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[H1] Skift – Travel Industry News & Insights for Global Business Leaders
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[H2] Featured News

[IMG: YouTrip]

Travel Technology

[H3]
Singapore’s YouTrip Launches a Children’s Travel Card Into a Gap Asia’s Fintechs Left Open

YouTrip’s move raises a question: When do under-18s stop being an add-on to adult travel and become a customer segment in their own right? The answer may be much earlier than expected.
Peden Doma Bhutia | 4 hours ago

[H2] Latest Travel News

Airlines

[H3]
Avelo Airlines Looks to Car, Hotel Partnerships After ICE Controversy

9 hours ago

Hotels

[H3]
Direct Booking Tug-of-War: Hotels’ Long Bid to Take Back Power

13 hours ago

Hotels

[H3]
GMH Hotels: Airbnb Just Got Serious About Hotels

14 hours ago

[IMG: executives talking on a stage]

Hotels

[H3]
Accor CEO Bazin to Step Down in 2028, Shareholders Push Back on Pay

16 hours ago

[IMG: A screen grab from IShowSpeed]

Tourism

[H3]
Expedia x IShowSpeed: Why Brands Are Doubling Down on Creators

18 hours ago

See more news

[H2] Editor’s Picks

[H3]
Direct Booking Tug-of-War: Hotels’ Long Bid to Take Back Power

[H3]
Accor CEO Bazin to Step Down in 2028, Shareholders Push Back on Pay

[H3]
Expedia x IShowSpeed: Why Brands Are Doubling Down on Creators

See more news
[H3] The Skift Podcast Network
Skift Travel Podcast
[H4] Why Airbnb Is Expanding Beyond Vacation Rentals

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June 3 in New York City.

[H2] Iran Impact News

[IMG: Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa.]

Hotels

[H3]
Dubai’s $400M in Tourism Aid Buys Time. Operators See Empty Rooms.

With occupancy at 10% and summer ahead, fee exemptions may matter less than empty rooms.
Deepthi Nair | 6 days ago

[H2] Latest News

[IMG: A man speaking on stage while seated in a yellow chair.]

[H3]
Air India’s Outgoing CEO: ‘The Person That Takes Over Will Have Their Hands Full’

6 days ago

[H3]
Europe’s Air Safety Watchdog Is Grounding Its Own Airlines — and Dubai Carriers Are Winning

7 days ago

[IMG: A plane taxiing on an airport runway with a tower and a terminal in the background.]

[H3]
Gulf Travelers Are Searching, Not Booking: How the Iran War Is Reshaping Travel Demand

7 days ago

See more iran war impact news

[H2] Newsletter

Every saturday
[H3] The Trump Effect
How the U.S. president impacts travel.
Written By Sarah Kopit

[IMG: Ask Skift]

Is U.S. tourism still in crisis?

Summarize the latest stories about artificial intelligence and travel.

How is the war on Iran impacting airlines?

Select a question above or ask something else

[H2] Skift Video Shorts
Watch Skift’s editors and experts on YouTube.

[H2] Airline News

Airlines

[H3]
Avelo Airlines Looks to Car, Hotel Partnerships After ICE Controversy

The ICE partnership hurt Avelo’s brand. And the airline’s CEO now acknowledges it had a real financial impact too.

Meghna Maharishi | 9 hours ago

[H2] Latest News

[H3]
Higher Fuel Costs + Spirit’s End = Higher Fares

3 weeks ago

[H3]
Spirit Airlines Collapsed. What Happens to Budget Travel Now?

3 weeks ago

[IMG: Aerial view of planes at an airport gate]

[H3]
U.S. Airlines Are Spending Over $5 Billion in Fuel, Up More Than 50% Since the Iran War Started

3 weeks ago

FOLLOW THE SPIRIT AIRLINES TIMELINE

[H2] Newsletter

Every Saturday
[H3] Jet Stream
Stay ahead of the fast-moving world of global airlines.
Curated By Meghna Maharishi

[H2] Skift Podcast Network
Listen to daily and weekly podcasts from Skift’s editors and experts.

[IMG: Cracks Emerge in the Online Travel Agency Oligopoly]

[H3] Cracks Emerge in the Online Travel Agency Oligopoly

[IMG: Tourists Give Up on the United States of America]

[H3] Tourists Give Up on the United States of America

[IMG: Vibe Coding Will Unleash a Tsunami of Travel Startups]

[H3] Vibe Coding Will Unleash a Tsunami of Travel Startups

[IMG: Q&A: Asia’s Luxury Resurgence Realigns the Global Travel Order]

[H3] Q&A: Asia’s Luxury Resurgence Realigns the Global Travel Order

[IMG: Q&A: Timeshare Owners Defy the Travel Slowdown ]

[H3] Q&A: Timeshare Owners Defy the Travel Slowdown

[IMG: The Luxury Bubble Will Just Get Bigger]

[H3] The Luxury Bubble Will Just Get Bigger

[IMG: Q&A: Travel’s High-Stakes Era Redefines What Care Means]

[H3] Q&A: Travel’s High-Stakes Era Redefines What Care Means

[IMG: Q&A: Africa Emerges as the Next Frontier of Luxury Travel]

[H3] Q&A: Africa Emerges as the Next Frontier of Luxury Travel

[IMG: Q&A: Experiential Retail Becomes One of Travel’s Biggest Untapped Assets]

[H3] Q&A: Experiential Retail Becomes One of Travel’s Biggest Untapped Assets

[IMG: Q&A: Accommodation Curation Will Change the Loyalty Landscape]

[H3] Q&A: Accommodation Curation Will Change the Loyalty Landscape

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[H2] Discover More Stories

Airlines

[H3]
Aviation’s New Third Rail: AI Pricing

Airline pricing has always been a blackbox. The systems are deeply complex, and AI may make them more so. The fear is “surveillance pricing” and you’re going to be hearing a lot more about it.
6 months ago

Airlines

[H3]
Project Sunrise: The Business of Breaking Aviation’s Final Frontier

By pushing nonstop flying to the edge of what’s technically possible, Qantas wants to change how Australia connects with world – but does the business case hold altitude?
6 months ago

Tourism

[H3]
The Travel Climate 10

In an industry racing against climate deadlines, the fastest path to impact is turning every breakthrough into a blueprint.
6 months ago

[IMG: photoillustration view of a hotel bedroom in a laboratory to illustrate hotel revenue management]

Hotels

[H3]
The New Science of Hotel Pricing

Hotel pricing by gut instinct and Excel spreadsheets is out. Operators are finally getting serious about revenue management.
7 months ago

Online Travel

[H3]
The B2B Battleground: Expedia, Booking and Hopper Are Redefining Online Travel’s Quiet Money Machine

If online travel agencies want to go to where people are booking travel, they are going to have to make the B2B game an integral part of their businesses. Otherwise, they’ll be handing those potential customers to competitors.
8 months ago

Business Travel

[H3]
State of Talent in Travel 2025

We don’t believe that talent is a topic that should be confined to meetings with HR or recruiters. We believe that talent is a board-level conversation and deserves to be treated as such. Hiring, training, and retaining top talent should be a core focus of every travel leader, everywhere. ​
8 months ago

Announcements

[H3]
Skift Power Rankings: Who’s Making the Biggest Bets in Travel

Non-core expansion. Rewired distribution. Live public-policy experiments. This year’s Power Rankings spotlight the leaders taking the biggest risks in travel, staking cash, reputation, and time on moves they can’t easily unwind. The next 12 months will reveal who placed smart bets — and who just rolled the dice.
9 months ago

Announcements

[H3]
Generation Next: The Risk Takers

Women aren’t afraid of risk – but they do face unique challenges. These leaders have blown past them and are reshaping the travel industry in the process.

9 months ago

Airlines

[H3]
State of Travel 2025

The future of travel is unfolding now; you just need the right data and insights to see it. The State of Travel report is your essential guide to understanding the trends shaping our industry and staying ahead of the modern traveler as a company, association, or destination.
10 months ago

[H2] Hotel News

Hotels

[H3]
Direct Booking Tug-of-War: Hotels’ Long Bid to Take Back Power

Ten years after Hilton, Marriott, and other chains began coaxing travelers to book directly, online travel agencies still control roughly the same slice of the pie. Yet the chains have won the economics: lower commissions, better contract terms, and stronger loyalty programs.
Sean O’Neill | 13 hours ago

[H2] Latest Hotel News

[H3]
GMH Hotels: Airbnb Just Got Serious About Hotels

14 hours ago

[IMG: executives talking on a stage]

[H3]
Accor CEO Bazin to Step Down in 2028, Shareholders Push Back on Pay

16 hours ago

[IMG: Image of a married hotel overlooking Waikiki Beach, seen from an aerial view of the hotel]

[H3]
Marriott Signs ResortPass Deal. Why Hotels Are Pushing to Sell More Than Rooms.

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[H2] Newsletter

Every Thursday
[H3] Early Check-In
Keep up with the latest hotel and hospitality news.
Curated By Sean O’Neill

[H2] Skift + McKinsey & Company
Agentic AI could upend the travel industry. Understand the implications and potential for travel and hospitality organizations with the report Remapping Travel With Agentic AI.
Read The Report

[H2] Online Travel News

Hotels

[H3]
Direct Booking Tug-of-War: Hotels’ Long Bid to Take Back Power

Ten years after Hilton, Marriott, and other chains began coaxing travelers to book directly, online travel agencies still control roughly the same slice of the pie. Yet the chains have won the economics: lower commissions, better contract terms, and stronger loyalty programs.
Sean O’Neill | 13 hours ago

[H2] Latest Online Travel News

[IMG: Room Mate Laura Hotel Madrid Duplex Deluxe Room source room mate hotels]

[H3]
Airbnb Names Booking.com Veteran in Hotel Leadership Shakeup

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[IMG: three men speaking on stage]

[H3]
Yatra’s Next Growth Bet: Digitizing India’s Corporate Travel Market

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B2A? AI Agents Are Travel’s New Audience — And They Don’t Care About Brands

6 days ago

See more Online Travel news

[H2] Newsletter

Every Thursday
[H3] Very Online
Stories and scoops from online travel.
Curated By Dennis Schaal

[IMG: 1. Brian Chesky]

[H3]
1. Brian Chesky
Airbnb CEO

[IMG: 2. Aravind Srinivas]

[H3]
2. Aravind Srinivas
Perplexity Co-Founder & CEO

[IMG: 3. Howard Lutnick]

[H3]
3. Howard Lutnick
United States Secretary of Commerce

[IMG: 4. Blake Scholl]

[H3]
4. Blake Scholl
Boom Supersonic Founder & CEO

[IMG: 5. Tourism Leaders]

[H3]
5. Tourism Leaders
United Arab Emirates

[IMG: 6. Laurent Kleitman]

[H3]
6. Laurent Kleitman
Mandarin Oriental Group CEO

[IMG: 7. Avi Meir]

[H3]
7. Avi Meir
TravelPerk Founder & CEO

[IMG: 8. Sharan Pasricha]

[H3]
8. Sharan Pasricha
Ennismore Founder & Co-CEO

[IMG: 9. Toby Xu]

[H3]
9. Toby Xu
GM of Alipay+ Global Next Center & Chief Strategy Officer of Alipay+

[IMG: 10. Shai Zelering]

[H3]
10. Shai Zelering
Brookfield, Managing Partner and Head of Hospitality Investments

[IMG: 11. Eric Resnick]

[H3]
11. Eric Resnick
KSL Capital Partners Co-Founder & CEO

[IMG: 12. Ben Minicucci]

[H3]
12. Ben Minicucci
Alaska Airlines CEO

[IMG: 13. Mirela Kumbaro]

[H3]
13. Mirela Kumbaro
Albania Minister of Tourism

[IMG: 14. Pieter Elbers]

[H3]
14. Pieter Elbers
IndiGo CEO

[IMG: 15. Andrew Crawley]

[H3]
15. Andrew Crawley
AmexGBT President

[IMG: 16. Anne Nivíka Grødem]

[H3]
16. Anne Nivíka Grødem
Greenland Tourism CEO

[IMG: 17. Graham Turner]

[H3]
17. Graham Turner
Flight Centre Travel Group CEO

[IMG: 18. Ritesh Agarwal]

[H3]
18. Ritesh Agarwal
Oyo Founder & CEO

[IMG: 19. Jason Wynn]

[H3]
19. Jason Wynn
JPMorgan Chase Head of Travel

[IMG: 20. Vlad Doronin]

[H3]
20. Vlad Doronin
Aman Resorts CEO

[IMG: 21. Mark Hoplamazian]

[H3]
21. Mark Hoplamazian
Hyatt President & CEO

[IMG: 22. Joanna Geraghty]

[H3]
22. Joanna Geraghty
JetBlue CEO

[IMG: 23. David Neeleman]

[H3]
23. David Neeleman
Breeze Airways Founder & CEO

[IMG: 24. Matt Welle]

[H3]
24. Matt Welle
Mews CEO

[IMG: 25. Alex Karp]

[H3]
25. Alex Karp
Palantir CEO

[IMG: 26. Barry Sternlicht]

[H3]
26. Barry Sternlicht
Starwood CEO

[IMG: 27. Zhang Xiaoqiang]

[H3]
27. Zhang Xiaoqiang
Jin Jiang International Chairman

[IMG: 28. Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal]

[H3]
28. Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal
Saudi Arabia Minister of Sports

[IMG: 29. Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo]

[H3]
29. Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo
VietJet Air Founder and Chairwoman

[IMG: 30. Tony Douglas]

[H3]
30. Tony Douglas
Riyadh Air CEO

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[H2] Insights
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[H3]
New Report: Competing for Relevance in the AI Era

Travel marketing is entering a new phase as AI and shifting discovery habits reshape how brands connect with travelers. Based on insights from 10 industry leaders, this report explores how marketing is becoming more dynamic, more connected, and more dependent on relevance, trust, and real-time value.

Sponsored

[H3]
How Payment Systems Are Changing in Travel and Hospitality

Payment systems increasingly surface at moments that affect both the guest experience and internal operations. This report examines how industry leaders describe the current state of payments, where they see constraints, and which capabilities they believe will matter most over the next several years.

Sponsored

[H3]
Why Airlines Are Embracing Digital Transformation

The race to modernize aviation is underway. Legacy systems, static loyalty models, and siloed operations are giving way to connected, digital systems built for scale. The carriers that move early and build smart will set the pace for the next decade of air travel.

Sponsored

[H2] From shifting consumer tastes to the impact of AI, global travel is undergoing unprecedented change.
Skift Advisory helps make sense of it all.
See our work

[H2] Travel and Climate News

Cruises

[H3]
The Alaska Experiment That Could Reshape How Cruise Lines Navigate Wildlife

Alaska’s reputation as a buck

[H2] Skift Take
Non-core expansion. Rewired distribution. Live public-policy experiments. This year’s Power Rankings spotlight the leaders taking the biggest risks in travel, staking cash, reputation, and time on moves they can’t easily unwind. The next 12 months will reveal who placed smart bets — and who just rolled the dice.

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For this year’s Power Rankings we chose to celebrate leaders willing to take massive risks — with cash, reputation, and time — to move the travel industry away from its comfortable habits. We ranked these leaders using a methodology that weighs scale, irreversibility, and impact.
Start with the platforms. Airbnb is taking the company beyond homes, into Experiences and Services — with real money behind it. What makes this such a big swing is the history. Mixed at best.
Then there are the search upstarts that refuse to sell your eyeballs. Perplexity is taking on Google while shunning sponsored results. Aviation offers the purest test of both nerve and physics, with new supersonic plane prototypes cracking Mach 1.
Across the Gulf, sovereign will is reshaping demand: Abu Dhabi’s megaprojects and Ras Al Khaimah’s first legal casino are calculated bets on scale, while in Washington D.C., the U.S. government is testing whether America can cut tourism promotion and still prosper.
Luxury, too, is moving. Mandarin Oriental is expanding while preaching fidelity to brand DNA, Ennismore is vertically integrating creativity rather than outsourcing it, and TravelPerk is buying capabilities and building a war chest for the long term.
But not all boldness is about bigness. And risks reveals priorities. Our list rewards leaders who match audacity with discipline and know what they are willing to sacrifice. Because if done right, big risk comes with big reward.
Enjoy this year’s Power Rankings.
– Sarah Kopit, Editor-in-Chief

[H2] 1. Brian Chesky

Airbnb CEO

Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky is clearly thinking about more than short-term rentals: “Why would Airbnb just offer homes? Why couldn’t we offer significantly more things? And that’s the future of this company,” Chesky said last fall at the 2024 Skift Global Forum.
In Chesky’s view, that could mean new business launches each year with the potential to do $1 billion a year in sales.
First up are the new Experiences and Services offerings, and it’s risky given the company’s track record. Airbnb’s tours and activities segment debuted as “Trips” in 2016, and was a key component of Airbnb’s vision to become a travel “superapp.” The product didn’t get traction and Airbnb temporarily halted accepting new applications for Experiences in 2023. The investment adds risk too. Airbnb is dedicating $200-$250 million in 2025 toward building and scaling it.
To Chesky, Experiences is central to Airbnb’s mission, and there is a personal angle, too. He has spoken about loneliness and how Experiences can foster human connection. This time around Airbnb is making it easier for operators to integrate their Experiences into Airbnb, and is using celebrities and athletes to create marketing buzz. One issue with Experiences in the past is that Airbnb targeted customers with a niche product. This time around, Airbnb is trying to appeal to a broader audience while trying to retain the tours’ signature Airbnb touch. That may be an intricate dance — one that investors will be following closely.
– Dennis Schaal

[H2] 2. Aravind Srinivas

Perplexity Co-Founder & CEO

Risk Number 1: Going after Google, which everybody knows dominates search. Risk Number 2: Not having sponsored results, which was one of the innovations that made Google billions of dollars – and one of the best business models in history.
But Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas saw the opening for an AI-driven answer engine focused on curiosity and knowledge. And to build trust, every result would have a citation, much like an academic paper, and answers wouldn’t have advertisers.
What about making money? That’s where travel – along with other services – comes in. The travel search and booking process is seamlessly integrated into its products through partnerships with Tripadvisor and Selfbook.
“I think the business model is more around the assistant,” Srinivas said in April on the podcast, Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin. “After answering a question about ‘what do I do in Kauai’, it can help you plan some activities. And part of actually booking the hotel and the trips and car rental – all that’s time-consuming, that you would pay an AI to do that for you. And you pay a lot, maybe, if it’s actually done reliably.”
That experience is also part of Perplexity’s recently launched Comet browser, which Srinivas calls the company’s next big bet (“The perfect blend of AI, navigation, and agents,” he says.) Importantly, the user can do all their searching – and travel booking – in one place with no need to open new tabs.
—Lex Haris

[H2] 3. Howard Lutnick

United States Secretary of Commerce

United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is betting he can dismantle decades of tourism marketing and infrastructure — and the travel industry (along with the broader economy) will be just fine, thank you very much.
The longtime Wall Street executive — best known for turning Cantor Fitzgerald into a post-9/11 bond trading powerhouse and spinning off a multi-billion-dollar empire in BGC Partners — has brought that same profit-maximizing, no-hand-holding style to America’s travel economy.
So far, Brand USA,  the destination marketing organization tasked with bringing international tourists to the U.S., has lost 80% of its federal budget. Several board members have been sacked. And that’s by design. Lutnick is betting destination marketing can still “work” with a fraction of the money. So if travelers still come, the program was bloated. If they don’t, the market will correct.
Visa fees are up. Entry policies are tighter. Tourism promotion is down. And Lutnick shows no signs of reversing course. His Commerce Department continues to crank out clean dashboards and export data, but the broader orientation towards potential U.S. visitors has fundamentally shifted. The Trump administration seems to be telling tourists who are offended by higher fees or a colder welcome, that someone else will fill the gap — or they won’t. Either way, Lutnick placed his bet. It’s risky and unsentimental. Yet Lutnick appears totally convinced the numbers will bear him out.
– Sarah Kopit

[H2] 4. Blake Scholl

Boom Supersonic Founder & CEO

Blake Scholl is betting that air travel’s next leap will be flying twice as fast as today – and that his company will get there first. Based in Colorado, Boom is building a new generation of supersonic jets. It’s no easy task, with countless hurdles and critics aplenty, but Scholl and his team are holding the course.
“I think it’s the natural progression that technology and air travel should get faster and better,” Scholl told Skift earlier this year. Reflecting on the stagnation of true innovation in the sector, not least the demise of Concorde, he adds: “We lost our way, and it’s a great tragedy.”
Boom Supersonic hit a major milestone in January when its XB-1 model broke the sound barrier during a test flight at the Mojave Desert. Scholl hopes to start test-flying a full-sized version in 2027 and enter service around 2030.
Boom will build the planes in North Carolina while also designing the engines itself, breaking with the conventional practice of outsourcing power. As for the energy source, they’ll run on sustainable aviation fuel.
Boom is not short of skeptics, but it also has a long list of believers. Big-name brands including American, United, and Japan Airlines have collectively ordered 130 Overtures – the name of its new supersonic jet. The aircraft will hold up to 80 business-class seats, flying at roughly twice the speed of today’s planes. A New York to London trip would take less than four hours; Seattle-to-Tokyo under five.
Scholl says the technology for supersonic flight has improved significantly since the days of Concorde: “Look at what we’ve accomplished. People said a startup couldn’t build a supersonic jet, but we did. People said that it could never be done with a small team and a small budget. Yet it was.”
If Boom succeeds, the implications extend far beyond aviation. “We’re not smart enough to predict every effect,” Scholl said recently on the Skift Travel Podcast. “But one thing we can be sure of is it will mean more travel and more cultural connection.”
– Jay Shabat

[H2] 5. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan/Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi

United Arab Emirates

When it comes to tourism in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai has always led. But that balance is slowly shifting. Both Abu Dhabi and the once-quiet northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah are now aggressively staking claims as global travel hubs.
Under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi, the capital has seen major tourism wins. In just a few years, it has secured the rights to a new Disneyland and a Sphere venue — two megaprojects poised to draw millions of visitors. Not only does Al Nahyan’s emirate have the right to build a Sphere, Sphere Entertainment granted Abu Dhabi exclusive rights to develop all future Sphere venues in the Middle East and North Africa.
Further north, Ras Al Khaimah is undergoing its own transformation. His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi has positioned the emirate at the center of one of the Gulf’s boldest tourism experiments. The $5 billion Wynn Al Marjan Island resort will include the region’s first legal casino – a move that could redefine tourism in the UAE when it opens in early 2027.
Wynn Al Marjan Island’s president Max Tappeiner said in a keynote speech in May that “the royal family could not be more supportive” of the project. RAK’s ruling family oversees the emirate’s government, and that government is a part-owner of the Wynn project.
The impact extends beyond RAK. Abu Dhabi has established a federal gaming commission, and other projects are underway. MGM Resorts is developing a property in Dubai, and Wynn has trademarked the term “Arabian Strip,” hinting at further expansion.
– Josh Corder

[H2] 6. Laurent Kleitman

Mandarin Oriental Group CEO

Mandarin Oriental had long stood for quiet luxury. Its fan logo, heritage properties, and service-first ethos made it one of the most respected names in hospitality. But Laurent Kleitman saw room to evolve after taking over in late 2023.
He’s launched a 10-year “accelerated growth strategy” to more than double the group’s footprint. In his first year, Mandarin Oriental opened 11 hotels. Today, it runs 44 properties and has over 30 hotels and resorts in development.
The company is also reinvesting in its roots, with multi-million-dollar restorations underway at its flagship properties in Bangkok and Hong Kong.
Since its 1963 debut in Hong Kong, Mandarin Oriental has built its brand on consistency, emotional connection, and highly personalized service. Expanding into unfamiliar markets with different cultural expectations and competitive dynamics raises the stakes. Kleitman’s challenge is to protect that DNA even as the group innovates with new digital channels.
This April, the group unveiled its first brand refresh in nearly four decades with its first-ever mobile app and a new loyalty program. The aim was to make Mandarin Oriental relevant to a new generation of global luxury travelers.
“What truly sustains a luxury brand,” Kleitman says, is “the power of emotional connection, the art of storytelling, and an uncompromising commitment to excellence wherever and however you connect with the brand.” He adds: “Understanding our brand’s heritage and trajectory is essential to knowing where continuity matters and where change can unlock potential.”
– Luke Martin

[H2] 7. Avi Meir

TravelPerk Founder & CEO

TravelPerk founder and CEO Avi Meir isn’t afraid of risk: “Whenever I make these big life decisions, I sometimes try to build an Excel, provide weighted average criteria, and be very scientific about it…and then I end up following my gut feeling,” he told the Early Days podcast in 2022. “I literally have nothing that you don’t – except my willingness to take risk based on my gut feeling.”
In fact, there is a lot more of a plan and framework than those comments let on, but there’s no question that TravelPerk makes big bets. Meir and his co-founders started the Barcelona-based company in 2015 and saw an opportunity in booking and managing travel for small- and medium-sized businesses. Strong growth has followed: TravelPerk has had several fund raises to develop the product and make a series of acquisitions to expand its reach and offering.
Last year, it acquired Chicago-based AmTrav, which added 1,000 businesses as clients and doubled TravelPerk’s revenue in the U.S. This past January, it acquired Yokoy, which adds expense management to the offering – a big step. “It’s very innovative for our segment,” says president and chief operating officer Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo, who joined in 2017.
TravelPerk said it has exceeded $2.5 billion in bookings annually and has grown revenue over 50% each of the last two years to over $200 million. It raised $200 million in January, bringing the company’s valuation to $2.7 billion.
According to Taunay-Bucalo, the key to the bets is keeping a focus on the user and on the long term.
“We want to be able to make investments for five years, for 10 years, for 20 years,” he says. “We like to have a big money chest so that we can think long term. So that we are not geared toward the next milestone, because the danger of always kind of cutting to the limit before your next round of funding is you’re optimizing for the very, very, very, short term and that can get you to the things that are not user focused.”
– Lex Haris

[H2] 8. Sharan Pasricha

Ennismore Founder & Co-CEO

While most hotel chains keep operations as light as possible, Sharan Pasricha’s Ennismore is playing a very different game: Everything from restaurant concepts and interior design to digital storytelling is kept in-house. No outsourcing. That way, Ennismore is able to control the quality, and ensure that the guest experience remains authentic to the brand’s DNA.
According to Pascricha, lifestyle hotels are “experiences in their own right.” The focus, he says, is on creative storytelling through everything a guest sees and touches.
Pasricha started Ennismore in 2011 with a fresh idea: “to create hotels with soul, places that felt part of their neighborhoods, where people could gather, work, eat, celebrate, and feel connected,” he tells Skift.
His fascination with und

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[H2] The leading source of hotel industry news for lodging, real estate, and investment professionals.

Hotels

[H3]
Direct Booking Tug-of-War: Hotels' Long Bid to Take Back Power

Ten years after Hilton, Marriott, and other chains began coaxing travelers to book directly, online travel agencies still control roughly the same slice of the pie. Yet the chains have won the economics: lower commissions, better contract terms, and stronger loyalty programs.
Sean O'Neill | 13 hours ago

Hotels

[H3]
GMH Hotels: Airbnb Just Got Serious About Hotels

14 hours ago

[IMG: executives talking on a stage]

Hotels

[H3]
Accor CEO Bazin to Step Down in 2028, Shareholders Push Back on Pay

16 hours ago

[IMG: Image of a married hotel overlooking Waikiki Beach, seen from an aerial view of the hotel]

Hotels

[H3]
Marriott Signs ResortPass Deal. Why Hotels Are Pushing to Sell More Than Rooms.

19 hours ago

[IMG: Image of a planned hotel in Texas Hill Country. It]

Hotels

[H3]
Waldorf Astoria, Aman, and Auberge Invest in Texas Hill Country

2 days ago

[IMG: Room Mate Laura Hotel Madrid Duplex Deluxe Room source room mate hotels]

Hotels

[H3]
Airbnb Names Booking.com Veteran in Hotel Leadership Shakeup

2 days ago

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[H3] Early Check-In
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Airlines

[H3]
$11.4 Billion and Zero Churn: What SpaceX Said About Starlink’s Travel Industry Grip

The competitors to Musk's Starlink will eventually up their game. It's never healthy for customers and end-users to be dependent on a single vendor, regardless of the Starlink's competitive advantage at this moment.
Dennis Schaal | 2 days ago

[IMG: Common area of hotel]

Hotels

[H3]
Room Mate Hotels CEO on the Loyalty Gap Squeezing Boutique Brands

Boutique brands love to talk about authenticity and consistency. Surviving the majors’ loyalty programs is a different conversation.
Luke Martin | 2 days ago

[IMG: Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa.]

Hotels

[H3]
Dubai’s $400M in Tourism Aid Buys Time. Operators See Empty Rooms.

With occupancy at 10% and summer ahead, fee exemptions may matter less than empty rooms.
Deepthi Nair | 6 days ago

[IMG: Executive speaking on stage]

Hotels

[H3]
Choice Hotels’ Interim CEO: What We Know About Dominic Dragisich

Dominic Dragisich knows Choice Hotels’ numbers, brands, and growth strategy as well as anyone. The question is whether knowing the playbook is the same as writing a new one.
Luke Martin and Sean O'Neill | 7 days ago

[IMG: hotel exterior]

Hotels

[H3]
Capella’s New President Wants to Crack Luxury’s Top Tier Within a Year

Capella’s pitch under its new president: scarce, personalized, and aiming for the top tier of ultra-luxury. The growth job goes to Patina.
Luke Martin | 7 days ago

Hotels

[H3]
Choice Hotels’ Patrick Pacious Is Out as CEO

Choice Hotels' announcement of a leadership transition without a confirmed successor points to an abrupt decision to part with the CEO.
Sean O'Neill | 1 week ago

Hotels

[H3]
What the SAMHI Hotels–RARE India Deal Signals for Experiential Hospitality

RARE India's partnership with SAMHI Hotels is a measured bet on a familiar problem: how to build commercial infrastructure around a product that derives its value from resisting it. The opportunity lies in scaling access while preserving the experience — without standardizing it.
RARE India + Skift | 1 week ago
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Hotels

[H3]
How a Small Hotel Group Is Financing Solar When Federal Tax Credits Are Gone

The rollback of U.S. clean energy tax credits has not stopped every hotel from investing in renewables.
Darin Graham | 1 week ago

[IMG: Image of a cart with towels and other hospitality items for cleaning and refreshing a guest room at a hotel, sitting alone in a corridor that]

Hotels

[H3]
NYC Hotel Housekeepers’ Pay to Hit $61 an Hour

A strike threat timed to the World Cup gave hotel workers maximum leverage. Every hotel union negotiator in other major cities will see this deal the new national labor benchmark.

Sean O'Neill | 1 week ago

[IMG: Dubai skyline]

Hotels

[H3]
Gulf Hotel Investment Enters Pause Mode as Iran War Clouds Pipeline

Capital isn’t leaving the Gulf. It’s just sitting very, very still.
Deepthi Nair | 1 week ago

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