Hotels.com founder Bob Diener talks exits and opportunities

After several successful exits in both offline and online hotel distribution, you could say Bob Diener, president and co-founder of Travel Funders Network, has been there, done that.

He was there and very much involved in the early days of online hotel distribution as the co-founder and president of Hotels.com and later held the same roles at Getaroom, before selling it to Booking Holdings in late 2021. 

In this episode of In Phocus, Diener covers a lot of ground, from how it all started with a call-center business and later selling to USA Networks (which later acquired a controlling interest in Expedia) to monetization opportunities for hotels beyond selling rooms and the technology challenges that come alongside the opportunity.

He also touches on the role artificial intelligence will play in hotel booking and has some advice for travel startups.

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