Hotel tech sellers, Deel, a16z, Spain, labor seasonality, PMS, channel manager and booking engine
Voice reading · ~4 min
Welcome to the Notitur daily brief, your travel-industry recap. Today: Hotel tech sellers, Deel, a16z, Spain, labor seasonality, PMS, channel manager and booking engine. If you have been selling hotel technology in Spain for at least a year, you know the country goes into commercial hibernation between late June and mid-September. What was once a hunch now has data. According to Deel's analysis shared by a16z, tech and remote companies, exactly the profile of many decision-makers in our industry, actually take real vacations in the summer. They take them and they enjoy them. The chart published by Lauren Thomas is a wake-up call for any hotel tech salesperson working the Spanish market.. The numbers are clear. While markets like the US or the UK keep a steady work pace in July, activity in Spain collapses. Deel detects that in August, the rate of employees logging hours worked drops below 40% among startups and scaleups using their platform. Translation for anyone selling a PMS, channel manager or booking engine: your potential client is not there, does not reply to emails, and if you text them on WhatsApp, they read it from the beach towel and archive it.. August is not a sprint, it's a wasteland. The worst part is not that they go on vacation. The worst part is that they actually disconnect. Unlike other countries where executives keep their phones on, here the concept of "digital disconnection" is embedded even in top management at OTAs and hotel chains. Trying to force a demo during those weeks is not just useless, it hurts your credibility: it shows you do not understand the market. Deel's report also points out that employees in Spain use 100% of their vacation days, unusual in other regions. That means no "windows" between meetings: a full block.. This has a direct impact on your sales pipeline. If you set closing targets for July or August, you are designing a funnel that will dry up. Revenue managers and distribution directors are out, and those left, summer replacements or interns, have no decision-making power over a five-figure travel tech contract.. The strategy: shut up and wait... or migrate. This is not drama, it's sales effort management. If Spain is your main market, accept work seasonality like you accept tourist seasonality. Dedicate June to closing, July to setting up September's agenda, and August to internal training or prospecting in markets that don't stop (Latam works the opposite: July-August is peak activity).. In the travel industry, the temptation to "force the machine" in August is strong because it's high season for our clients, hotels are full, but that does not mean they buy software. They are busy billing rooms, not signing contracts. Whoever understands this budgets better. Whoever does not gets frustrated and ends up giving discounts. Deel's data is the perfect excuse to make your CEO or investor understand why Spain underperforms in that period. Use the data, not excuses.. Bottom line: Do not sell software in Spain between July and August. Not because it is hard, but because there is no one on the other side. Grab Deel's data, circulate it in your next forecast meeting and redesign your sales cycle. Your pipeline, and your sanity, will thank you. That is today's recap. Come back tomorrow for more on travel, artificial intelligence and travel tech. See you tomorrow on Notitur.
