The Modern Hotelier #237: Marriott Terminates Sonder, Thanksgiving Travel, Future of Hotel Data Report | with Luis Segredo
====
Steve Carran: Welcome to another episode of The Modern Hotelier. This episode, we're gonna be talking about what happened in November in hospitality hot topics. Don't forget to follow, like, subscribe, and let us know in the comments about what you think about today's conversation I'm really excited about today we are joined by Luis Segredo, CEO of Hapi. Thanks for joining us, Luis. How you doing today? 
Luis Segredo: I'm doing fantastic, Steve, thank you for having me. I'm still getting over the extra Turkey on Thanksgiving, but we're on that boat, so ready to kick things off here.
Steve Carran: The big news this month came from Marriott and Sonder severing their ties. In 2024, Sonder actually entered a long-term agreement with Marriott making the accommodations for Sonder bookable on all Marriott websites. And then Marriott customers were able to use their bomb via Bon Voya points at Sonder as well Sonder recorded a net loss of $44.5 million in Q2 of 2025. The CEO of Sonder, Janice Sears said that integrations were a huge misstep in this partnership with Marriott Lewis, I'm gonna kick it over to you first. What are your thoughts about this kind of unfortunate partnership that's dissolved? 
Luis Segredo: You know, it really is unfortunate that you see something that was, that had so much potential forget faltering, just fail. You see that some hotel companies take an approach of a monolithic tech stack, they wanna control and own everything. This may be very efficient for them, but it ends up being very brittle, and especially when it comes to inorganic growth. So, there's no better example than this, unfortunately, that you see a situation that they came in and they said, well, you need to get everything integrated.
The success of the partnership was based on that, but the delays were created by it because they just weren't built for it, we're too great. And it ended up failing as a result. If they had taken a more open approach. And you'll see lot talk companies will say, look, you know, I'm gonna build everything, control everything myself or select a set number of partners and I'm only gonna work with this and this is how I work. And they clean everything up, they deploy it, they make it happen, and they go, look how beautiful, and then the biz dev guys come along and say, Hey, we wanna do an acquisition or a partnership or something. But the price tag of swapping out to tech, or the time it takes to swap battle attack really puts a strain on the partnership, that's just too great and it creates too much risk. So, it's unfortunate if they'd architected for this in the ahead of time to say, Hey, we're built to support this type of change, then it gives 'em a lot more flexibility and a lot more resiliency in their tech stack, be it from any tech partner, from anyone.
Steve Carran: Well said. We talked about siloed technology so much on this. Here's a prime example of why it's so important to have integrated technology. David, what are your thoughts here? 
David Millili: Yeah, not too much to add, but I'm surprised that to the points you guys have both made that it wasn't planned out better. And we see this all the time in our own space in tech where there's an acquisition that gets rolled into a bigger company, not really thought through, and, you know, the private equity people. The secret sauce, we'll just take these, this company that's got 5,000 customers put into a company with 50,000 and now all 50,000 will take that same technology and the integrations, as we all know, you know, on the call today, it's key.
Steve Carran: Yep. And I think this is one of those situations where the customers were really the ones left holding the bag for those customers that were staying at a Sonders property and got an email that they need to leave. That same day kind of feels like in this moment where brands are focused on growth with, we've seen it with lifestyle hotels now with apartment style hotels, outdoor style hospitality, and looking to grow into these different areas that maybe they're not as familiar with. So that was my 2 cents on this. I don't know if you guys have anything else to share or we're all good. 
Luis Segredo: Yeah. To say that the failure came at a great cost to the consumer is like any, the massive understatement, your key will stop working in the next three hours type of a thing, and there is no other place for you to stay. I couldn't imagine as a customer, unfortunately, without that would feel like thankfully I haven't experienced. 
David Millili: Well for our next one, not a big surprise, especially 'cause the brands are buying up all the independents, but brands led to, well, they led the US travel in searches and so no big surprise, but what do you think about that, Steve?
Steve Carran: I was thinking about this and I'm kind of on one aspect, I was excited by this because it shows that more people are booking direct, which I love that they're going to actual hotel websites, and I know we've been talking a lot about OTAs this year, but I love to see this trend of not only hospitality people, but you know, the general public just booking directly through websites.
Now I am I surprised that brands are leading the way. Not really. David, kind of like we've talked about how many times on. This episode, have we talked about brands acquiring these small, independent boutique hotels or also management companies as well? So doesn't really surprise me. I also think I was talking about this around Thanksgiving. Some people just don't want surprises. They just want to know exactly what they're getting in a hotel room. And if you have stayed at quite a few Marriott Courtyards, for example, you know what you're gonna get. So if I'm traveling for Thanksgiving. I don't want any surprises 'cause I know I'm gonna get some when I am spending Thanksgiving with the family, want something that I don't have to worry about. Courtyard Marriott is something that I know what I'm gonna get right away. Luis, what do you think?  
Luis Segredo: I think that it's wonderful to see that the brands have been able to pull, create incentives and create loyalty opportunities that are driving the people to book direct. And I think it's, it's important not because of the present, but because of the future. It's creating a bit of muscle memory, hopefully, because I think the most interesting stat in the article was that AI initiated chat started what was at 1% last year, and I believe the number goes to 4% this year. And I believe that that number is just gonna skyrocket. So the fact that that either even the scenarios where people go to start with an an OTA search or people are going to we'll replace that with an AI search that the muscle memory is there, is will be there to say, Hey, if I go back to the direct website that I'll create a better outcome for myself either because I know what I'm gonna get because there's more unique offers. So I think that was the secret little kernel in that article that give me a lot of solace for what the coming year will bring. 
Steve Carran: Yeah, and one thing I noted in that article was the number one reason people are booking direct more is flexibility to change their plans. I can definitely see that with how airlines have been with delays, you know, plans changing and travel, things like that. But that was the number one re reason. And I believe number three coming in was the better price. So I had a situation recently that I was booking.
Luis Segredo: I was booking for a trip with my family. I went to OTA to search, went to book Direct the hotel website. Price was like 15%, 20% higher. And I go, Ugh. And I booked the OTA and then found myself having to leave earlier. And it ended up going through all kinds of gyrations to undo, to accomplish a change. So at the when point leaving the hotel, I told the folks, they said, please just call us direct next time and we'll take care of you. 
Steve Carran: I think kind of once you experience that. One time you have to change those reservations and you book through an OTA and what a headache that is. You're like, okay, we've learned our lesson doing that. Well, that was great. So Thanksgiving travel numbers are still coming in, but it looks like we're gonna break another record this year. 81.8 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles this year. 73 million traveling by car and about 6 million by plane. Luis, did you travel this Thanksgiving? If so, how was travel for you? 
Luis Segredo: I am super happy to report that I did not travel this weekend. I got to stay home. I flew, I traveled with my family before Thanksgiving and I ended up flying back on Tuesday. So I was in Chicago, so I beat the weather and I beat the rush. I beat it all. Thankfully. 
Steve Carran: That's good. What about you, David?
David Millili: Yeah, no, this didn't surprise me and obviously especially in the US a lot of people are, are driving and obviously there was a lot of uncertainty with air traffic control and things of that nature. And this year what I noticed was Arizona has a lot less traffic than California. I already knew that, but I was in Southern California last year for Thanksgiving and it was difficult. And this year went to Sedona, very, very, very simple drive. No traffic, no delays, perfect weather. So this year was a lot easier for me than last year. That's great. 
Steve Carran: That's great. And I stuck home for Thanksgiving as well. Prefer to book at the busiest travel week during the holidays at around Christmas. So about 40 million more people travel during Christmas than Thanksgiving, which I didn't know about, but that's what I'm, that's what I'm holding out for. 
David Millili: All right, so Black Friday has now turned into travel Tuesday deals we're all seeing in our emails, we're getting everything. Amazon is obviously kinda leading the charge there. I'm getting emails left and right now, today being Monday for tomorrow's travel Tuesday, which this episode will Air Friday. But Steve, what are you seeing and, and what do you think about hotels trying to leverage this Black Friday concept and travel Tuesday?
Steve Carran: Yeah, I mean, it's no longer Black Friday, I feel like the whole week of Thanksgiving. You can find some really good deals if you want to, but I love travel Tuesdays and there's some pretty good incentives out there. I know this is gonna air a little bit after, but you know, you have the brands like Hilton, Marriott, offering 50% off deals. Virgin voyages, I got an email about they're doing buy one get 180% off for a cruise. So if you're a cruise person, sounds like a great deal, but I mean, I love travel Tuesday, I like to travel, so this is that one or two days a year where I might be able to snake some good prices. What about you Luis?
Luis Segredo: I've been receiving some of the emails, but what was most interesting for me is my daughter is planning a trip to Europe with her high school friends next year after graduation. And getting high school seniors to do anything is not the easiest thing. So my daughter had been frustrated to be able to coordinate her friends, but lo and behold, they all became motivated around travel Tuesday to get their act together and get dates and locations squared away. So, it's inspiring folks to move. I guess it's working. 
Steve Carran: That's right. That's right. Well, that's good to hear. Hopefully they find some good deals. So Luis, I'm really excited to have you on one thing, happy and Revinate. They just came out with their future of hotels data report. I'd love for you to tell our audience a little bit more about those findings and what to expect in 2026.
Luis Segredo: Thank you. The report is not surprising. The biggest challenge that, uh, that the people we're coming back with is that they're not having access to their own data. And then when they do have access to data, it's not harmonized correctly. So you end up with silos information that don't coincide, and then that results in their inability to use what they know about the customer, to create some personalization. They were saying these things and incredibly, it is what we do in serving. So it's a kind of a validation market, validation of the challenges. But what you see is in more specific.
You have hotels or hotel companies have hotels that are running their own tenants of individual systems. It could be a table management system, a spa system, a financial system, a property management system, and then collecting that data at the enterprise. In order for them to create real-time offers to understand what's happening in real time for the hotel company on behalf of the hotels becomes really challenging. And that's what people are saying that they can't get the data in time and they can't get it. The data with the accuracy they need in order to create offers, they're compelling for the guests.
David Millili: And so for those who aren't familiar, can you let the audience know a little bit about Hapi and what is new at Hapi right now?
Luis Segredo: Well, going back to what I was just saying, Hapi was born years ago from the notion that innovation is stifled because the data is not available on the customers in real time for the hotel companies and for the technology companies, technology partners. So if you have a great idea to create a better guest experience solution, for example in hospitality, you start off by saying, oh, I could just by default understand who's staying in every room, in every hotel.
No, you're gonna go off and build integrations to myriad of different PMSs, deploy those and then consolidate it to then offer this Hudson market. Before you start selling to customers. If you're a hotel company, you either going back to your earlier conversation, try and settle on one technology stack, or you have to deal with consolidating data from all these different systems, both parties end up spending a significant part of their budgets on the integration aspect of the effort. Our mission was to say, if we perform this job once and we can normalize the data so such that anybody that's consuming, rather than building dozen integrations, build one integration to us, we can enable both technology companies and hotel companies to innovate faster and create better experiences.
For the tech vendors, I think it's paramount because they're just spend less, spend less dollars on integration development, and they spend less time on integration development so they could focus on delivering their value. And on the hotel company side, the hotel companies, if we're talking about OTAs before the one part of this stay, that they can really control the one part of the, of the journey, uh, the customer journey is to stay understanding when people arrived, what they're spending, what they're doing, did they upgrade, and having that real-time information enables them to turn around and create all their offers or service recovery, or just an understanding that has generally been relegated back to hotel because they don't see it at the enterprise level.
But you were talking about, you know, state courtyard because you wanna have the experience, the consistent experience that should really be driven by the brand. So if we can enable companies to have that visibility at the enterprise level, then they can start to create greater consistency and do that without having to worry about the integration aspect of it. A great example of this is what we've done with I-H-G was an interesting group. We went to them, they said, Hey, can you give us a quick win because we have a collection of different challenges we have, and we said, there are no quick wins in this. We have to really go back and build connectivity.
But once we do, then we could go much more quickly. And we ended up deploying connectivity across about a half dozen d different property management systems, thousands of premise-based implementations and they were able to, to deliver some loyalty solutions that, to deliver the first one, which where the pain came in to do all of this, uh, front work.
But we've been able to deliver it was a loyalty voucher solution at first, uh, and then followed up by driving digital checkout and a collection of different use cases that we're offering for them that they're now no longer thinking about. The integration side of it, they're leaning on us and then they're just streaming up.
The next cool thing. They get offer for their, for the loyalty members or for the guests in general. We are now consolidated that at scale and enabling several other groups to have their own direct access to all of this, not just the events. And then we've also created the, like a transaction, API relay, so that, like I mentioned digital checkout.
The IHG team is, their internal teams are using one single API that then routes out and connects to all the hotels. So it's all seamless to the user. And we're taking care of the backend work, and we see the opportunity for driving those APIs in 2026 to do some really neat automations to start pulling effort out of the hotels and give some labor relief to hotels as well as better experiences for the guests.
David Millili: Well that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier Hospitality Hot Topics Luis. This is where you get to plug away and let people know how they can connect with you and how they can find out more about Hapi. 
Luis Segredo: You can go to stayhapi.com, or you could reach out to me at LinkedIn. I always love to meet new folks.
David Millili: That does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier Hospitality Hot Topics. Whether you're watching or listening, we appreciate you and hope to be with you again soon. Thanks for joining us, Luis.
Luis Segredo: Thanks for the opportunity.