Travel Tech Insider

Generative AI has upended just about every part of the travel lifecycle for both buyers and sellers of travel services. From the consumer perspective, the resources available to inspire, research, plan, book and share your favorite trips have simultaneously expanded the possibilities for consideration and curated that consideration set to a handful of suggestions — all in a matter of seconds.From the perspective of those selling travel services, that path to reach your buyers has become exponentially more complicated. The old reliable model of online search (primarily through Google) has a half life that is accelerating faster than anyone could have predicted. The promise of agentic AI in the hands of consumers may feel more like a curse to travel suppliers who haven’t yet figured out how to be relevant to the constantly evolving LLMs.At the same time, traditional SEO- and SEM-based acquisition channels, which have been economically dominated by the OTAs for a generation, are now being replaced by this new algorithmic approach of the proliferating LLMs, providing an opening for direct booking channels that could level the playing field. Likewise, the fine-tuning that AI tools provide to brands for optimizing pricing, offers and channels could be an opportunity…or a race to the bottom.We’re still in Act I of this AI era, and we’ll talk to a couple experts for their take on where we are and where we are headed. FollowsGilad Berenstein – hostCara Whitehill - hostLayton Han — guestChristian Watts — guest Go DeeperRemapping Travel with Agentic AI - McKinsey & CompanyAltimeter Capital Partner Says AI Will Transform Travel Search: ‘It’s Already Happening’ - Skift [$]How hotels should be thinking about their visibility on AI platforms - PhocusWireForget the funnel. Welcome to AI: The new distribution channel - CoStarThe Great Tech Reset: Agentic AI and the Coming Rebalance of Power in Hospitality - Hotel Online 

With all the debate over agentic AI and its impact on the traditional search ecosystem, we seem to have forgotten all about that other massive acquisition channel — social commerce.TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, and other popular commuity sites around the globe all continue to garner a significant share of top-of-funnel attention and mid-funnel intent. This is acutely true for the Gen Z and younger millennial cohorts when it comes to travel planning and even more so for Gen Alphas who may not be buying travel yet but who are heavily relying on social for their retail commerce purchases.What we haven’t yet seen is a clear winner, a household name emerge when it comes to translating that attention to revenue. Does that mean there is no real winner here, or do we just lack a good attribution model that connects the dots from social to booking?Social also seems to be leveling the playing feel between brands and individuals. The creator economy is massive in categories like fashion and beauty — but how does it play out for big ticket, highly considered purchases like travel?And as agentic AI takes over from traditional search, will that help or hurt social commerce as a channel for discovery, planning and potentially booking? Are social and agentic AI parallel channels that will coexist to serve complementary use cases, or are they on a commercial collision course?FollowsGilad Berenstein – hostCara Whitehill - hostHannah Bennett — guestAbby Dichter — guest Go DeeperState of the Consumer 2025: When disruption becomes permanent - McKinsey & CompanyHow Social Media Is Shaping Travel Planning and Booking - SkiftUnder the influence: Social media's role in trip planning - PhocusWrightU.S. Traveler Trends 2025: More Social Media and AI, a Rebound for Online Travel Agencies - SkiftIs your brand ready for the $3 trillion social commerce marketplace? - PWC

The vacation rental industry has transformed from a scrappy alternative to hotels into a global powerhouse—but is the model starting to strain under its own weight?In this episode, we explore how the ecosystem is evolving, and where fault lines are beginning to show. Can tech keep pace with rising guest expectations? Will hosts, managers, and platforms ever find equilibrium in their tug-of-war over economics, control, and trust? And what happens when regulators and communities push back against the very growth that made vacation rentals mainstream?We look at the opportunities and tensions shaping the next phase of this category—where innovation collides with customer demands, and where the future may depend less on scale and more on who can truly deliver a consistent, high-quality experience.FollowsGilad Berenstein – hostCara Whitehill - hostAnnie Sloan — guestJosh Kristoff — guest Go DeeperAirbnb Lets You Add a Private Chef to Your Rental. Your Host Might Not Like It. - Wall Street Journal [$]**How much opportunity is there for STR ancillaries? Experts weigh in - PhocusWire**U.S. 2025 Mid-Year Short-Term Rental Outlook Report - AirDNAShort-Term Rental Headwinds: U.S. Supply Growth Is Slowing - SkiftPerplexity Travel for Vacation Rentals: How AI Is Powering Trip Search - RentalScaleUp

In this emerging AI era, what’s different this time when it comes to tech investing? We’ve seen major disruptions before, both business model (eg, internet > mobile > social > AI) and cultural/structural/economic (eg, ZIRP, gig workers, Covid, remote working, cloud computing).Prior eras followed a similar playbook: irrational exuberance leading to the trough of despair, followed by the emergence of a handful of market leaders with escape velocity and long tail of minor players, all setting into a level of market maturity that keeps things in balance.Will the AI era follow same? Or does the velocity of tech evolution and democratization of access to these sophisticated technologies mean something different?What have investors learned from these past cycles that informs how they select investments and support their portfolio companies? What past mistakes have they made that they are correcting for now, and how?We unpack all these topics with another Salon episode featuring three leading travel tech investors to share their battle scars and assessment of this new climate of investing.FollowsGilad Berenstein – hostCara Whitehill - hostGaurav Tuli - guestChris Hemmeter - guestMia Morisset - guestGo DeeperWhen Not to Take VC Advice - SiftedThe great SaaS obituary: why reports of its death are greatly exaggerated - MediumThe 3-Person Unicorn Startup - NfXHow AI is disrupting the VC and startup ecosystem - Fast CompanyHow AI is fundamentally changing the operational needs of startups - World Economic ForumBook Recommendation: Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, Annie Duke

In our first two seasons we took a deep dive into the venture investing scenes in both the US and European markets, comparing and contrasting the startup trends, approaches to risk, and styles of investing that are taking hold.Now we shift our focus east, and take a look at the state of the APAC VC ecosystem. Given the multitude of different countries, cultures, and currencies the region encompasses, it has a far more diverse customer base to tap into than the US or EU.How does that impact the type of startups that grow up and find success in that region? How easily (or not) can those startups scale beyond APAC? For investors, what do they look for in the startups they back across the region, and are there nuances within each corner of APAC itself? And given the current tumultuous geopolitical environment, is it more of a challenge or an opportunity for starups and investors across the region?So for this mid-season break episode, we are tapping into some of the investors on the front lines across Asia salon-style, to see what we can learn from our friends there.Follows:Gilad Berenstein - hostCara Whitehill - hostNick Cocks - Founder & Director, Velocity VenturesMurli Ravi - Co-founder, Tin Men CapitalMizuho Hiraguri - Corporate Development for Recruit CoGo Deeper:Trump, tariffs and travel: How will the turbulence play out in Asia? - Web In TravelSoutheast Asia’s Travel Tech Sector at Pivotal Moment for Value Creation - PhocusWireAsia's Travel Surge Drives Moderate Global Growth - Skift24-fold increase in Japanese corporate venture capital in the past decade - Global Corporate VenturingUnpacking Asia’s corporate investment trends in travel - TNMT

Wrapping up season two of the Travel Tech Insider podcast, we turn the tables on our favorite trade media voices to hear what they’re keeping an eye on for 2025. What are they most excited to cover? What under-the-radar trends do they think will have an outsized impact on the ways we plan, shop, book and experience travel? And how do they go about their day-to-day jobs in the media world, identifying stories and cultivating their sources to find their unique angles and insights? We’re joined by four of the leading thinkers, writers and question-askers in the industry to learn what they see on the horizon for 2025 and beyond. FollowsGilad Berenstein — hostCara Whitehill — hostJay Boehmer — guestMichael Coletta — guestSarah Kopit — guestSiew Hoon Yeoh — guest Go DeeperSkift Megatrends 2025 - SkiftTravel Forward: Data, Insights and Trends for 2025 - PhocusWright2025 What to Watch - Business Travel NewsYour Guide to 2025 – Problems to be fixed and trends no one is talking about yet - WIT / Web in Travel12 technology and CX trends that can enhance airline and airport operations in 2025 - Future Travel Experience

In part 1 of our exploration of M&A trends in the travel sector, we talked to the bankers and advisors who have a front row seat to the circus that is the M&A process. Given this is their job day-in and day-out, they have a deep understanding of the steps involved in buying or selling a business, can anticipate the gotcha’s and stumbling blocks, and are primed to help their customers avoid pitfalls that can unexpectedly snag a deal.Now we turn to the other side of the table and talk to the founders for their perspective on the exit. Since most founders will only experience an M&A event once or twice in a career, there is considerable information asymetry in the process. Exits can also take many different forms, depending on who’s buying, whether the startup is bootstrapped or venture-backed, and what’s actually being sold.We talked to three travel startup founders who have gone through this process (a couple of whom have done it multiple times), to hear what their experiences were like, lessons learned, what they might have done differently, and what their exits enabled them to go on to do next. Because after all, an exit is just an entrance to somewhere else.FollowsGilad Berenstein — hostCara Whitehill — hostSarah Dusek — guestSam Shank — guestJeroen Van Velzen — guestGo DeeperThinking Bigger - Sarah DusekThe Art Of The Founder Exit - ForbesWhy Founders Are Afraid to Talk About Exit Strategies - Harvard Business ReviewWhat Founders Need to Know Before Selling Their Startup - Harvard Business ReviewEuropean founders are thinking more creatively about exits. Here are some of the options - SiftedExit strategies: When to sell and not to sell - Silicon Valley Bank

Dining out, room service, fine dining, continental breakfasts, a fancy cocktail, and food and drink in general have always been a part of the travel experience and hospitality offering. Today more than ever before Michelin Stars, hidden gems, street eats, food tours, cooking classes, Agriturismo, and gastropubs are the central aspirations of an enormous percentage of the traveling public.As we learned from 100’s of millions of travelers at Utrip, for most Americans, and everyone else too, most trips revolved around food, drink, and relaxation. But even though we all know this, for some reason the arena of F&B Tech and Restaurant Innovation are often absent from major conversations, conferences, and events within our industry.To begin to address this hole in our conversation, and to learn from the incredible innovation sweeping through this industry, we are excited to dig into all things Tech and Innovation in the restaurant space.To kick off this conversation, we decided to slightly change our format and split this episode into two conversations. First, we will be joined by David Peller. David lives and works in Singapore, a region much more focused on restaurant tech than the American startup market. In his various roles, David invests in, sits on boards of, and helps lead both restaurants and restaurant concepts themselves and many technology companies innovating in this space. So he is the perfect person to give us a high-level overview of the scope and breadth of the innovation landscape in F&B on both the restaurant side and Technology company front.And after that we will dive into the deep end with a conversation with 3 innovators working directly within these themes to learn what's actually going on, how meaningful it really is, and what lessons the rest of us can take.FollowsGilad Berenstein — hostCara Whitehill — hostDavid Peller — guestWiggs Civitillo — guestUrsula Siker — guestMarc Zornes — guestGo Deeper2025 Food Industry Tech Trends: AI and Supply Chain Solutions Lead Investment Priorities - Food Industry ExecutiveEmbracing Advanced Tech In The Food And Beverage Industry, Part 2: AI And Automation - Forbes6 Technologies That Boost F&B Revenue - HospitalityNetAI M&A Wave Coming in the Food and Beverage Sector - Mergers & AcquisitionsWhat are the barriers to innovation in food and beverage? - Food Navigator

We’ve spent a lot of time on the pod talking about startups, and now we’re going to shift gears to talk about the finish line, and what the climate is looking like for exits. The IPO market has been virtually non-existent the past couple years, and M&A activity (particularly for Big Tech) has been stagnant.That said, there is a ton of capital sitting on the sidelines, seemingly ready to jump in when conditions improve. Coupled with the volume of early-stage companies that have matured from concept to commercialization since the pandemic, this combination of dry powder, lower interest rates, and a new administration taking over that is anticipated to be more deal-friendly all seem to point to conditions ripening nicely for more M&A activity.So, what does the state of M&A look like in the travel tech sector heading into 2025? Is the market open for business again, and if so, who is buying what?FollowsGilad Berenstein — hostCara Whitehill — hostMorgann Lesne — guestRoopak Pati — guestJonathan Weibrecht — guestGo DeeperVenture Buyouts: Look Where Other Investors Aren’t Looking - Substack: The CapitalistEurope could lead the world for travel tech but needs more ambition says leading investment banker - Breaking Travel NewsPlay or be played: M&A consolidation in corporate travel - BTN EuropeLeisure M&A: Travel deals are back! - BDO UKWhat's driving the resurgent M&A interest in the travel sector? - TravelTrade Gazette

The fintech sector has expanded massively beyond its origins as a way to modernize and connect the plumbing across the various segments of the financial services world. The intersection of fintech and travel — the “Financialization” of the travel sector — is leading to some incredibly interesting applications that help consumers find value and help merchants more efficiently serve those consumers. Alternative forms of payment, loyalty program extensions, creative new approaches to funding travel purchases and insurance-type products that help travelers protect their trip investments are all popular examples of this trend.Now we’re seeing the convergence of fintech and travel in the reverse direction — call it the “Travelization of Finance” — where deep integration of travel offerings into financial services platforms is unlocking opportunities to explore the world that previously wouldn’t have been possible for many. Unlocking the spending power of things like rent and healthcare expenses, or creating new credit alternatives for pre-credit customers are activating new demand channels for travel sellers that they couldn’t reach before.Tune in to our latest episode to hear from guests Ankur Jain, Founder & CEO of Bilt Rewards, and Hussein Fazal, Founder & CEO of Super.com, are pushing the cutting edge forward in this unique moment of digital transformation between travel and fintech.FollowsGilad Berenstein — hostCara Whitehill — hostAnkur Jain — guestHussein Fazal — guestGo DeeperHow Fintech Companies Are Progressing in the Travel Space - PhocusWireSuper apps’ secret sauce - PhocusWrightMeet The Fintech Billionaire Making A Fortune Rewarding Home Renters - ForbesThe rise of the theme-based super app - FinextraTravel Disruptors: Bringing fintech to travel booking - McKinsey & CompanyWhy is FinTech in Travel accelerating while slowing down elsewhere? - LinkedIN