Skift Take
The chief financial officers at Marriott and Accor are closely watching the entry of banks, financial technology (fintech) firms, and tech giants into the selling and servicing of travel. As they should.
Early Check-In
Editor’s Note: Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill brings readers exclusive reporting and insights into hotel deals and development, and how those trends are making an impact across the travel industry.
I spent last week at two major hotel conferences, and the most intriguing thing I heard was a couple of hotel executives contemplating the coming competition from financial and tech players.
Someone asked the executives what keeps them up at night. They said it's the rise of fintech players in travel.
"When you ask me about sleepless nights, it's this topic [of fintech players]" said Leeny Oberg, chief financial officer and executive vice president, development, at Marriott International. "The reality is there's tremendous capital and good digital know-how in these spaces." Nodding along vigorously was Jean-Jacques Morin, Accor’s group deputy CEO and CEO for the hotel giant's premium, midscale, and economy division.The panel was at the season's biggest industry event, the New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference.This topic was one of the sector megatrends that Skift highlighted in January: "Big Banks Chase a Much Bigger Piece of the Travel Market." To recap:
JPMorgan Chase believes its recently launched Chase Travel will by 2025 process $15 billion in gross bookings a year out of a possible $80 billion in online travel bookings. Capital One has invested in, and bought, a few travel based businesses to create a consumer-facing travel offering, partly powered by online travel agency Hopper. Citi in the U.S.