The chief marketing officer of a Dutch hospitality group considers whether she should invest a substantial portion of her budget in partnering with a start-up whose business model involves bypassing online travel agencies. Expert commentary comes from Ted Teng, president and CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World, and Michael Levie, COO at citizenM, a Netherlands-based hotel company.

The chief marketing officer of a Dutch hospitality group considers whether she should invest a substantial portion of her budget in partnering with a start-up whose business model involves bypassing online travel agencies. Expert commentary comes from Ted Teng, president and CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World, and Michael Levie, COO at citizenM, a Netherlands-based hotel company.

The chief marketing officer of a Dutch hospitality group considers whether she should invest a substantial portion of her budget in partnering with a start-up whose business model involves bypassing online travel agencies. Expert commentary comes from Ted Teng, president and CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World, and Michael Levie, COO at citizenM, a Netherlands-based hotel company.

Accor, the world's leading hotel operator with a portfolio of fourteen hospitality brands (including Sofitel and Novotel) in 92 countries, prided itself on living up to its motto, "To open new frontiers in hospitality." Accor was indeed contemplating how to do just that-but not by tackling a new frontier of the geographic variety. Rather, the firm was further exploring the digital frontier via a new distribution channel that would allow it to better compete in the online marketing space for travel reservations.