These Travel Tech Execs See Early Signs of Weakening Demand

Avoiding widespread trade wars will help avoid the worst economic outcomes, but most signs point to a slowdown.

Most tariffs are now on pause, but recession risks have risen from the start of the year. Behind the scenes, companies that provide tech to travel companies are seeing early signs of weakening demand in the U.S. and a shift toward domestic travel.

Lighthouse, which tracks hotel market data, is already seeing some market adjustments based on data pulled on April 1.

"Average hotel prices across major U.S. destinations have decreased by 3-5% in just 30 days, and we're tracking continued downward revisions for summer bookings. Concurrently, Canadian interest in U.S. travel has notably declined, with the share of searches dropping from approximately 25% to 15% of outbound queries,” said Sean Fitzpatrick, Lighthouse CEO, in a statement.

Skift spoke with executives of several late-stage travel tech startups — Lighthouse, Flyr, Guesty, Hostaway, and Mews — on what they expect and how they’re preparing.

These companies collectively raised over $1 billion dollars in capital in the past year on the back of their growth since the pandemic. That growth came after the pandemic halted travel, and the low-tech industry realized it was grossly unprepared.

These companies — though young and still navigati