Speaking on his appointment, Thomas Hertkorn said: “there is hardly anything more exciting than the digital transformation in an industry such as the hotel industry, which is traditionally based on personal service”. When asked what his goal and vision is for a&o, Hertkorn said: “achieving even better results with intelligent systems.”

The marketing specialist is returning to a&o Hostels having previously been responsible for online brand communications between 2017 and 2020. Phillip Winter, Chief Marketing Officer at a&o Hostels, said: “With Thomas Hertkorn, we are gaining back an expert who combines innovation with measurability. Together, we will further increase a&o’s competitiveness and use artificial intelligence in a targeted manner where it creates significant added value for guests and processes.”

Hertkorn started his career at the Berlin digital agency Peak Ace and has held several positions in various B2C and B2B markets, most recently as Head of Sales and Lead AI Innovations. More than 15 years of digital marketing expertise at agency and company level shape Hertkorn’s view of technology, with a particular focus on AI developments: “it is always important to find the right balance between responsibility and risk, opportunities and limits, efficiency and transparency”, said Hertkorn. The “passionate digital transformer” also talks up the importance of a “necessary dynamic balance” through constant learning, further training and staying up to date with the most current trends and industry developments.

Artificial intelligence, added value, a&o Club

Optimised guest experiences and customer interactions, increased efficiency and new, sustainable and flexible services and business models are also constant challenges for Europe’s leading budget group a&o, who operate 42 hotels in ten European countries. “Just under three million guests last year is proof for us that we are successfully using new technologies such as mobile booking routes or AI-supported customer care while at the same time meeting local expectations in terms of service and quality”, said Phillip Winter. Regarding the digital marketing strategy, Thomas Hertkorn sees the following aspects, among others, as key success factors:

• Personalisation and interaction: targeted communication across the entire customer journey;
• Address quality and frequency: providing relevant content, with the right timing and scalable implementation;
• Use of large language models (LLMs): AI-supported text generation for flexible campaigns, user interaction and conversion rate optimisation.

With regards customer orientation in particular, Hertkorn is relying on a changed understanding of digital decision-making processes: “In view of the limited targeting options for Google Ads, the increasing influence of AI agents on traditional search paths and the declining visibility due to AI overviews, we need new metrics and data-based optimisation that is geared towards AI-driven user behaviour”, he said.

At the same time, the a&o Club is being significantly expanded to target regular guests with personalised offers.

Source