Declan: Alright, welcome back to the Fast Track. I’m joined today by Kajsa from VISIT. Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about what you do?

Kajsa: Sure. My name is Kajsa, I’m the Partner Director at VISIT. I more or less oversee all of our collaborations with external parties — both the partnerships and the integrations we’re going to talk about — for the group.

Declan: In your speech at VISIT Summit, you said something quite interesting: that “partner” is the most washed-out word in this industry. Can you explain why you said that, and what it means?

Kajsa: I think I have a slightly different viewpoint than some of my industry colleagues. The short explanation is that I’m not originally from the hospitality industry — I’m actually from the music industry, where partnerships are handled quite differently. So when I came into this industry, I realised everyone was just talking about partners, partners, partners. Everyone is a partner. But what does that actually mean? Most of the time, it’s just a technical integration — there’s nothing else going into it. And for me, that is not a partnership.

A partnership isn’t technical. It’s something you put much more effort into. It can be technical, in the sense that you have a shared roadmap, you build something together, you develop for the client — but there’s also something more. There’s a stronger sense of collaboration between the companies that goes beyond any technical connection. It can be customer value, it can be company culture. That’s what goes into it for me.

So when I say it’s the most washed-out concept, I really mean it, because I’ve seen it, and I think it just confuses everyone. What is a partner? It’s not technical, I can tell you that.

Declan: That’s a really interesting way of looking at it.

Kajsa: It is, a little. And everyone does it differently. A lot of companies brag about having two thousand integrations — but for me, why are you doing an integration? What’s the point? The point is to create value for the client in the end. A lot of integrations are built with the software company in mind, not the client. I get tons of requests for integrations, and it’s great that so much is happening — but if there’s no customer-centric focus, no customer requesting it, no customer who wants it, then what’s the point? So I’m taking it in a different direction from the start.

Declan: Has it taken a while for people to come around to your way of thinking?

Kajsa: At VISIT, it was already a little bit in the company culture, so not that much. What’s hard is educating people, both internally and externally, on the difference. I’m still talking with people internally who say, “oh, we have 400 partners.” No — we have 400 integrations. So it’s about educating people, because how you communicate about it matters. Putting a partner title on someone brings expectations — from us, from them, and from the client. So it’s really important to have that clear, internally and externally.

Declan: So if we have 400 integrations but far fewer partners — ones that are much more hand-picked — how do you ensure the partners you choose are the right ones for your customers? What goes into that thinking?

Kajsa: It’s quite a rigorous process. It always starts with having a technical connection — that’s the foundation for the products to work together. But we don’t just grab a partner out of the blue and say, “you feel like the right fit.” It goes into things like: is the technical connection solid enough? Do we have a proof of concept with an actual pilot client, and what’s their opinion of this company? Over time, is it growing — are more clients appreciating this connection? It’s not something we do overnight.

Guest XP is an example where it went faster, but we still did six to eight months of testing with them before we started pushing it wider, because we saw it created true value for the end client. Now we embed them directly into our system, because it really creates value. So there’s a lot of evaluation — not just from me, but from the client, the sales team, upper management. There are a lot of stakeholders in the process.

Declan: So the step from integration to partner — a lot of that lies in the value you want to give your—

Kajsa: Our clients, 100%. I don’t see the point in having twenty companies doing the same thing — it’s confusing for clients. They don’t want to sit through twenty demos. They want us to do the heavy lifting: to do the evaluation, to check that the partner is good technically, commercially, and in terms of value. They don’t have the time. I think that’s what’s been so confusing for clients in the past, because a lot of software companies are afraid to take that position — they won’t be completely objective. But you need to make sure it works well with your ecosystem, because not everyone will be a fit. That’s just how it is.

Declan: Let’s get to what you promised on stage yesterday — VISIT Marketplace, opening November 1st. You’ve tied your hands and put yourself in a corner; you have to deliver on it now.

Kajsa: I do, yes.

Declan: So what’s the thinking behind VISIT Marketplace? Why are you doing it?

Kajsa: Like Erica said on stage yesterday — VisBook, BookVisit, Citybreak, iTicket — when you look at our products, it can be confusing. That’s something we’re bringing together a lot more now. And on top of that you add partners, who are visible on different pages, different websites, under different brands. It’s really confusing for clients to understand what technology is connected. We want to showcase the integrations that exist, but also show who we really recommend — who we put a lot of effort into developing something great with. And since this isn’t fully externally visible, on a broader scale, it’s confusing for clients.

It’s also hard for them because there’s so much tech on the market, and it moves so fast — there are twenty chatbots popping up left and right, and they’re thinking, what do we choose? If we make that clear for them, it’s easier. It eases the process; they can talk to other clients using it, they can dig into it more. It’s about visualising everything that already exists, but much more clearly — both internally for us and externally — because right now it sits on so many different platforms, and I can’t plug myself into a computer. Not yet. So yes, now I have to deliver. It’ll be a first version, and we’ll iterate, and it’ll grow over time. We might not add all our products from the get-go — we might start with some and keep adding — because we also want to certify the integrations and partners again, to make sure what we put there actually works.

Declan: There’s talk about the VISIT platform being a one-stop shop. Is this another step along that path?

Kajsa: Yeah, 100%. As I said, we don’t just build products, we build the ecosystem — to make it very easy for our clients. Not just to buy tech from us, because we’re not going to do everything, and we won’t be experts on all of it. So we want to find the expert that works with us, so you have the possibility of expanding outside the core VISIT ecosystem.

Declan: We’ve talked a lot about integrations and partners — 400 integrations. How many partners?

Kajsa: Around 50, at this point.

Declan: In as few words as possible, what’s the real difference between an integration and a partner, for the people who are still going to confuse the two?

Kajsa: It’s hard to put simply. I’d say an integration is a purely technical connection — that’s all that goes into it. And in most cases, if a company builds towards us, we don’t necessarily have control of the connection, or what they built and how they develop it. So it’s a technical connection; it’s not a promise on our end about that specific product. A partner is someone we invest heavily in. Looking at Guest XP, or Price My Hotel Room — we embed them, we build them in, we try to create value for the client and make it smoother. So it’s technical, it’s commercial, it’s much more client-centric, and we can guarantee it a little more. That’s the main difference.

Declan: Is there a partner most VISIT customers don’t know you have — an unexpected one, maybe?

Kajsa: Oh, there are so many. Not someone super unexpected at this point, I’d say — there have been a lot of them here at VISIT Summit that are really core partnerships for us. Guest XP is one that most people are starting to get to know properly now; it’s been popping up quite rapidly and changing a lot of things. And I’ve got some interesting discussions going on, for sure. Watch this space.

Declan: Watch this space.

Kajsa: Watch this space, yes. We’re also looking at actual robots.

Declan: Like physical robots, not—

Kajsa: Physical robots, connected to the tech stack. That’s in the future, but it’s a space I’m looking into more, because I find it really interesting. We talk so much about software and tech, but there are companies already with robots cooking the food, delivering it, taking plates from tables — even having their own AI assistant, or a robot in a box, that does everything for them. It’s really interesting, and slightly scary, when you go into that space. I think we’re going to see a lot more non-traditional tech coming into the sphere.

Declan: So this time next year, you’ll be interviewed by a robot instead of me?

Kajsa: Maybe. (laughs) That would actually be really cool — but we shouldn’t lose the human touch.

Declan: Absolutely.

Kajsa: Yes, for sure.

Declan: Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.

Kajsa: No, thank you — it was great.

Declan: Fantastic, thank you.