Author: sHq_LoGiNz

Las Vegas Sands

One of Sands’ guiding principles is to make strategic investments that ensure its resorts deliver world-class service and the most desirable offerings to attract high-value leisure and business travelers. Closely related is another guiding principle – embracing innovation and design excellence to enhance the guest experience.

As the company’s chief hospitality officer for Asia, Tane Picken is the steward for the on-property experience at Sands’ resorts in Singapore and Macao – and, therefore, responsible for turning these principles into action.

A hospitality industry veteran, Picken brings a wealth of experience to this role with operational expertise gleaned at more than 40 properties in locations across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He held a variety of leadership roles at Hilton and Shangri-La before joining Marina Bay Sands in 2021. Picken was elevated to chief hospitality officer overseeing hospitality functions for both Marina Bay Sands and Sands China in September 2025.

With delivering world-class service, the industry’s most desirable offerings and innovation in the guest experience as his mission, Picken breaks down Sands’ approach to setting its resorts apart and continually improving offerings to keep guests returning.

How are you working to ensure Sands resorts are known as the epitome of excellence and innovation?

“I currently oversee all of hospitality operations across our two regions, which encompass the entire customer journey beginning at pre-arrival and through their arrival and entire stay until departure. That’s everything from room accommodations for guests to their food and beverage experiences. It also includes their lifestyle – swimming pools, gym and spa, and everything around the lifestyle aspects of our resorts such as our museums and attractions. I’m also overseeing the customer experience in our meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) venues.

“That is a large body of experiences across many different customer sets. To be successful, we must break it down and dig into the details. For example, sometimes hospitality companies forget that we’re in the business of sleep. What does a guest need when they sleep? What are their requirements? What do they touch? What gives them an ultimate hotel experience above others?

“We answer questions like these in all areas of the business – accommodations, dining, experiences, venues – and we build templates to inform every facet of our development and execution. We have guidelines and visions for product development, room and building design, guest service, technology assets and more, and they all reach for standards above and beyond the norm.

“Everything that goes into these guidelines and standards are to satisfy our requirements for excellence and innovation and keep customers wanting to return for more. Using this, my role is to replicate excellence across our portfolio – to build the same guest journey in Macao and Singapore and transfer things we do well in one region to the other.”

 

How does Sands stay abreast of emerging tastes and trends to develop or evolve offerings?

“First, we have to understand what’s happening in the world – who’s building what, what’s the latest in the industry, and what are the latest amenities and experiences the customer is expecting?

“The second approach is getting data from our customers – knowing what’s happening with our customers and how we can make changes to improve their experience. We have millions of guests passing through our casinos, meeting facilities and other venues. So, we have a huge potential pool of people daily to give feedback about what they’re looking for, what makes them happy and what makes them come back. Our goal is to tap into that tremendous wealth of data and find ways to deliver on their wants and needs.

“The third aspect is how do we incorporate new developments in technology such as robotics and AI to help in productivity and execution, without damaging the culture, service and ethos of what we deliver.

“Finally, and maybe most critically, is the understanding that every hospitality company can build a product, but how can we be creative and unique in our delivery? How are we developing our service, our culture and our experiences to differentiate us and be better than everyone else.”

 

What are a few examples of the guest experience enhancements you’re working on?

“I spoke about hospitality companies forgetting about sleep – but, we’re definitely thinking about sleep and digging into the core basics because it’s truly a foundational experience for guests. We’ve come up with what we call a 99.9% sleep program, which addresses comfort, light and noise disturbance, and fixability for needs. What we’re trying to do is incorporate technology and innovation that gives our guests that 99.9% experience.

“Do we have the right technology in the mattresses? How can we reduce light bleeding into the room to avoid sleep disruption? So, we’re experimenting with ways to create total blackout. Also, how do we make our lighting smarter so that when you get up at night for the bathroom, what’s the right amount of lighting to bring you back without fully waking you? We’re tackling the basic fundamentals of a hotel room in ways that deliver innovative features to elevate the guest experience.

“We’re looking at similar details to create excellence through the incorporation of technology in our food and beverage venues, and we look at each restaurant differently. For some restaurants, more technology, such as using iPads for ordering and checkout, is important. In our higher-end, higher-touch restaurants, we’re bringing in technology that is more about sound, lighting, entertainment, or food and cocktail making. If you’re going to a five-star restaurant, you don’t want a robot clearing your table. But, can technology enhance the cocktail you’re getting or the way your food is prepared?

“In the MICE arena, it’s really all about innovation and technology, and we have two separate lenses that inform our development. First, what conveniences and benefits can we bring customers – for example, having the best coffee machines, tea and snacks available, very fast?

“We also look at technology for audio-visual equipment, for example the incorporation of virtual reality. We have a product that enables someone in the United States to be filmed and his 3D projection can be shown on stage in Singapore. In our MICE business, we’re extremely focused on adding convenience for customers and massive technology development.

“The other lens in MICE is increasing productivity in our operations, and we’re doing that by adding technology such as employing robotics for night cleaning.”

For a snapshot of Sands’ world-class integrated resorts, visit https://www.sands.com/properties/, and to learn about the company’s journey in becoming a global integrated resort leader, visit https://www.sands.com/company/our-story/.

AI Can’t Quote Coverage You Never Generated

Most brands don’t realize they have an AI visibility problem — until they see the audit.

We recently reviewed a client’s presence in AI search results. What came back was thin: outdated coverage, a critical 2021 piece, a competitor comparison nobody on the marketing team had ever seen. The gap was obvious the moment it hit the screen.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: AI assistants describe your brand with total confidence whether or not you’ve earned that description. Research shows citations increase trust even when they’re wrong — most people never check, and the ones who do only lose trust after the fact.

So how do generative AI systems actually decide who to cite? Not by who publishes most. By who’s most corroborated across credible third-party sources. One analysis of 21,000+ brand mentions across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity found 85% of citations came from third-party sources — brands were 6.5x more likely to be cited through earned media than their own content. Separate research across industries found the same pattern: earned media dominates, owned content barely registers.

This isn’t an argument to abandon owned channels — blogs, social, press releases are still raw material. But they’re inputs, not credibility. What others say about you now carries far more weight than what you say about yourself.

The brands winning in AI search aren’t the ones with the biggest content teams. They’re the ones with the deepest independent coverage and the richest citation trails built over time.

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With MEES requirements set to tighten significantly by 2031, commercial landlords face mounting pressure to improve the energy performance of their properties. Understanding the coming changes—and how to prepare for them—will ease the path to compliance.

Commercial properties are facing energy efficiency problems on an enormous scale. Research shows that more than 13,000 commercial rental properties in England and Wales fail to meet the current Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES). This includes nearly 5% of total office stock.

With MEES set to increase to a requirement of a B rating or higher by 2031, an estimated 680,000 properties (75%) are not yet aligned. Findings suggest that it will take until at least 2040 for all commercial rented properties to achieve compliance based on current trajectories. The pressure is on to improve our building stock to meet current and future regulations.

What is MEES?

Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) is the legal requirement that sets a minimum energy performance for privately rented property in England and Wales. It was introduced under the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015, with the intent of making improvements to the least efficient stock.

MEES and Commercial Properties

For commercial property, landlords can only lawfully let their premises if they have an EPC rating of E or higher. This now applies to all existing leases unless a valid exemption is registered.

MEES also applies to domestic private rented property, although the rules and penalties differ from those for non‑domestic buildings. Domestic landlords face their own minimum EPC standards, exemption routes and enforcement processes, so the steps you take for commercial properties won’t always translate. If you manage both types of properties, it is important to treat domestic and non-domestic compliance separately.

MEES Changes on the Horizon

In 2021, the UK Government launched a public consultation on how to implement and enforce raised minimum EPC ratings of B by 2030. The government’s response to the consultations were finally published in June 2026. It set out the target for all commercial buildings to achieve a minimum EPC to B by 2031. Final policy details and timings are subject to the implementation of secondary legislation, but the direction of travel is clear: the next 5 years is a crucial period for building energy efficiency upgrades.

Quick Ways to Improve EPC Ratings

A property may not always need to have a heat pump, solar panels, or wind turbine installed to increase its EPC rating. Some small actions can have a significant effect on the rating:

1. Add detail: Enter as much detail as possible into the EPC model, such as specific fan powers, HVAC efficiencies, and SEER and COP ratings. This will reduce reliance on default values, which are typically poor.
2. Leverage existing data: Obtain existing data from the design or construction processes, such as U-values, G-values and air permeability, and input these into the EPC model.
3. Share evidence: An EPC assessor has to provide evidence for all the information entered into the model. As an assessor will only conduct a visual, non-intrusive survey of the property, the evidence is usually a combination of their photographs plus any documentation the owner is able to provide. Providing all possible documentation will allow the assessor to tailor the model to the property, rather than relying on default values.
4. Repeat: Even if no more data or evidence is available, repeating the EPC assessment may result in a different rating. It is not uncommon for an EPC to be inaccurate to some extent; repeating the assessment may highlight inaccuracies in the original.
5. Consider a Level 5 Assessment: EPCs are categorised as either Level 3 (basic heating systems), Level 4 (complex HVAC systems) or Level 5 (buildings with significant glazing, atria, automated shading or ventilation systems). Dynamic Simulation Modelling (DSM) is only required for the most complex (Level 5) buildings. However, it can be done voluntarily for less complex buildings. Evidence shows that by performing DSM even on offices and warehouses, EPCs can score up to 20% more points as result.

How Can Antea Group UK Help with MEES?

We can highlight non-conformance or at-risk properties across portfolios or individual assets, whether we’re involved at the acquisition, divestment, refinancing, or redevelopment stage. We’ll review leases to determine whether they contain sufficient clauses to prevent tenants harming the energy efficiency, and whether other clauses may affect the energy efficiency. Our consultants can also create a new, detailed EPC based on better quality data than previous versions, which may easily improve your rating. We’ll collect this data by inspecting the property and reviewing existing documentation that supports the best possible EPC rating.

Where properties require more extensive actions to achieve a higher EPC rating, our assessors provide a high-level CAPEX summary of suggested improvements and the impact each of these would be expected to have on the rating. From controls optimisation and lighting to plant replacement and building fabric improvements, this summary presents the cumulative effect of all improvements and can be tailored to suit requirements.

Interested in learning more? Contact us:

Dan Ellis 
Dan.Ellis@Anteagroup.uk 
07586 113753

Your AI Visibility Score gives you one number to track how a major AI platform is talking about your brand. But a single score can hide a lot of nuance, so we wanted to open up the calculation and show exactly what feeds it. That score is built from real coverage, position, and share of voice signals pulled straight from actual AI platform responses, then weighted into a single 0–100 read with a leadership tier layered on top.

 

What’s in the score

A score is only useful if you can see what’s driving it. Ours is built from three main components:

• Coverage — how often you come up across the prompt set
• Position — where you land within the response
• Share of voice — your presence relative to competitors

How each component is weighted in your overall score

Component	What it measures	Weight
Query coverage	Is your brand part of the AI conversations that matter?	40%
Position score	When AI mentions you, does it lead with you?	35%
Share of voice	How much of the conversation is yours alongside target topics?	25%
Total		100%

How we calculate it

1. Collect responses across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity
2. Score each dimension independently
3. Apply the weights above
4. Normalize to a 0-100 scale

See it in action:

 

“We built the score to answer three questions our customers kept asking us directly: are we showing up at all, when we show up, is it fair, and how does that compare to our peers?

No single metric answers all three on its own, why is why the score is a blend rather than a raw mention count.” — The AI Visibility Product & Engineering team

Where the data comes from

94% of B2B buyers now use AI in purchasing decisions.¹

Every score traces back to a real AI response — nothing here is estimated or extrapolated. If a stakeholder group is already leaning on AI for research and decisions, as covered in why AI visibility matters for brand reputation, the score needs to reflect exactly what that group is actually seeing, not a proxy for it. That’s also why how you’re syndicated affects earned media reach matters more than it used to.

The full methodology, including edge cases and how we handle low-confidence reads, is documented in our knowledge base.

If you want to see what AI platforms are already saying about your brand, try the AI Visibility Tracker for free.

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If you care to listen:

 

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¹Forrester