Worldwide: Drawing from the coverage provided by four sector-leading B2B websites, the editorial team at International Hospitality Media [IHM] have once again compiled a list of 25 influential leaders spanning the travel, hospitality and real estate landscape who they believe have a big 12 months ahead of them.
The editorial team [George Sell, Eloise Hanson and Paul Stevens] have divided the respective leaders into five separate categories in order to best showcase their expertise. The categories include: Brands; Development; Entrepreneurs, Finance; and Tech.
1. Brands
Hannah Chappatte, CEO and founder of student letting platform Hybr, launched the business when she was fresh from university. Hybr has already helped 25,000 students find homes, and Chappatte has raised more than £4 million in funding, including a £3.2 million seed round, earning herself a spot in Forbes Technology Europe 30 under 30.
Not content with matching students solely with traditional PBSA accommodation, Chappatte has entered an exciting partnership with retirement living operator Birchgrove for an intergenerational living scheme in Mill Hill, north London. The scheme will see students and key workers live alongside retirees in the same purpose-built, privately rented retirement development.
Chappatte describes the partnership as “an opportunity to address the two loneliest subsections of societies – the under 25s and the over 70s. The seniors support the younger people by making them feel like they have a purpose and familial presence, and seniors get to be around the young to create a more upbeat environment: fostering connections that enrich lives and reduce loneliness. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a real win, win for those that buy into the concept”. GS
With 25+ years of experience leading global organisations, French-American bi-national Gorin is no stranger to scaling large businesses, but her new role as CEO of Expedia Group is her most prominent position yet.
Gorin became the group’s first female CEO in May after holding various roles there since 2013, including helping Expedia for Business grow its B2B revenue by 33 per cent from 2022 to 2023 as its president.
Speaking at Expedia Group’s Explore conference in Las Vegas, Gorin outlined her ambitions to drive international growth and accelerate its B2C business by continuing the rollout of the One Key loyalty programme and venturing further into AI for trip personalisation.
Despite a softening in travel demand, Gorin steered the group to some encouraging Q2 results, notably a six per cent year-over-year uptick in total gross bookings and “modest” growth for rental brand Vrbo.
However, her tenure was also marked by some early turbulence when, no sooner had she left the Explore stage, Expedia Group announced the firing of CTO Rathi Murthy and SVP Sreenivas Rachamadugu due to “a violation of company policy”. The reasons for their departures have not been made public but Gorin’s experience and ability to weather a storm will be crucial to her success. PS
Seasoned hospitality professional Celine Hurelle’s journey will be one to watch in 2025, following her hiring by Intrepid Travel in June to supercharge the company’s diversification into accommodations.
The Australian-French citizen joined Intrepid after spending 24 years working at international hotel brand Accor, where she led the global brand strategy for Paris-based firm Sofitel and worked in various countries such as Australia, France and Thailand.
Founded in 1989, adventure tour operator Intrepid already offers more than 1,100 escorted tours in 100+ countries worldwide. The company places a specific emphasis on creating positive change that benefits both travellers and communities they visit, connecting like-minded explorers and combatting loneliness.
The company has steadily expanded into lodging in the last three years, buying two hotels in Australia and Vietnam and signing a 50 per cent joint venture with off-grid accommodation company CABN.
Hurelle’s contributions will no doubt be invaluable as she leads Intrepid’s drive to acquire accommodation that supports the company’s responsible and local travel ethos, and draws on her experience to helm further expansion into community-led properties. PS
Digital hospitality platform NUMA Group operates a broad portfolio of hospitality properties – ranging from 35 to 250 units – across hotels, serviced apartments, hostels, conversions, and more. The breadth of the group’s offering can flexibly cater to short-, medium- and long-term stays, supported by a proprietary software suite which has digitalised more than 80 per cent of internal management processes – from booking and room allocation to housekeeping and accounting.
Earlier this year, NUMA reached a total €2 billion assets under management, having grown its portfolio to 5,850 units in 32 cities and 14 countries. The acquisition of YAYS from Proprium Capital Partners in November 2023 added more than 600 units in the Netherlands, Belgium and France to the NUMA platform – all of which are in operation, as well as in Germany and Spain.
Most recently, its acquisition of Native Places added more than 800 units to NUMA’s European portfolio, strengthening the group’s presence in the UK market having made its debut in London earlier in March 2024. As director of real estate for NUMA, Philipp Rohweder plays a key role in the company’s expansion and development pipeline – now, NUMA can count cities such as Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow to its growing list of locations. It’ll be fascinating to see where the team strikes next.
Archie Hunter, development director at Native, will be speaking on the panel discussion ‘Business travel and extended stay’ at Urban Living Festival 2024. EH
With 33 locations throughout the UK, from Aberdeen to Bournemouth, Village Hotels promotes its properties as “the hotel with everything under one roof”. Alongside accommodation, the brand operates a health and wellness club, a pub and grill, meeting and event rooms, the VWorks co-working space along with a Starbucks coffeeshop.
In June 2024, Blackstone completed the acquisition of Village Hotels from KSL Capital Partners in a deal reportedly valued at £850 million. Gary Davis, CEO of Village Hotels, said: “Each hotel attracts over 4,000 local members to our health and wellness clubs, quite unique in the hotel world… With Blackstone, we see great opportunities to expand the number of hotels in the UK and further enhance our existing facilities.”
Months before the transaction, Village launched a portfolio-wide Village Green ESG & Sustainability strategy. All hotels within the collection operate on 100 per cent renewable energy, and 98 per cent of waste is diverted from landfill through back-of-house recycling and third-party sourcing. Five Village Hotels have already achieved a BREEAM certification, with a further five due to follow by the end of 2024. Next year, the group will also publish the first of an annual ESG and sustainability report, joining a growing number of similar independent hotel brands such as citizenM and The Social Hub.
Kelli Turner, general counsel and director of ESG at Village Hotels, will be speaking on a panel discussion ‘Roadmapping for net zero by 2030’ at Urban Living Festival 2024. EH
2. Development
A CV listing titles such as the former CEO of Radisson Hotel Group Americas and chief development officer at Extended Stay America and Kimpton Hotels was enough to convince Airbnb to hire hospitality veteran Jim Alderman as its head of residential development, as the firm looks to expand beyond its core STR offering.
Previously serving in executive roles at Wyndham Worldwide and Starwood Capital Group, and as principal at his own consulting business, Alderman has been tasked with developing and growing partnerships with condo developers as part of Airbnb’s for-sale partnership programme that launched several years ago. The programme allows condo buildings in the programme to include short-term rentals and their own in-house team to assist renters.
Airbnb has already dipped its toes in the residential renting sector after launching its separate ‘Airbnb-friendly’ apartments listing service in 2022, which enables renters to find a place to live and sublet it on Airbnb part time. Now, as the programme reports “exponential growth” in US markets, there is potential for Alderman to help Airbnb normalise hosting across asset classes and target new regions e.g. Europe.
Catch Airbnb at Urban Living Festival in London on 18-19 September discussing ‘BTR – design and operations’. PS
Four years after the launch of Vertus, the build-to-rent arm of Canary Wharf Group, the company has diversified into the serviced apartment sector. Scheduled for completion at the end of this year, 3 and 15 West Lane will offer 378 studio apartments available for short-to-medium stays.
Alastair Mullens, managing director of Vertus, explains: “Our new flexible offer is a perfect way for guests to get a taste of living in Canary Wharf, with the option to then upgrade to longer tenancies within our residential apartment buildings.” This vertical integration will essentially allow Vertus to maximise occupancy rates across its products throughout the year, leading to increased operational efficiencies and profitability supported by a loyal customer base.
By offering a range of rental options, from short-term stays to long-term leases, Vertus is positioning itself as among the early BTR operators to embrace flexible living. As the demand for short-term and serviced accommodation continues to grow, we can expect to see other players following suit, including serviced apartment operators diversify into BTR.
Mullens will be speaking on a panel discussion about ‘Design and operations – adapting to the evolving needs of renters’ at Urban Living Festival 2024. EH
Rob Perrins, the CEO of housebuilder Berkeley Group, has revealed plans to enter the London rental market by establishing its own BTR platform as a response to a “subdued” private sale market. Berkeley has identified around 4,000 homes across 17 of its brownfield regeneration sites as an initial portfolio for the new platform.
Berkeley said its move into the BTR market is a “natural extension” of its past activity, which has seen it forward sell 1,000 homes to institutional investors across five sites over the past three years. “We now believe that adopting a more strategic route to this market will drive best value for these assets by creating a portfolio of scale, professionally managed, with proven income levels stabilised prior to disposal,” the company said.
The establishment of the portfolio will be financed by internally generated funds, debt secured against the rental properties once income generating, and third-party capital. A major private house-builder moving in to the rental market is a bold move, but Perrins is following in the footsteps of legendary Berkeley founder Tony Pidgley, who was never afraid to swim against the tide.
Perrins sees the new division as the continuation of a strategy which as seen the company deliver BTR inventory to investors such as Long Harbour, which forward purchased a 370-home BTR development with accompanying amenity space within Beaufort Park, a neighbourhood in Colindale, north-west London from Berkeley subsidiary St George. GS
Katherine Russell, director of BTR at the John Lewis Partnership, has, in a short space of time, become one of the most visible advocates for the BTR sector in the UK. Most recently, writing in The Telegraph, she urged chancellor Rachel Reeves to introduce tax breaks for developers who are prepared to start work on sites as soon as they are consented. She also urged the government to cut red tape for builders to help the industry meet Labour’s goal of building 1.5 million new homes over this parliament.
Russell’s calls are partly born out of her frustration in getting John Lewis’ BTR pipeline delivered in the face of significant delays in the planning system. The partnership is planning to build apartments on top of Waitrose stores. Its first project in Bromley, south London, was approved last month after a two-year wait. It has launched an appeal on a second scheme in Ealing, west London, over the length of time councillors are taking to decide on the project. Russell says cutting red tape would speed up investment in new housing, as would spending billions of pounds worth of unused development levies. GS
Singh brings over 20 years of global experience in extended-stay hotels, corporate housing, serviced apartments and multifamily properties to his role with Wyndham. His appointment [a new position for the group] was announced following the debut opening of ECHO Suites in Spartanburg, South Carolina in July 2024. Singh will oversee Wyndham’s growing portfolio of extended-stay brands with a focus on ECHO Suites and WaterWalk Extended Stay by Wyndham.
Since revealing the launch of ECHO Suites in 2022, the brand has become Wyndham’s fastest growing in the pipeline. In addition to the Spartanburg opening, ECHO Suites is on track to have 75 hotels open or under construction by the end of 2026 and 300 open hotels by 2032.
In April 2024, Wyndham expanded into the upscale extended-stay sector with a strategic partnership with WaterWalk. The deal added 11 hotels and more than 1,500 rooms to Wyndham’s extended-stay portfolio. With the rapid growth of ECHO Suites and the addition of WaterWalk, Singh’s leadership will be instrumental in driving the success of these brands and solidifying Wyndham’s position in the long-stay market. EH
3. Entrepreneurs
Barcelona, Paris, Lisbon et al – the short-term rental industry in Europe stands on a regulatory precipice as more cities seek ways to impose heavy restrictions on the segment. In many cases, STRs are scapegoated for wider housing strategy failures, rising property costs and the much-publicised ‘overtourism’ phenomenon, but one destination where there has been some success in combatting onerous regulations is Florence in Italy.
At the heart of efforts to lobby for the benefits that the sector provides is Marco Celani, president of AIGAB [Associazione Italiana Gestori Affito Brevi], whose intervention in the Tuscan capital has contributed to The Regional Administrative Court [TAR] overturning a ban on holiday rental registrations in Florence’s historic UNESCO centre.
Like other European associations, AIGAB is pushing for fair, proportionate STR legislation instead of extreme measures like bans. While not yet definitive, the TAR ruling and Celani’s contributions could prove to be a significant turning point in the regulatory landscape, as well as in future urban planning policies and tourism management, globally and across the continent.
Listen to our recent STRz podcast episode with Celani and hear him speak on the regulatory landscape at Urban Living Festival next month – book your tickets now. PS
- Oliver Cookson, Myprotein and Verve
Oliver Cookson, the Manchester-born entrepreneur who founded the Myprotein brand with a £500 overdraft and sold it for £58 million seven years later, is moving in to real estate investment. Cookson, who now heads the Verve nutrition brand, has a family office which is backing a project in his home city. Developer CERT has submitted a planning application for a 99-unit BTR scheme across two sites, backed by Cookson’s funds.
“I’m thrilled to be partnering with CERT to bring two exceptional developments to life in my hometown of Manchester. As someone born at Withington Hospital, just five miles away from the site, it’s a deeply personal experience to be investing in the local community that has shaped me. I’m excited to see the positive impact these developments will have on the neighbourhood,” he said.
“These projects will not only provide high-quality housing in a prime location, but also support the thriving community of independent businesses in the area. As the founder of Verve, a greens powder business, I’m passionate about creating healthy and sustainable living spaces that benefit both people and the planet. I’m proud to be giving back to the community that has given me so much, and I’m looking forward to seeing the benefits these developments will bring to the local community,” added Cookson. GS
A memorable mission statement is always a good thing to have in business, and Runway East’s is more memorable than most: “Let’s destroy boring offices”. Founded by Guerra in 2014 when she borrowed £100,000 against the value of her flat, the workspace operator now has 11 properties in its portfolio – seven in London, one in Birmingham, one in Brighton, and two in Bristol, where it is now the largest coworking provider in the city centre, with 82,000 square feet of space under management.
Part of the success of Guerra’s approach to growing the business has been creating and maintaining relationships with blue chip landlords. IT has devised an innovative model which benefits both parties. “We now work in partnership with landlords where we both invest capital in the project and then both have a profit share model,” Guerra recently told The Times. “When things are going great, the landlord is making more income than they would otherwise, and when things are tougher the landlord is making less income. That means we can ride downturns much more successfully than people on a leaseholder model.”
Just this month, the company signed its latest London property, 7,000 square feet at 58 Wardour Street, in a ten-year partnership deal with Soho Estates. The property will be home to managed offices for teams of between 20 and 100 people, and is scheduled to open in November. This is Runway East’s second deal with Soho Estates, which becomes the third landlord with which the company has multiple sites – the others being L&G and GPE. The new site is just 50 metres from its other Soho location, and is likely to be followed by more this year. GS
- Steve Lowy, Jitaku
Lowy is skilled at balancing multiple roles. Alongside his position as CEO of AES – a study abroad operator offering academic services and more than 250 student apartments in central London – he also heads up The Residence Apartments, a collection of 75 luxury serviced apartments in London.
More recently, Lowy revealed the launch of aparthotel brand Jitaku. He explains: “Our average length of stay [at The Residence] is two months, and we felt like we were turning away a lot of business; 85 per cent of our enquiries are for under a week. We felt we could offer a similar, homely experience but in a shorter stay offering.”
Having begun his career within the transient market of hostels and hotels, Lowy is well-prepared for shorter-term accommodation projects. And as chairman of BETA [British Educational Travel Association], a board member of the Tourism Alliance, a Trustee of the Savoy Educational Trust, and chairman of ASAP [Association of Serviced Apartment Providers], Lowy brings a deep understanding of the industry to his new venture.
The first Jitaku site will open in summer 2025 at 10-16 Bevis Marks in London, with a five-year plan to reach more than 150 apartments across five properties. EH
When Sörensen joined The Beaumont Hotel [London] in 2016, he became one of the UK’s youngest general managers. Under Sörensen’s leadership over the next five-and-a-half years, the hotel achieved numerous awards including TripAdvisor’s number two luxury hotel in the UK, one of the top 25 luxury hotels worldwide, AA London hotel of the year, and the world’s best independent hotel. He was twice named the world’s top general manager.
In his inaugural role as general manager, Sörensen made an immediate and significant impact on the luxury hotel sector. Fast forward to the present day and he’s embarking on a new venture, having launched the Kepler Hospitality Academy [KIHA] in July 2024. The first edition of its five-month Senior Executive Leadership Programme will commence in Amsterdam this October.
The course is divided into two consecutive stages. The first stage consists of three, five-day residential study modules: two in Europe [Amsterdam and Freiburg / Basel], and one in Asia [Kyoto]. The second stage consists of a two-month leadership assignment in the workplace. While other academic hospitality schools tend to focus on business management, KIHA stands out for its emphasis on personal growth and development. It mirrors the leadership philosophy that propelled The Beaumont Hotel to global acclaim, and is a real testament to Sörensen’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of hospitality leaders. EH
4. Finance
While the SFR sector picks up significant momentum in the UK, it has a long way to go to match the investment volumes it attracts across the pond, where Don Mullen heads up Pretium, the investment house he founded in 2012.
Just last month, Pretium, which has more than US$50 billion in assets under management, closed a single-family housing fund above target, with $1.5 billion in aggregate commitments. Investors included insurance companies, US pension plans, and US wealth managers.
This is a significant fund in isolation, but it is the sixth such fund that Pretium has closed since 2020. It has invested more than $2.62 billion in new build-to-rent construction in the US, creating more than 7,800 new homes across 37 cities and 15 states.
Mullen says the funds are “helping solve the tremendous shortage of viable housing in the US”. “Pretium has developed an integrated real estate ecosystem with the scale and expertise to capitalise on shifts in the market and expand access to quality housing that is resonating with investors, residents, and our communities,” he says.
Pretium’s – and Mullen’s – momentum is undeniable and it will continue enabling the creation of thousands of new homes over the next 12 months. GS
In May 2024, Ares Management Corporation, alongside its operating partner EQ Group, acquired 18 UK hotels from Landsec. The £400 million deal consisted of midscale and economy properties mainly located in Central London, as well as Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham. It marked one of the largest portfolio deals the UK hotel sector witnessed in the first half of the year.
Described as a “complex series of transactions” by Namid Mangalji, senior managing director and co-founder at EQ, Patel evidently played a key role as a vice president in the group’s acquisition team. She has over 12 years’ experience working within the investment management industry across commercial and alternative sectors, including hotels, residential and student accommodation. Experience in multiple sectors provides a broader context for understanding the real estate market, and this fresh perspective can stimulate new ideas and approaches to investment strategies.
EQ Group now manages a portfolio spanning €3.4 billion of hotel real estate across 10,000 keys. As one of the more active investors in a subdued market, eyes will be on Patel to see how her contributions will shape EQ’s future growth.
Patel is speaking on a panel discussion around ‘Finance, refinance and investment’ at Urban Living Festival 2024. EH
With a background in investment banking and then relocation, Dan Sennett now has his focus firmly on the living sector. Broadsword Investment Management, the new vehicle of which Sennett is a co-founding partner with Jack Cator, has recently acquired management company APO Group from Eco World London Holdings Ltd.
The acquisition is part of a wider strategy to enhance APO Group’s on-the-ground operational management capabilities and increase its market penetration. Broadsword says the purchase reinforces its commitment to becoming an established and respected participant in the UK residential property sector. APO currently manages around 2,300 units across the UK on behalf of institutional investment and asset management companies. Its portfolio includes Invesco Real Estate’s Kew Bridge and Barking Wharf BTR schemes.
Expect to see significant growth under Sennett’s watch as Broadsword and APO continue to invest in, deliver and manage assets. GS
Having said in the entry above that the US rental sector towers over its UK counterpart, there are some very chunky deals being done here, and James Seppala, head of European real estate at Blackstone, has been involved in quite a few of them, with more undoubtedly to come. In June, Blackstone and its partner Regis Group agreed terms with housebuilder Vistry Group for the delivery of around 1,750 new homes. The homes will be managed by Leaf Living, a SFR operations specialist which is backed by funds managed by Blackstone and Regis. The £580 million portfolio is concentrated in the south-east of England across 36 Vistry developments.
“Institutional private capital can play an important role in providing high quality housing stock across the UK, particularly in the private rented sector which is significantly undersupplied today. Partnerships such as these can meaningfully accelerate the delivery of new homes and help alleviate structural undersupply across the sector,” says Seppala.
Interestingly, Blackstone has also just announced the first sale of units from its 20,000-unit UK residential portfolio. The UK’s largest pension fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme [USS], has acquired 3,000 homes from affordable housing company Sage, which is majority-owned by Blackstone and Regis. “By deploying capital to fund the development of new homes, we are proud to have created an institutional grade portfolio which has, in turn, attracted more long-term institutional capital into the sector,” said Seppala. GS
Fewer players are entering the travel and hospitality sector than pre-Covid so it was fascinating to see private equity firm One Planet Group’s first serious venture into the vertical by investing $10 million in equity financing in struggling luxury subscription brand Inspirato. The PE firm is spearheaded by Payam Zamani, an established author and multi-sector entrepreneur, who succeeds Eric Grosse as CEO with immediate effect to reverse the company’s downward trajectory.
Zamani faces an uphill task from the start. The company is embarking on its third round of job cuts in a year and a half to trim costs, the executive team has undergone a sizeable overhaul, and the threat of a delisting from the Nasdaq Stock Market due to a “failure to maintain minimum market value” for public shares looms large, just two years after Inspirato went public via a SPAC merger with Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corporation.
While Q2 revenue plummeted 20 per cent YoY in Q2 and active subscriptions continue to drop, Inspirato’s volatile share price is declining further. Zamani’s deep pockets could be a lifeline to Inspirato or it could simply be delaying the inevitable if the long-term market forecast becomes increasingly uncertain. PS
5. Tech
Yovivo is a hotel booking platform featuring more than 350,000 hotels as well as a bespoke intranet for hoteliers to manage their own properties. Its core business product is a long-stay booking system, allowing travellers to request stays of 30 days or more, effectively transforming short-stay hotels into extended-stay properties.
Karen Kochmann, head of product at Yovivo, explains: “The hotel market has to adjust, but not all brands have the ability, time or budget to adapt to consumers’ inclination towards longer trips. Remote work is quickly reshaping the travel industry, and many properties are struggling to keep up. Yovivo’s technology can help.”
Not all properties on Yovivo may want to offer extended stays, however the technology provides the option to do so in the future. Yovivo describes its customer base as digital nomads and remote workers – a cohort which the World Economic Forum projects to grow by around 25 per cent by 2030, representing over 90 million digital roles. Some hotels will not offer the amenity space nor facilities to cater to longer-stay travellers, whereby the ability to accept, reject or modify any request made via the Yovivo platform could redirect demand to extended stay hotels, aparthotels and serviced apartments.
Yovivo is beginning to onboard properties specifically designed for stays for one month or longer, and as the platform continues to evolve, it will likely incorporate more advanced technologies to enhance the guest experience. EH
Since first venturing into homes in 2019, Marriott International has sought to cater to evolving guest preferences and engender loyalty among its discerning clientele. Now, with Nitin Sood spearheading digital innovation for Marriott’s Homes & Villas product, the brand is poised to transform the hospitality landscape through its holistic, guest-centric approach to technology.
Boasting a current inventory of 160,000 homes, Marriott is conceptualising new ways to learn about traveller behaviour, trends and preferences that feed into its Bonvoy loyalty programme, with Sood pioneering a digital transformation to revolutionise the overall guest experience.
Since the turn of the year, under Sood’s supervision, the company has debuted a generative AI search tool and unveiled its new Gen AI studio AI incubator. Moving forward, these innovations will enable Marriott to not only test different concepts but organise ideas to create the most targeted and specific searches in the hospitality sector, while also consolidating its tech inventory by developing an effective conversational product.
While AI is the current buzzword in travel technology, Sood will be at the forefront of unlocking more value for customers by developing “more seamless, personalised and engaging” ways to experience travel, as he discussed in a recent STRz digital transformation webinar. PS
Land in good urban locations has never been cheap, and the cost of prime development sites seems to be on an ever upward spiral. This can often have the effect of forcing developers to increase the density of a project to make it profitable. We have seen from the coliving sector recently that with good design, small living spaces of around 20 square metres can be perfectly functional and good places to live, provided sufficient communal space is available. We have also seen some bad design where the reverse is true, and a frequent lack of understanding from local authorities who focus on square metres and little else.
Markus Urban – great name btw – has just launched a start-up which aims to maximise the efficiency and liveability of small spaces. Plenti Space is a proptech company offering “smart walls”, which move at the touch of a button. Its mission: Make city life more affordable, comfortable, and sustainable by transforming small spaces into larger ones.
It’s early days for the company, but with claims that smart walls can help developers increase their yield and reduce development footprint by up to 25 per cent, I can see it taking off in a big way. GS
Bigfoot is an AI-powered tech startup which combines generative AI, user-generated content and over 50 different data sources to help travellers find and book local activities and experiences. This includes more than 120,000 events, restaurants, bars, nightlife, sports, outdoor activities and more across 160 cities. The company has been created by Airbnb alumni: Alex Ward, former global director of real estate; James Robinson, former pro host director; and Shane Lykins, former product team lead. Ward said that Bigfoot is the product he and his team wanted to build at Airbnb, although they did not have the resources to do so.
“At Airbnb, we saw that smart design and seamless UX are critical to providing intuitive experiences across all platforms – web and app – giving users immediate value, without the need for app downloads, logins, or paying to use the product. What we’ve created is an up-to-the-minute content engine that keeps users in the loop without having to rely on human curators frantically scouring the web for the latest things to do,” said Ward.
Research by Sainsbury’s Bank Travel Money reveals that AI is becoming an increasingly popular tool for holiday planning among British travellers, with one in ten having already used AI for travel planning and one in five likely to use it again in the future. When Airbnb is also gearing up to relaunch its ‘Experiences’ programme next year, the Bigfoot team are well-positioned to leverage prior knowledge and experience of building successful products to continue innovating and evolving the Bigfoot platform. EH
- Anant Yardi, Yardi and WeWork
Anant Yardi, the founder of proptech pioneer Yardi, and now heading the board of WeWork, will probably not relish being included in a ‘ones to watch’ feature as he will be hoping the storied and troubled workspace operator will be making far fewer headlines under his watch than it did in the preceding couple of years.
As far back as 1982, Yardi saw the need for an integrated accounting and property management software for the residential marketplace, and his company is now a household name across the living sector, if you’ll excuse the pun. Yardi Systems is now WeWork’s largest shareholder, and the dominant force on its new-look board on emergence from bankruptcy.
Anant Yardi says the company is “well-positioned to look optimistically to the future”. “While there is much work to do, with these supportive, structural trends, and a restructured organisation in place, I could not be more confident in our future and I am energised and excited by the challenge that lies ahead,” he says.
While WeWork may be able to enjoy a more stable time out of the spotlight this year, Yardi Systems still has an antitrust lawsuit to contend with – it could be that it will be generating more column inches than WeWork. GS
To learn more about our ‘ones to watch’, read and subscribe to the respective weekly e-newsletters of each media brand in the International Hospitality Media portfolio [UrbanLiving.news, ShortTermRentalz.com, BoutiqueHotelNews.com and ServicedApartmentNews.com].
