Dan Peltier

These are the newest travel startups from AngelList vying for travelers’ interest and investors’ attention.

Travel brands need to dream bigger, Walker argues, and realize that consumers and venture capitalists are more ready for technology reinventions rather than improvements -- aka band-aids. Accepting that reinventions don't render everything obsolete is a great place to start with this imagination.

Let the festivities begin this week at the Airbnb Open, which could prove to be one of the company's seminal moments. The world of travelers, hosts and everyone else in hospitality will be watching to learn what comes next for a platform that's eager to look towards the future while also working through legal battles at the heart of hampering progress.

Many travel brands have email marketing strategies that travelers aren't connecting with and aren't working for the companies.

Families still lack a trusted and useful travel guide for the digital age, and perhaps startups like Winnie that want to make it easier to find activities and places on the go will make family travel more enjoyable for the parents who plan everything.

If taking a year off to travel the world sounds too good to be true, it probably is. We don't doubt more people are interested or open to doing something like this than in the past, but for many people their bank accounts and bosses will keep standing in the way of this freedom.

These are the newest travel startups from AngelList vying for travelers’ interest and investors’ attention.

What a year it has been for Facebook and the travel industry and it's not over yet. For a company with the unparalleled size and reach of Facebook to say that travel is the industry it's putting some of its most significant investment towards in the next year should tell you something about the state of the industry. We can't wait to see what's in store for 2017.

Most startups fail, as Anand Sanwal of CB Insights points out, and sounding pessimistic can sometimes sound smart. But big companies should ignore them at their peril because, as he says, "They're not coming for your basis points, they're coming for your commas."

Peer-to-peer payment platforms, digital wallets and cryptocurrencies are no longer the things of science fiction. These are the platforms travelers are using to pay for their basic purchases every day. Data show that brands that have adopted these platforms have seen the benefits and returns.