Mauricio Prieto

📅 Microsoft is hiring storytellers at $300k, reflecting the narrative's rise in tech. On December 2025, Airbnb's 2026 predictions highlight trends like Gen Z's 1-2 day trips and nature interest. Bill Gurley notes AI's dominance in VC funding. Frontier's "cold" email misfire contrasts with United's personalized post-birthday gesture. Travelers are 20% more likely to shop for cars, according to Rory Sutherland. Ryanair's failed subscription model exemplifies execution flaws in loyalty building.

🚀 Travel industry faces disruption as AI rewires economic value. By 2030, AI will commoditize knowledge, create service abundance, and shift focus from luxury to necessity. Simon Taylor describes three phases: today's AI improves commerce, by 2027 winners commoditize services, and by 2030, AI optimizes human outcomes. Travel can lead by shifting to necessity-based offerings, selling health benefits and self-realization. Future success demands radical customer centricity, emphasizing outcomes over marketing.

🗺 Travel megatrends for 2026 include sustainable travel, AI as travel agents, and slow travel. 44% of travelers seek unique foods abroad, with TikTok walkthroughs gaining popularity. Greg Isenberg predicts micro-companies and AI-driven search reshaping travel. 60% of travelers explore lesser-known spots, and luxury travel in North America grew at 12% CAGR. 88% of companies use AI, but less than 33% have scaled. A lawsuit involving Amazon and Perplexity could redefine digital commerce and travel.

📈 WeRoad, since 2017, addresses solo traveler loneliness, hitting $100M revenue, $160M projected in 2025 with 30% margins. 🏸 Agentic AI, highlighted by Robert Silk, improves booking flows with tools from Google and others, shrinking the search-plan-book gap. 💼 Marriott-Sonder's partnership, adding 9,000 rentals, collapsed, with Marriott seeking $17.7M in court. 📉 ChatGPT's November 30, 2022 launch marked a generative AI boom, boosting sector players like Expedia and Booking by 2.5x.

📰 Sam Altman at the Progress Conference last week discussed the non-priority of travel bookings for OpenAI, emphasizing trust over revenue, and expecting lower commissions in the future. Google AI Overviews show a 61% drop in organic CTR and a 68% decline in paid CTRs. US startups, driven by faster tech adoption, have grown nearly 1400% since 2020, outpacing Europe and the UK. Attend the Phocuswright Conference in San Diego, November 18-20, to meet Airobot.

📈 Christian Watts leads in mentions among 133 names from 60 entries in a Travel Tech Essentialist survey. Avi Meir has the highest post engagement, with Lennart Dobravsky excelling relative to audience size. Discussions include a $457M writedown by Kayak and Airbnb's venture into social connections. Key figures mentioned: Nesrine Changuel, Peter Syme, Brennen Bliss, and companies like Expedia and Airbnb. Research highlights the impact of emotion and authenticity on travel bookings.

🗺️ November 2025, London: Kayak blames a $457M writedown on reduced SEO traffic, linking it to AI and Google’s paid placements reshaping travel search. In travel tech, Christian Watts leads in LinkedIn mentions, while Martin Soler and Lennart Dobravsky excel in engagement. Expedia’s study shows 71% of travelers prefer video content. Airbnb adds social features to Experiences, enhancing community interaction. YC has backed 24 travel startups since 2007, with Airbnb as the standout public company.

🛫 Nesrine Changuel explores the **Product Delight Model** in the travel industry, emphasizing emotional over functional product design. **Low Delight** covers basic needs like booking, **Surface Delight** involves personal touches like app greetings, while **Deep Delight** integrates function with emotion, like Hilton’s **Digital Key** and **Connected Room** features. Changuel’s framework highlights addressing pain points, anticipating needs, and exceeding expectations, transforming utilitarian tasks into emotionally rich experiences.

📈 Travel tech insights: Greg Isenberg explains AI's role in shifting value to unique, non-automatable areas like trusted brands and real-world presence. Kyle Poyar's analysis with ChartMogul shows only 2% of 6,500 SaaS companies hit $25M ARR in 10 years, with AI-native startups more likely to reach $1M ARR in 6 months. Visitor data highlights Booking.com and Airbnb overlap, 79% of Airbnb users also visiting Booking.com. Revolut acquires Swifty, expanding its travel and lifestyle offerings.

🛩 Revolut's eSIM feature offers instant mobile data access via banking app, delighting users by solving unexpected travel pain points. Nesrine Changuel, with a PhD in physics, emphasizes delight as a product discipline through a 50-40-10 rule: 50% functionality, 40% blending function and emotion, and 10% purely emotional features. Eric Ryan's brands stand out by combining familiarity with novelty, while Will Guidara's hospitality approach emphasizes intentional delight, such as themed desserts and unexpected gestures.