch out of her comfort zone
Feb 8, 2023 | HospitalityNet
Recently I conducted a detailed 360-degree analysis of Revenue Management technology available in the hospitality industry today. About 30 vendors were analyzed. This article contains the outline of the main conclusions that resulted from this research.
For the full report, please reach out via email at info@iravouk.com.
Jan 19, 2022 | HospitalityNet
This article describes main barriers for technology companies to scale in the hospitality industry.
Oct 19, 2022 | HFTP
Our industry is at a pivotal moment as the pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technologies. As those adoption rates are steadily climbing, more companies seek to scale their software and hardware product offerings in the industry. In order for them to be successful and grow their business efficiently, they need to clearly understand the hospitality market and avoid the major mistakes that can kill their entire business.
Sep 6, 2022 | HITEC
Ira Vouk is appointed as a HITEC NA Advisory Council member.
Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), producers of the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®) has put together an expert group of industry professionals to serve on the advisory council for its upcoming North American event – experts to design program covering crucial topics in hospitality technology.
Jul 26, 2022 | AIRSAGE
In this edition, Ira Vouk shares how hospitality, tourism, and big data increases opportunities in the travel industry.
The hotel and tourism industries have had a difficult time sustaining since the Covid 19 pandemic breakout two years ago. The newest Omicron strain struck just as the tourist sector was beginning to recover from the pandemic’s grip, making the future prospects as bleak as possible. As a result, firms in this sector are adopting innovative and creative strategies to attract travelers and visitors from all over the world.
May 24, 2022 | HEDNA
The Hospitality industry is in need of a technological upgrade to a new reality. Moderated by the author of “Hospitality 2.0” Ira Vouk, this panel discussion provided valuable insights on how the travel and hospitality industry can better adapt to the new digitized environment. It comes at a pivotal moment as the pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technologies in all aspects of our daily lives. Our panel of experts will discuss a path forward for the digital transformation of hospitality.
June 16, 2022 | Technology 4 Hotels
“It’s Brendon, the technology concierge.
Today, I’m joined by Ira Vouk, she’s the author of Hospitality 2.0, and if you haven’t read it I would certainly encourage you to do.
I’ve been in the industry for a long time but I learned so much in reading it, she’s a hospitality technology consultant, she’s a founder of a revenue management company, a speaker, and a lecturer.”
June 8, 2022 | InfoSys
Catch Ira Vouk, MBA , #technologyinnovator in the hospitality industry , author of “Hospitality 2.0” , #Hospitality Technology Consultant, Pricing and Revenue Management Professional in conversation with Samik Ghatak, AVP – Travel and Hospitality Practice, Infosys in the 6th edition of #travellounge talk series. They explore how #hoteliers should look at technology and how #revenuemanagement is a key driver for top and bottom line.
April 19, 2022 | Top Floor Podcast
Let’s face it: Susan Barry is one of the nerdiest people you’ve ever met, so when she meets her match in Ira Vouk, you know something special is happening. Ira is the author of Hospitality 2.0, about the digital revolution in hospitality. This conversation is long and interesting, so stay tuned for part two.
April 11, 2022 | HospitalityNet
Ira Vouk and Carl Winston discuss the challenge that everyone is aware of but nobody talks about. There is currently a big gap between hospitality academia and the industry. Ira and Carl attempt to answer the questions about why we’re facing this problem where the two worlds are drastically out of sync, and what we can do to start solving it.
March 22, 2022 | HospitalityNet
Enjoy the passionate discussion between Ira Vouk (author of “Hospitality 2.0”, industry consultant and tech innovator) and Max Starkov (Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant & Strategist) on the role of technology in our industry.
March 16, 2022 | Hotelier Middle East
Partner content: Revenue management company Duetto surveyed professionals from around the world and gathered insights from industry experts.
Author of HOSPITALITY 2.0: Digital Revolution in the Hotel Industry, Ira Vouk said hotels need to take a holistic, profit-orientated approach, with tech firmly at the centre. She takes this a step further by calling for the RMS to assume centre stage ahead of the Property Management System (PMS) as the lynchpin of hotel business operations.
March 16, 2022 | Infosys
A roundtable discussion around what is driving the transformations in the travel industry.
March 3, 2022 | eHotelier
What do the next 5-10 years look like? The Hospitality industry is in need of an upgrade to a new version. ‘Hospitality 2.0’ is a call to action for proactive change that will help hoteliers compete against the growing challenges presented by alternative accommodations, technological advancement, the COVID pandemic and labour constraints. It outlines a path forward for the digital transformation of our industry.
Author of “Hospitality Revenue Management Made Easy“, “Hospitality 2.0” is Ira’s second book, focused on defining what we can expect in the future, the trends, consumer and industry changes.
February 14, 2022 | Hospitality Technology Magazine
New book by former hotelier, technologist Ira Vouk reveals how hotels can implement successful business strategies through innovative technology solutions and redesigned operations
February 8, 2022 | Hospitality Technology Magazine
This book is about the past, present, and future of hospitality. It presents a comprehensive study on the state of the industry by describing the challenges it has been dealing with, major disruptions in the recent years, effects of tech evolution, cloud computing, alternative accommodations and COVID-19, with a glimpse into what the future holds in the next 5-10 years and how we can get there faster and more efficiently.
December 10, 2021 | HospitalityNet
Fornova, the hospitality intelligence solutions provider yesterday welcomed Ira Vouk as the newest member of its advisory board. Ira, a hospitality revenue management professional with almost 20 years of practical experience within the sector, will support Fornova with its product development and business strategy.
September 15, 2021 | Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
In July, the School of Hotel Administration’s Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) hosted a virtual roundtable called Finding the Balance Between Driving Revenue & Managing Costs. A group of twenty-three academics and experts from various sectors of the hospitality industry attended the two-hour event. Through moderated discussion, they challenged the industry’s long standing practice of managing top line room revenues, proposed a shift to managing cash flow, and aimed to uncover opportunities for turning talk into action, with their ultimate goal being industry wide implementation of profit management and profit benchmarking.
The main takeaways from each session are highlighted in this article.
August 31, 2021 | HospitalityNet
Essentially, what Revenue Managers are doing today (and what we’re still teaching the new generation) is using historical internal occupancy data to predict number of expected booked rooms for a given day in the future.
Let’s be honest with ourselves: with this approach, we’re not predicting demand, we’re predicting occupancy while absolutely ignoring the hotel’s pricing strategy, and this is a big problem.
Read further for more details.
2020-2021 | HospitalityNet
A panel of hospitality industry leaders and experts dedicated to the topics of innovation, optimizations and profitability.
December 22, 2021 | Revenue Academy
Interviewed along with other industry leaders for a review published by Revenue Academy on how 2020 shaped up for revenue management and those in the discipline.
August 10, 2021 | Duetto Research
As hotel markets begin to see demand return, revenue managers now need to start conducting some housekeeping on their strategies rather than just reacting to the inconsistencies in the market. Room type efficiency analysis is one aspect of revenue management that is often overlooked while having a huge potential to improve your profitability.
June 2, 2021 | Duetto Research
The pandemic made it obvious (and painful) to hoteliers that in any situation that poses uncertainty it is crucial to quickly develop and deploy strategies to adapt to both short- and long-term shifts in demand. But here’s the thing. Travel demand has always been uncertain. And history never repeats itself. Recent events just highlighted this fact for all of us and pushed the Revenue Management discipline towards more innovations in the areas of forecasting and optimization.
In early 2020 it became clear that forecasting and optimization algorithms had to be reimagined. Responding to a constantly evolving demand landscape requires an intelligent and flexible revenue strategy platform that quickly learns and adapts to myriad factors that impact the decisions you make. A platform that is agile and adaptable.
March 8, 2021 | Duetto Research
Ira Vouk joined Duetto in August 2020 as Senior Director of Product Management Data & Analytics. She has nearly two decades of experience working in hospitality, predominantly championing the role of revenue management and the use of technology to provide hoteliers with insight to improve how they lead their business strategy.
A published author and educator on revenue management, Vouk is looking forward to showing owners and operators the role technology can play in all aspects of hotel operations.
We caught up with her to find out more about her role, her experience, and her future goals.
December 10, 2020 | HospitalityNET
2020 has shown all businesses how important it is to not just recognize changes in the environment but to be able to quickly and efficiently adapt to those changes. And just like after previous disruptions, the most adaptable and innovative hotels will thrive, leaving others staring at the horizon.
How do you make the right decision when selecting a Revenue Management system for your hotel or your portfolio of properties?
November 27, 2020 | Hospitality Inside
An insightful discussion around “old” and “new” approaches to forecasting in the hospitality industry and how the pandemic has been driving the trend towards automation and Machine Learning in the Revenue Management discipline.
December 1, 2020 | FunnelTV #justpitchit
Organized by Funnel TV, over 40 Travel Tech Companies met online to present their innovations through a strictly live “pitch elevators”. #justpitchit
Ira Vouk represented Duetto RMS as a Senior Director of Product Management, Data & Analytics
February 17, 2020 | Advanced Hospitality Technologies
AHT Inc. commemorated the leading-edge achievements of professionals who have dedicated their careers to innovate hospitality. Their recent 2020 countdown celebrated 17 hospitality leaders who are leading the evolution of technology in the industry. Ira Vouk is one of their most honored innovators, a professional with almost 20 years of hospitality experience. AHT had the opportunity to engage Ms. Vouk for an exclusive interview. Ira discussed with AHT some brilliant insights on hospitality technology, revenue management, the future of the industry, her personal journey as an influencer of the industry, and a bit from the heart.
January 29, 2020 | eHotelier
Sophisticated technology surrounds us in our everyday live, AI algorithms predict our shopping behavior, social media ads are tailored to our needs based on vast amounts of data gathered and analyzed through the web. Yet at the same time, most hoteliers are still adopting old-school generic marketing approach without investing in any (even basic) technology.
January 16, 2020 | Cloudbeds
A series of articles uncovering revenue management startegies that are designed to help hospitality operators realize optimal revenues and profits for capacity-constrained and perishable assets (hotel rooms).
November 12, 2019 | Cloudbeds
Softening demand is naturally followed by a desire to lower rates in order to offset the loss in occupancy. Are we in danger of starting another rate to the bottom?
October 9, 2019 | Lodging Leaders Podcast
Revenue Management has been playing an increasingly important role in hotel operations in the last decade. While the hospitality industry traditionally has been considered relatively conservative in adopting new strategies and technologies, things are looking better than they did just a few years ago. This article highlights major trends that we’re noticing in the Revenue Management world today, as we conclude the current decade of innovations.
September 13, 2019 | eHotelier
Revenue Management has been playing an increasingly important role in hotel operations in the last decade. While the hospitality industry traditionally has been considered relatively conservative in adopting new strategies and technologies, things are looking better than they did just a few years ago. This article highlights major trends that we’re noticing in the Revenue Management world today, as we conclude the current decade of innovations.
April 10, 2019 | Skift Research
Interviewed along with other hospitality tech executives for a research that was aimed to investigate the current landscape of Revenue Management systems, highlighting the opportunities for growth in the upcoming years.
January 29, 2018 | HospitalityNET
As Revenue Management becomes more and more relevant in the Travel industry and more hotels finally begin to understand the importance of dynamic pricing fluctuations, various hospitality companies start introducing products that are aimed at assisting hoteliers with managing their revenue, one way or another. A wide range of RM/pricing solutions have flooded the market, and there is a wide range of companies offering them: from strictly RM tech companies, to PMS providers, to even Online Travel Agencies. How reliable are those tools and how much faith should hoteliers put in them? There are two major aspects that we need to review in order to answer this question.
January 15, 2018 | HospitalityNET
Revenue Management techniques are dictated by the type of product you’re selling. What are the main characteristics of hotel rooms as a product and what makes it different from, let’s say, apples?..
January 3, 2018 | HospitalityNET
As we know, the main goal of Revenue Management is to sell the right product to the right customer at the right time and for the right price, with an ultimate goal to maximize the bottom line (the final profit). “The right price” is found through Dynamic Pricing, which should be the central element of every property’s Revenue Management strategy.
March 1, 2016 | HospitalityNET
Why revenue needs to be managed? The answer is obvious: to increase profits. Unfortunately, not all hotel operators understand the importance of managing revenue and paying enough attention to this activity. Times of “set it and forget it” are long gone. In order to be able to respond to this challenge and not get lost in constantly changing market conditions, every single hotel needs to understand the value of adequate proactive daily Revenue Management.
April 21, 2015 | HospitalityNET
The slogan of the successful Revenue Management is to sell the right product to the right customer at the right time and for the right price. It sounds relatively simple but is not easy to accomplish. How do we know when the right time comes, what the right price is and what types of customers we should target?
December 22, 2014 | HospitalityNET
The effect of incorrect overbooking policies (or the lack of thereof) is being widely underestimated in the industry, especially in the limited service/middle tier segment. Proper overselling at the peak of demand helps hoteliers sell their rooms at the premium rate and not leave money on the table from empty rooms due to anticipated cancelations and no-shows. This is optimal strategy that leads to revenue (and profit) maximization. The additional revenues gained from the overselling techniques go straight to the bottom line. But nonetheless, not very many hoteliers embrace this practice. It’s still very common for most managers (especially in the middle tier segment) to close out availability on all channels before they reach 100% occupancy mark for a certain day…
September 22, 2014 | HospitalityNET
RevPAR is also not the most perfect index for measuring a hotel’s actual productivity (or, the Revenue Management and pricing strategy, to be exact), regardless of the widely spread opinion in the hotel industry. This statistic does not objectively reflect the performance (and profitability) of your hotel, due to the following:
- It does not take CPOR into account (costs per occupied room). You can’t tell what optimal occupancy you need to reach by only looking at your RevPAR.
- It does not take into consideration any additional income a hotel may have from other revenue-generating departments (restaurants, meeting space, banquet rooms, casinos, parking, spa, etc.)
