161 - We're still building mousetraps
Hotel tech needs to think beyond better features. Brand of independent? Podcasts are the new talkshows. The hidden costs of direct bookings.
Hello,
There’s a lot of stuff I say that has been said before. Probably most of it. I try to write with my own experiences and viewpoints. This week let’s discuss how hotel tech needs to grow up.
PS: If you haven’t filled out my survey, I’d love to have your reader feedback.
Best, Martin
Pragmatik marketing agency turns hospitality SaaS
companies into highly visible market leaders.
Find out more ➛
Opinion
Hotel Tech is still trying to build a better Mousetrap
150 years ago, the saying was that if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. Since then we have entered an age of “mousetrap” abundance. So even the if your product is the best, nobody will ever know. The hotel tech chart more than doubled in size just the last decade. App store submissions increased by 84% with the advent of AI. Good tech isn’t the problem anymore.
In parallel, we (and the customers) are drowning in information: emails, LinkedIn, messaging apps, newsletters ad infinitum. We probably consume more information in a day than previous generations consumed in weeks, and that’s not taking account the AI slop that is coming in like a mudslide.
Customers can’t realistically shop for the best hotel tech anymore. Yes, they’re going through the process of RFPs etc. They have to. But they’re looking for the solution that will reduce effort and risk. The “don’t make me think” solution.
The stats and global advertising has now reached its highest share of GDP ever recorded, let’s just realize what that means for a moment. In the age of self-marketing and information, more money is spent on advertising than ever before, more than in the Mad Men era. Yes, we can say the cost per click went up or ad prices are going up. I think it means customer attention has become one of the scarcest resources.
In hotel tech (and probably a lot of B2B SaaS) a lot of vendors are still competing as if product quality and innovation are the primary differentiators, it isn’t. I find the McDonalds story very relevant here. In the battle between the best burgers and the most distributed burgers, the latter won. And history is full of those stories.
I speak to a lot of product people, founders, CEOs, they’re busy adding (and investing into) more features, more dashboards, more AI capabilities. Yes they should, products must improve. But if you look at which SaaS companies win and which loose the winners are the ones that are strong in marketing. I once published my research on that and 44% of their costs to sales and marketing, versus 31% to product.
This has been said time and time again. I’m not making some big revelation here. But I’m surprised at how few actually believe it or at least do it. Look at hotel tech, who is winning today? Is it the ones with the best product or the ones with the best marketing. Be honest.
It is easy to brush off the winners as “they’re just selling hot air” maybe they are, but in the end they’ve got the market share and they can add features. Those still tweaking the product might have the features but no customers.
Attention is the bottleneck. There are only so many seconds a day that people pay attention to something else than what they are working on. This is the most important thing you need to understand from this. And that’s why advertising has now reached the highest share of GDP in history.
Take a good look at how many seconds or minutes a day you allocate to what is happening in your industry. Look at how limited that time is. Now figure out who is showing up and who isn’t? If you’re not showing up, you don’t exist.
Obviously one can say that I’m touting my own horn here. I am. But mostly because that’s where my experience is. I can’t comment on the importance of github or document code.
Brand or Independent?
It really depends on how much effort you’re willing to put into it. Yes independent gives more freedom and you can try out lots of ideas. If you work hard you will save a lot. If you’re looking for a comfortable and scalable plan, then you’re most likely the brand type. You pay for the comfort of knowing someone else is taking care of things.
HOTEL STRATEGY
About me: I'm a fractional CMO for large travel technology companies, and the co-founder of Pragmatik, a tech marketing agency that's all about results. You can find out more at wearepragmatik.com. Hotels Form an AI Alliance
Historically hotels have always handed over the keys to their distribution to the new middle-man that came along. Whatever new tech came along, hotels were happy to take-no-risk and then wonder why their margins keep getting squeezed. AI discovery is already going that way. An alliance makes sense. But if you ask me the ones who could own the tech for that alliance would be Cendyn with their meta-search product that (I believe) has the widest ARI connectivity.
AI ALLIANCE + OTA AI
APIs and AI
I’ve seen demos of hotel PMS environments where AI helps the user build their own workflows and customize their PMS to fit their own needs. I also saw a demo where the UI could be edited “replace this card with the check-ins for today”. This is where I believe AI will totally change how we consume hotel tech.
OPEN API

Every Square Meter Matters
Hotel investors are no longer evaluating guestrooms in isolation. Restaurants, public spaces, wellness facilities and mixed-use concepts increasingly determine both profitability and sustainability. Revpar isn’t a great metric (but it is one that can be “adjusted”) I personally think revenue per type of sqm would be much more accurate.
ASSET OPTIMIZATION

Direct Bookings Have Hidden Costs
For years the industry has pushed direct bookings as the obvious answer to OTA commissions. AI agents will introduce a new cost structure where hotels may pay simply to participate in discovery and search. Attention is becoming the bottleneck (see my column above). And as many have discovered the total cost of acquisition for direct is often quite similar to OTAs. But direct gives more customer control.
DIRECT COSTS +  ADVERTISING GROWTH
Bad Data Travels Fast
One misleading headline can become accepted truth remarkably quickly once it starts being repeated. It’s a useful reminder to always trace impressive numbers back to their original source before building strategies around them. We know that for social media posts, but we accept that established media must have fact checked it. But fact check your data. Find the source - verify how they got there. Understand the data yourself and make your own conclusions.
DATA QUALITY
Where People Get Their News
The Reuters Digital News Report confirms what many of us already experience daily: news consumption is increasingly platform-driven. The idea that your audience gets their news from a particular source is fading. They’re getting little bits aggregated by algorithms through various platforms (and hopefully fact-checking it).
DIGITAL NEWS

Beyond the Technology Conversation
I spend a lot of time discussing new technology, but the fundamentals remain unchanged. Good data, sensible APIs and practical implementation matter far more than chasing every new trend. Technology should solve operational problems, not become another one.
HOTEL TECH
Where to start with hotel tech
I joined Josiah on the Hospitality Daily podcast and discussed a bit my take on hotel tech. Yes I’m deep into it and we all tend to view the world from our viewpoint. But there are at least 8 billion other viewpoints and none of them are the same. So here’s my take on where to start.
HOSPITALITY DAILY
Memory Matters More
Hotels often talk about creating beautiful websites and experiences, but guests rarely remember details. What lasts are the memories and emotions (McDonalds is a great example). Designing memorable moments is one of hospitality’s greatest opportunities.
LASTING MEMORIES

Podcasts Become Television
The boundaries between media formats continue to blur. As video becomes standard for podcasts, they have become the new talk-shows. Content remains king, but distribution is changing.
VIDEO PODCASTS
• Two chained monkeys in detail - Link
• The Guide Competitors Hope You Miss - Link⁺
• Restaurant Menu History - Link
• The Hotel Yearbook Goes All-In on AI - Link
Did you know: The phrase "better mousetrap" comes from the saying, "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." This idea is often linked to the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in the late 1800s, though he did not say it exactly that way. The phrase uses the mousetrap as a symbol for any useful invention or improvement. Defined using Lomar Dictionary⁺