I just realized something that stopped me in my tracks.
One of the true pioneers of hotel distribution passed away earlier this year — and yet, very few people in our industry seem to be talking about it.
If you’ve ever worked in hotel distribution, connectivity, CRS, GDS, switches, APIs — you’ve been standing on something he helped build, whether you knew it or not.
Before APIs, before “connectivity strategy,” before we debated NDC, direct vs OTA, or multi-source content…
there was a very basic problem: hotels couldn’t reliably distribute their inventory electronically at scale.
Pegasus changed that.
The idea of a neutral switch connecting hotel CRS systems to GDSs — enabling global, real-time distribution — feels obvious now. Back then, it was radical. And it reshaped everything: business travel, agency bookings, chain scale, even the power dynamics we still argue about today.
What fascinates me isn’t just the tech — it’s the mindset:
• Solve the infrastructure problem first
• Enable the ecosystem, don’t just extract from it
• Build something boring, reliable, invisible… and indispensable
We spend a lot of time today criticizing “legacy systems” and “old distribution.” Fair. But let’s not forget: without these pioneers, there would be nothing to disrupt, optimize, or reinvent.
We owe it to them to keep going.
To evolve.
To innovate.
To question models that no longer work — without forgetting who made progress possible in the first place.
Hotel distribution didn’t appear by accident.
It was built — by people willing to take big, unsexy bets that changed the industry forever.
Respect to the pioneers. Now let’s make sure the next chapter is worthy of them. 💥
The best way to honor them isn’t nostalgia.
It’s continuing to challenge the status quo, evolve the model, simplify the stack, and actually innovate — not just reshuffle economics.
Standing still is not an option. They didn’t.
#HotelDistribution #TravelTech #HospitalityLeadership #IndustryPioneers #HEDNA #Connectivity #Innovation #StandingOnTheShouldersOfGiants
