Why Hotel Booking Engines Are Dying — And How AI Agents Will Replace Them, with Selfbook Founder Khalid Meniri

Khalid Meniri didn’t come from hospitality — but maybe that’s exactly why he was able to see its most obvious blind spot so clearly. A designer and technologist by trade, Khalid is the founder of Selfbook, the beautifully elegant booking platform that’s quietly powering the next generation of high-end hotels. In this episode, you’ll hear the remarkable story of how a glass cube on Fifth Avenue (yes, the Apple Store) first inspired Khalid’s obsession with design — and how years later, that obsession led him to reimagine the broken booking experience plaguing even the most beautiful hotels. We unpack: Why the legacy booking flow is fundamentally broken — and why most hoteliers don’t even realize it How Selfbook is thinking about dynamic pricing, personalized rates, and the future of “invisible tech” Why the most exciting guest journeys of the next decade won’t start on a hotel website — they’ll start in a chat window And how Selfbook’s new partnership with Perplexity could reshape hotel discovery at the point of inspiration If you care about hospitality tech, design-led products, or the future of direct booking, this is a must-listen. Learn more about Selfbook Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world’s top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more. Your host is Zach Busekrus, Head of the Journey Alliance. If you are a hospitality entrepreneur who has a stay, or a collection of stays with soul, we’d love for you to apply to join our Alliance at journey.com/alliance.