Our industry, with its complex ecosystems, multiple stakeholders and high staff turnover, has struggled to develop an actionable approach to revenue performance and related data.

This isn’t just about the tools, but also about how we as an organisation can develop an effective approach to data management.

We have seen market leaders and current incumbents in this space like STR evolve and also consolidate by acquiring smaller regional benchmarking solution providers like Fairmas. Amadeus has consolidated and expanded the TravelClick portfolio of business intelligence products.

Fast-growing companies like OTA Insight have developed a range of products to help understand revenue and market performance – and drive better results. Their approach was reinforced in 2021 by an $80 million investment from Spectrum Equity, a leading equity investment firm focused on internet-enabled software and transformative data companies. Since then, they have also acquired Transparent, a company specialising in short-term rental data.

Juyo analytics provides great visual data displays and detailed reports to better understand the cost of distribution.

Swayed maps and designs customer journeys in physical environments. Swayed uses guest location, behavioural and transactional data to learn in real time how guests spend time and money during their stay, and then automatically uses this data to send contextual and personalised touchpoints to guests.

Zytlyn enables organisations to navigate the future with predictive insights to improve decision-making while redefining commercial planning and operations across the travel industry.

At the level of market and revenue performance, we seem to be in a much better position despite the fragmentation of technology systems.

However, I cannot help feeling that we haven’t really made much progress in analysing the distribution data and the performance of the distribution pipes – essentially looking “under the bonnet”. Considering that turnover is highly dependent on how well oiled the distribution pipes are, we need to pay much more attention to this point. Companies in this area include Fornova, Gimmonix and Triometric.

Exciting times, but there needs to be more work on understanding what is under the bonnet!