If every individual traveler comprises his or her own demand segment, the implications for the industry go far beyond blurring categories, or borrowing ideas from different verticals. It means that the entire hospitality industry needs to rethink how it organizes itself, how it markets itself, how it develops product, and also how it sells it.

Brands and the developers, owners, and management companies behind them need to think of themselves as hospitality providers first and foremost. And the product they’re developing shouldn’t be confined to traditional notions of what a hotel should be.