Wouter Geerts

There are so many technologies that can and will impact the travel industry, but it's hard to poke through all the hype and see what will fundamentally change the future of travel. We investigate four technology buckets with the largest potential.

The short-term rental ecosystem is getting bigger, which means many winners are set to emerge from the pack. Expect further brand-driven professionalization, more outside investment, and vendor consolidation. Those getting on board will benefit, but is a backlash in the cards?

Technological advancements have allowed for new entrants into the property management systems space to offer a viable alternative to incumbent legacy systems. Those systems might be scrambling for now, but they'll catch up. All this can only be a good thing for the PMS and hotel tech space in the long run.

Legacy property management systems (PMS) missed the boat when tech innovation started ramping up. Now they are playing catch-up. Cloud computing, open APIs, marketplaces, and middleware layers are shaking up this stale corner of hotel tech, and it’s crazy exciting.

Short-term rental tech vendors are increasingly forced to pick a side: Focus on professional property managers or focus on the long tail of independent hosts. There's business in both, but understanding customer needs is paramount.

The United Kingdom hasn’t left the European Union just yet, but the impact of the Brexit vote is already being felt by the travel industry. Things will likely get worse when the UK actually leaves.

The UK is an important contributor to global travel, but the uncertainty over Brexit will impact its place in the world and its residents’ willingness to spend on international vacations. The questions are just how and where the impact will be felt most.

The short-term rental ecosystem, from property managers and platforms to business-to-business vendors, is rapidly expanding. As this continues, there is a fine balance to be struck where the sector professionalizes — without commercializing beyond recognition.

The short-term rental sector is rapidly expanding, and it is not just Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com that benefit from this. A growing ecosystem of property managers and B2B vendors are professionalizing the sector, while making a decent penny.

Rather than being paralyzed by the threat of Amazon, let’s actually learn from its successes. Using tech to achieve a more customer-centric approach to brand loyalty is a great place to start.