Hello,

I can’t believe it has been 10 years since the first Hotel Distribution Chart, and it has been getting better every year. It began as a mental exercise to make sense of a genius slide that was hard to understand. Next week the new one comes out.

Best, Martin

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That Hotel Distribution Chart

10 years ago, as the CMO of Snapshot I saw an educational slide of the hotel distribution tech ecosystem that was super interesting but really hard to read. I really liked that it showed the hotel distribution’s tech ecosystem from various angles, the consumer level, corporate level and meeting and events level. After weeks and weeks of working with designers to figure out a way to bring a “3D” concept into an infographic we came up with the Hotel Distribution Technology Chart. It was one of the first attempts to visually represent how hotel tech works. And it somehow lived on, year after year for 10 years. I’ve seen it printed in hotel offices, on powerpoint decks in schools and countless other places. It was built from a team effort and I’m super happy to see how it keeps going. Would be fun to compare the 2015 edition to the 2025 edition.

DISTRIBUTION TECH 10 YEARS (PARTNER)

Airbnb are masters of spin

For most of Airbnb’s startup time, they positioned themselves against a hotel chain. Claiming to be the biggest hotel chain. People in the industry saw through the spin, comparing apples with organces. Airbnb was an OTA of course, why the hotel comparison. They claimed to have disrupted the hotel industry. But in reality they did none of that. They did become a household name and that’s impressive. Great presentation by Ben Evans on AI see slide 47 for Airbnb vs Hotels chart.

AI EATS THE WORLD BEN EVANS

About me: I'm a fractional CMO for large travel technology companies helping turn them into industry leaders. I'm also the co-founder of 10minutes.news a hotel news media that is unsensational, factual and keeps hoteliers updated on the industry.  

This shouldn’t exist

Someone on twitter discovered AI hotel search with Perplexity. The use case is great, asking AI to find hotels with particular options that aren’t searchable. This is where Attribute based shopping is going to become incredible. ABS through checking boxes is super bad UX. But ABS via AI that’s a whole different story. The thread is quite interesting, just seeing the reactions of people who aren’t in travel discovering AI search for hotels and their frustrations with OTAs.

PERPLEXITY HOTEL BOOKING

Vending machines in luxury hotels?

The idea that the Rosewood in Amsterdam would install a vending machine is crazy. Until one realizes it is stocked with marble sculptures. I love the idea and I’d probably even buy a piece (If I can find enough coins :). It probably works pretty well in that hotel. So is the vending machine the artist statement about consumerism or are the sculptures?

ART AND CULTURE TRANSFORMATION

Balancing Consistency and Creativity

Brands face the challenge of balancing consistent brand-building communications with the demand for diverse content on platforms like Meta and TikTok. While traditional advertising emphasizes consistency, platforms require rapid content turnover. It is a conundrum, consistency is king from a brand point of view, variety is king from a performance point of view. Can we agree to disagree?

BRAND BUILDING IN FRAGMENTED MEDIA

Creative investments in marketing

The story of how Wrigley evolved from selling soap to selling gum and how Mars built their marketing smarts is great. The lesson learned is that the creative thinking is the most powerful when everyone else is focused on taking the least risk. Can hotels prepare such ideas – just in case?

CREATIVE INVESTMENTS IN DOWNTURNS

Podcast: I was invited on the Hospitality Daily Podcast and spoke about technology in hospitality, some thoughts on what wont change in hospitality, and why I co-founded 10minutes.news. Best, Martin

Opinion

Are you still worried about who owns the customer?

There’s a phrase that keeps popping up in marketing discussions: owning the customer. And every time I hear it, I cringe.

What does that even mean?

You don’t own a customer. At best, you have a copy of their email address, name and birthdate. At worst, you’re just a transaction. And yet, this phrase persists -especially in distribution debates. OTAs claim they “own” the customer. Marketplaces like Amazon say the same. Even Google is said to “own” the customer. More recently the discussion is around which AI provider will own the customer.

Nobody books a Marriott and thinks, “Thanks Booking.com for the bed.” No one buys an iPhone from Amazon and says, “This Amazon phone is great.” They’re buying the product, the brand, the promise. Distributors are transactional, products are not.

But here’s the thing: if your product has no brand, no story, then maybe the distributor does “own the customer”. If you’re a generic product on a shelf, picked for price alone, then you’re at the mercy of whoever controls that shelf.

But most products, and especially experiences, don’t work like that.

Nike is a great example. They pulled out of many wholesale channels to “own the customer.” It didn’t work so well. Nike’s brand power comes from emotional connection, not the color of the shelf it’s sold through. I avoid Nike stores because I know that in their stores it will just be higher priced and less choice (because they own the experience).

Can you imagine Chanel being worried about loosing a customer because they bought through Selfridges? Can you imagine a customer thinking the Selfridges is the perfume and the Chanel is just some random text on the bottle?

So, is “owning the customer” just a pitch line from distributors trying to show their clout? Or someone selling an email marketing solution? Maybe. Distributors certainly control access. But few people brag about where they got the product, they brag about the product they got. Access can be bought. Loyalty has to be earned.

The truth is, great products create their own gravity. Build a brand people remember, deliver an experience they want to repeat, and suddenly you’re not worried about who owns the customer, you’re building something customers want to own a piece of.

Distribution is a relay. Brand is the anchor.

PS: If anyone owns anything is the customer owning a small piece of brand.

• Extending Minds with Generative AI – Link

• Spending 42 Years at the Beverly Hills Hotel Pool – Link

• The crazy journey of stolen iPhones – Link

• What Trends Are Shaping the Future of Hospitality? – Link [Partner]

Note, articles that are published by companies or people I work with are tagged with (Partner) after the link. I’m adding this as a transparency. Previously I avoiding sharing content from partners to remain objective, but sometimes they have excellent articles that deserves being shared so to remain transparent, I’ll tag them.