Lessons from the FutureTravel Summit: How Hopper’s Org Design and AI Reality Are Redefining Growth in Hospitality & TravelTech

The Best Event Yet

The FutureTravel Summit, curated by Ana Metz, was arguably the best event I’ve attended in the hospitality and travel tech world so far. An inspiring blend of innovation, storytelling, and genuine connection.

Among the many highlights, one panel left a lasting impression on me: “What Does Growth Look Like Now?” featuring Makoto Rheault-Kihara from Hopper.

Two key themes stood out both reshaping how we think about growth today.

1️⃣ Redefining How Teams Are Built

Most companies still rely on the classic (siloed) departments and hierarchy: Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Finance, Operations, etc. Hopper, however, decided to structure itself around business goals, not departments.

Each cross-functional team owns a mission and brings together marketers, engineers, salespeople, and analysts under one umbrella.

The results have been powerful:

• ✅ Accountability: Clear ownership of outcomes; no finger-pointing.
• 🚫 Less internal politics: Departmental lobbying virtually disappeared.
• 🤝 Faster collaboration: Everyone aligned on a single, measurable goal.

This setup gave Hopper the flexibility to expand far beyond travel bookings into hotels, car rentals and other verticals.

It’s not an entirely new concept. Spotify calls this the “Squad–Tribe–Guild” model. Amazon uses “two-pizza teams.” Google uses OKR-based mission squads. Hopper executed it exceptionally well, and in an industry not known for agility.

So why aren’t more companies doing this? Fear. Red tape. Comfort zones. The cost of experimentation.

But in my view, only the brave and bold will reap the rewards.

2️⃣ I’ve Seen It Work First-Hand

When I led a team of project managers during multiple hotel pre-openings, we initially ran weekly check-ins within our PM team to share updates.

It wasn’t optimal especially as the number of simultaneous projects grew. Then, Michael Sivashinski suggested bringing one representative from each department into the same meeting.

Suddenly, our weekly calls transformed into real-time collaboration sessions. We reviewed every task live in our project management tool, addressed bottlenecks on the spot, and left with crystal-clear accountability.

The result?

• Less miscommunication
• Faster problem-solving
• Shared ownership
• We achieved our goal for hotels opened on time, on budget, and on brand

It’s a smaller-scale example, but the principle is the same: Cross-functional collaboration builds agility, clarity, accountability, and velocity.

3️⃣ Upskilling: The Next Frontier

The second key takeaway from Makoto’s insights were around AI and productivity. He noted that with AI, a marketer who upskills could soon be as productive as a team of 40.

That might sound exaggerated, but the data backs it up:

• 📊 According to McKinsey (2023), AI could automate up to 70% of marketing tasks and increase team productivity by 20–30% by 2030. (I think it will be faster btw)
• 💼 The World Economic Forum (2024) found that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted within just five years. (I think it will be more)

It’s both a threat and an opportunity.

In other words: Choose your hard; the discipline of ups killing or the difficulties related to getting left behind.

Final Thought

If your business feels slow to innovate, if communication across departments is painful, or if accountability feels fuzzy maybe the problem isn’t your people. Maybe it’s your structure.

And if you’re an individual professional in hospitality or tech, the same principle applies. The faster you adapt, the more valuable you become.

Because in this new era of AI and cross-functional agility, both structure and skill will define who thrives.