GetYourGuide runs the best creator program in travel - here is what you can learn from it:

Who in travel really understands the power of volume in social?

GetYourGuide is best practice and here is why:

GetYourGuide runs an always on creator program.

Creators both get paid and can earn affiliate revenue. Individual affiliates are driving 100’s of thousands in bookings to GetYourGuide. 💰💵💸

Of course, some creators are also driving none or next to no bookings, but their paid contracts are just not renewed.

This is also not wasted money or effort because those searching travel topics might see GYG mentioned 2 or 3 times in their search on social because of the volume of output by GYG creators and the awareness they create.

This builds the GYG brand.

GYG have a team on this because it can take a lot of management.

But any brand can now also operate at this scale without increasing head count.

The processes of find, book, manage, measure and report on influencer marketing are what we have automated at Videreo.

We can reduce the human workload here by 80-100% for $99 a month.

Do the math and give us a call 📞

Videreo finds, books, manages & MEASURES creator marketing campaigns in travel. The control you want at the scale you need - without adding to headcount.

Contact me to learn how we can make this happen for you.

This content is provided by the (interim) newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

Google gets patent to replace your website with AI if it’s not good enough

A fascinating story this week about Google getting a patent to basically build a website on the fly for any business that it doesn’t think is up to scratch for the searcher.

First, I thought website were dead and the Google played its role in killing them with AI overviews and zero click search.

According to the article, this patent works like this:

“The system works like this: you search for something, Google returns results, and behind the scenes it calculates a "landing page score" for each result based on conversion rate, bounce rate, CTR, page design quality, and content quality. If your score crosses a threshold (meaning your page is bad enough) Google generates its own AI page for your brand and inserts a navigation link to it directly in the search results.”

OK. I thought agents will be doing all our shopping (and we’ll just be staring at our phones watching them do it).

The article has an answer for this too: “the infrastructure is clearly being built, and it fits perfectly into the agentic commerce stack Google has been assembling with UCP, Business Agent, Direct Offers, and AI Mode shopping

We all know there is a fair bit of detail in a lot of travel product. I hope the Google gets it all in there along with the T&Cs and deposit amounts.

Navan open in Boston - to get close to AI talent

The AI talent wars are really going heat up in the next few years and Navan are not waiting to be discovered.

News this week was that they are opening a Boston office, not because that is a great market hub (although it probably is to be fair for corporate travel software) but because it is close to sources of AI talent that it wants to woo.

"By setting up shop right next to some of the world's top universities and the most innovative companies, we're making sure Navan is positioned to be fueled by one of the smartest, most competitive talent pools in the country," Grant McGrail, Navan's chief revenue officer, said in a statement.

Who else in travel is thinking this way?

Booking is getting belted on AI fears

BitGet this week didn’t hold back in its synopsis of the share slide at the big public travel companies:

“Shares of Booking Holdings have tumbled sharply, dragging peers Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) and Tripadvisor Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP) lower as well.
The trigger this time isn't a pandemic or an energy shock — it's artificial intelligence.”

It’s like the stock market has suddenly tuned in to Christian Watts’ LinkedIn feed.

“Investors have been repricing the online travel space on fears that generative AI platforms — from chat-based assistants to emerging "agentic" booking tools — could disintermediate traditional online travel agencies (OTAs).”

When the going gets tough, the CEO gets a PR'ing as the old saying goes. And so it was this week with Glenn Fogel getting an interview out with McKinsey to explain there is nothing to see here at all, except good AI shaped things.

I wouldn’t want to be a coder at Booking right now. No doubt they will be the first real losers in all this.

On a similar front. Rafat at Skift also put out a great piece about activist investors who are shaking this up all over the place - especially Trip Advisor and Dennis Schaal got hold of a confidential note from CEO Matt Goldberg to staff addressing the “"challenging" month because of the company's share price volatility.”

I wouldn’t want to be a coder at Trip Advisor right now.

Odynn raises $9.5M in seed funding

Over on the up elevator, new kid Odynn has “raised $9.5 million in seed funding led by Bonfire Ventures and co-led by Fiat Ventures. The company positions itself as the “AI Shopify for loyalty and travel,” helping financial institutions deploy personalized, branded travel portals in a matter of weeks rather than years.”

Odynn describes itself as “a fully modular AI platform that helps fintechs, banks, card issuers, and travel companies launch embedded travel, loyalty, and rewards programs through white-label solutions and APIs designed to drive engagement and unlock new revenue streams.”

Mark Mullen, Co-Founder And Managing Partner Of Bonfire Ventures said “When you’re serving customers from fintechs to multi-billion-dollar banks like ANZ, and they’re all seeing these metrics, you know you’ve tapped into something that is an infrastructure need and what the market desperately wants.”

Building with Claude

Everyone is talking about building with Claude. Jack Harris is one of them. “I was up until 2am configuring my new hire.” said Harris this week on LinkedIn

I did like his approach to thinking through the build however.

“He's already got more documented onboarding than most people I've actually employed. Soul file, identity brief, user profile, security config, staged capability rollout. We've been speaking on Slack. He's responsive and willing.”

I’ve yet to meet a lazy AI to be fair.

“One rogue email, one botched quote, one tone-deaf reply to a partner and you're not fixing a tech problem. You're fixing a trust problem. So before configuration began, Claude worked through the entire OpenClaw documentation with me. We mapped the architecture, identified the risk surface, and built four foundation documents together. A soul file so it knows what it values. An identity brief so it knows what it is. A user profile so it understands who it's working for without me re-explaining context every time. And a security config that reflects an actual threat model, not default settings left untouched.”

This of course sounds like a sensible approach. Harris thought about how much autonomy he wanted his agents to have.

“The piece I've thought hardest about is privilege escalation. The agent cannot modify its own config. Every new capability requires a deliberate conversation, a review of the implications, and a human decision to proceed. It can't let itself through its own door.”

That doesn’t sound like the type of worker you can set of on task whilst you head to the golf course. But maybe better in the long run?

If you think someone (or everyone) you know or work with could grow from being more informed on the topic of ai + travel (or could use the training above) then please forward this email to them and they can click the button below:

Marketplace Spotlight: Tripian

Tripian CEO and Founder, Jeff Kischuk sat down with Oleksij Rak of Reframe First, for a conversation every travel and hospitality professional should hear.

They went deep on:
-Why hyper-personalization is no longer a nice-to-have
-Where the human touch still wins and where AI takes over
-The travel industry is at an inflection point: the companies that understand how to blend data, AI, and genuine human connection are the ones that will lead the next decade.

🎬 Watch the full interview here → https://lnkd.in/eus3tdM6

Want your business shown to 4500+ travel decision makers? You can sign up to the marketplace for peanuts (top right corner, 5 mins, bring your logo) and you'll also show up here from time to time.

Whle I’ve priced for bootstrapped startups we are also accepting larger companies too.

Chesky says its over for Apps

Fair chance Airbnb investors haven’t baked in a lot of future AI future gains and got too far over their skis.

Brian Chesky has played a slower longer game on AI - and that is looking like the right strategy about now. There have been 2 sectors so far where there has been significant disruption: coding (totally disrupted - Silicon Valley really eating their own) and customer service (partially disrupted). I don’t think Airbnb are actually behind on either of those fronts.

He isn’t on the fence about where we are headed: “Chesky calls AI an existential risk for Airbnb and for everyone else, then lays out what he thinks changes next: no more classic search box, filters, and results pages.”

He argues the AI models will not stay proprietary, which means the advantage shifts to the companies that rebuild their products and businesses around this new interface”

This was from the Skift Global Forum - but Skift have just released the full show onto Spotify.

Slack Group!

Podcasts and Sponsors

Podcasts now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

New podcasts are now showing up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for your easy listening pleasure!

This week I caught up with John O'Sullivan who took his social media efforts for his tour business and spun those into a media company that now has tours as just one of its products.

The special FREE education series with Santiago Rodriguez - follow along and get real usable and actionable insights for your business immediately and for free. Best to watch and listen at same time soe maybe try this one on YouTube.

Partner with Us

Most clicked last week was the link to the business run with a team of 21 AI agents.

That’s it - you’ve made it to the end of this edition. Happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating it! If you’re thankful for this newsletter - you can always buy me a coffee.

I’ll be putting the result of the most clicked post in next week’s edition so you can see where others are focusing. If I’ve missed something, you’ve got a tip or any feedback at all - you can simply reply to this email and it will come straight to me. I’m doing this for You so please don’t be shy to tell me what you think