Between Rome and Tel Aviv
Roma, 2012
How to bridge local pace with global precision
At 35, I held a passport in one hand and a major responsibility in the other: to connect the Israeli hospitality market – vibrant, creative, and full of life – with one of the world’s largest and most influential global OTA platforms.
After a year of intensive training in Rome and the Netherlands, I was given the mission of establishing Booking.com’s operations in Israel from the ground up. An office, a team, infrastructure, and above all, an ongoing, professional, mutually beneficial relationship between two very different business cultures.
The space I stepped into was full of gaps.
On one side were Israeli hoteliers – direct, fast-moving, inventive, with deep hands-on experience and an impressive ability to improvise.
On the other side stood a complex global system built on data, structured processes, clear frameworks, and a drive for organizational consistency on a worldwide scale.
And within all of this was a complex local regulatory environment, with laws, procedures, and nuances that did not always “speak” the global language, yet had to be translated accurately in order to fit into it.
My role was not to choose sides, but to bridge between worldviews.
To make the local language, needs, and reality accessible to decision-makers in Amsterdam, and to translate global requirements so they could work within the Israeli reality – without breaking or undermining what was already working well here.
During my years at Booking.com, I found myself moving between flights, meeting rooms, and conversations with international teams. I went through training programs and developed deeper systems thinking in areas such as management, A/B testing, agile ways of working, coaching, product development, and technology at global scale.
But more than the professional knowledge I gained, what truly stayed with me was the capability itself.
The ability to hold two worlds at once.
The local pace alongside global precision.
Complexity alongside clarity.
The people and the system.
Today, when I advise hotels, hotel groups, startups, and multi-layered technology projects, this is the value I bring with me: a deep reading of the field, an understanding of people and processes, and the ability to connect different business needs without losing the human heart that sustains the hospitality and travel tech industry.
If you also operate on the line between local and global, if you experience the tension between flexibility and structure, between people and systems – I would be glad to help you bridge the gaps, sharpen the thinking, and build connections that truly work.
Frequently Asked Questions about Hospitality Growth, Booking.com Expansion, and Travel Tech Strategy:
Local market knowledge helps global travel companies understand regulations, customer behavior, cultural expectations, pricing dynamics, and operational realities. Without strong local insight, global strategies often fail in execution.
Common challenges include communication gaps, different work speeds, regulatory complexity, technology adoption, pricing expectations, and cultural differences. Successful partnerships depend on trust, translation of needs, and aligned goals.
Hotels can improve OTA performance by optimizing listings, pricing strategy, content quality, reviews, conversion rates, operational efficiency, and communication with account managers. Strong distribution strategy leads to better revenue results.
A hotel consultant can improve pricing strategy, OTA performance, guest conversion, operational efficiency, and long-term profitability.
Hotel groups often hire advisors during expansion, restructuring, technology implementation, or when growth has stalled.
Choose a consultant with hands-on hotel experience, OTA knowledge, commercial strategy expertise, and proven international business understanding.
