The traditional boundaries of the travel industry are facing an unprecedented period of disruption. For decades, the sector operated within highly structured, independent silos: airlines managed flights, hotels provided lodging, and car rental agencies supplied vehicles from standardized fleets parked at airport depots. Each sector operated on its own legacy systems, utilizing rigid booking rules and predictable, one-size-fits-all processes.
Today, however, those boundaries are rapidly dissolving. Driven by rapid technological innovation and a profound shift in consumer behavior, travelers are increasingly demanding flexibility, personalization, and seamless control over their entire itinerary. They no longer view a trip as a series of disconnected reservations; instead, they experience it as a singular, continuous journey.
According to Skift Research, consumer expectations around personalization have significantly outpaced what many traditional travel brands can actually deliver. Modern travelers expect to be recognized, understood, and accommodated in real time, yet legacy infrastructure often prevents brands from meeting these demands.
The car rental sector serves as a clear illustration of this gap. Historically organized around standardized inventory, fixed locations, and rigid rental agreements, the traditional ground transportation model is increasingly out of step with the modern traveler.
To explore how the mobility landscape is evolving to bridge this gap, Skift Studio sat down with Tim Rossanis, Senior Vice President for the U.S. at Turo, the world’s largest peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace. Rossanis believes that the shifting dynamics of mobility offer crucial lessons for the broader travel industry as brands attempt to move away from legacy processes and rebuild their operations around genuine traveler intent.
The Personalization Gap: Moving Beyond Segmentation
For years, travel companies have relied on market segmentation to categorize their customers. Travelers were grouped into broad buckets—such as "business travelers," "budget leisure tourists," or "luxury seekers"—and targeted with generalized packages. However, in an era where consumers experience highly tailored algorithms in almost every other aspect of their digital lives, this approach is no longer sufficient.
"A lot of travel companies talk about personalization but still deliver segmentation," Rossanis points out. Genuine personalization, he argues, is not about putting a traveler into a pre-defined category and hoping their needs align with it. Instead, it is about giving the traveler meaningful control over their experience.
This shortcoming is particularly visible at the traditional car rental counter. For decades, the industry standard has been to offer customers a vehicle class—such as "mid-size SUV" or "compact sedan"—with the caveat that the actual vehicle received will be the selected option "or similar."
For a traveler planning a highly specific trip, this lack of certainty can introduce unwanted friction. Rossanis shares a personal perspective on why this detail matters:
"A car can and should be much more than simply a means of getting from A to B. So many of my best memories from childhood and parenthood come from road trips, and the promise of getting the vehicle you booked ‘or similar’ doesn’t really cut it when you’re spending hours in a car trying to turn a mundane drive into a magical journey for your kids."
By transitioning from rigid, category-based options to a model that allows travelers to select the exact make, model, and features of the vehicle they will drive, mobility platforms are showing how travel providers can put the individual back at the center of the experience.
Dismantling the Legacy Model of Ground Transportation
The traditional car rental model was built for operational efficiency rather than consumer convenience. It relied on centralized hubs, typically located at airports or major transit stations, requiring travelers to navigate shuttle buses, long queues, and administrative paperwork before finally reaching their vehicles.
Rossanis explains that Turo’s approach has been to invert this dynamic entirely, focusing on adapting the service model to the traveler rather than forcing the traveler to adapt to the model.
"Turo is reinventing the traditional rental process, putting the person before the process," Rossanis says. "Giving travelers the freedom to choose the exact vehicle they want, have it delivered to the starting point of their journey, and rent it for as long as they need is a more natural fit for how people travel today."
The Shift from Ownership to Access
This evolution in traveler expectations is also closely linked to broader macroeconomic trends, including changing attitudes toward vehicle ownership. Particularly in urban centers, a growing number of consumers are opting out of car ownership entirely, preferring on-demand access to mobility when and where they need it.
When these consumers travel, they expect the same level of on-demand flexibility. They want to be able to book a rugged, all-wheel-drive vehicle for a weekend mountain excursion, a spacious minivan for a family road trip, or an electric vehicle to navigate a metropolitan center—all without the overhead of ownership or the friction of traditional rental offices.
Reorienting Around Travel Intent
To close the personalization gap, Rossanis believes the travel industry must undergo a fundamental shift in how it approaches search and discovery. Currently, most travel booking platforms rely heavily on complex filtering systems. Users are expected to input specific dates, locations, and price points, and are then presented with a massive list of generic options.
This approach, while functional, places the burden of research entirely on the consumer. Rossanis argues that the future of travel booking lies in understanding the underlying intent of the traveler, rather than simply presenting them with more choices.
"In my opinion, the industry still has a lot of room to shift away from simply offering options toward truly understanding intent," Rossanis explains. "True personalization is about understanding the context behind a decision and helping someone find what actually works for them."
The Power of Context-Aware Search
In the context of ground transportation, understanding intent means recognizing that a consumer’s search query is driven by a specific set of situational needs.
- The Traditional Approach: A user filters for "SUVs" and is shown fifty different vehicles of varying sizes, fuel efficiencies, and cargo capacities. The user must then manually research each model to determine if it fits their specific requirements.
- The Intent-Driven Approach: The platform recognizes the context of the trip—for example, a family traveling to a cold-weather destination—and proactively surfaces vehicles equipped with winter tires, roof racks, and sufficient cargo space for luggage and sports equipment.
By utilizing artificial intelligence and natural language processing, travel platforms can transform search from a tedious filtering chore into a conversational, intuitive experience. Instead of guessing which vehicle category might fit their needs, a traveler can simply describe their trip in plain language and receive highly relevant, tailored recommendations.
Erasing the Silos: The Rise of the Holistic Journey
One of the most significant shifts occurring across the travel ecosystem is the erosion of traditional industry silos. Historically, travel companies competed strictly within their own verticals: airlines competed with airlines, hotels with hotels, and rental companies with rental companies.
However, because travelers experience their trips holistically, these artificial boundaries are beginning to disappear. A traveler does not think of their vacation as three separate business transactions; they think of it as a single, integrated experience from the moment they leave their front door to the moment they return.
"Travelers don’t experience their trip in categories," Rossanis notes. "They experience it as one journey. That’s creating more opportunities for companies to think beyond their traditional category and solve for the broader travel experience."
Legacy Travel Model (Siloed)
[ Flight Booking ] ──> [ Hotel Booking ] ──> [ Car Rental Counter ]
Modern Travel Model (Holistic Journey)
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Traveler Intent │
└───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘
▼
[ Seamlessly Integrated Experience ]For mobility providers, this means looking beyond the vehicle itself and considering how ground transportation integrates with flights, accommodations, and local activities. Whether it is coordinating vehicle delivery to coincide precisely with a flight’s arrival or ensuring that a car is equipped with the necessary parking permits for a specific resort, the goal is to eliminate friction points across the entire travel ribbon.
The Role of Agentic AI in Next-Generation Commerce
As artificial intelligence continues to advance, the travel industry is preparing for the transition from generative AI—which can answer questions and write itineraries—to "agentic AI." These are autonomous AI agents capable of actively researching, booking, and managing entire trips on behalf of a user.
For specialized travel providers, the rise of agentic commerce presents both a challenge and an opportunity. To remain competitive, companies must ensure that their offerings are easily discoverable and booking-ready for autonomous digital assistants.
"Agentic AI is fundamentally changing how travelers discover and book travel," Rossanis says. "Instead of navigating filters and comparing options themselves, consumers will be able to describe what they need and let AI reason through the tradeoffs."
To thrive in this new environment, marketplaces like Turo must focus on making their inventories highly detailed and machine-readable. If a traveler instructs their AI assistant to find "a fuel-efficient vehicle with a bike rack near my hotel for under $70 a day," the platform’s backend must be able to instantly communicate that specific inventory data to the AI agent.
Ultimately, Rossanis believes that the rise of AI will not replace the need for specialized marketplaces, but will instead raise the standard for what those marketplaces must deliver. "The companies that can translate complex consumer needs into real, bookable options will be the ones AI agents can confidently recommend," he explains. "AI won’t eliminate the need for great marketplaces. It will raise the bar for relevance."
Looking Forward: Convenience as the New Baseline
As the travel industry looks toward the next decade, the competitive landscape is poised to shift dramatically. Many of the features that are currently marketed as premium upgrades or unique selling points—such as keyless vehicle access, contactless delivery, and highly personalized customer service—will soon be viewed as basic consumer expectations.
When asked to identify an industry assumption that will likely look outdated in ten years, Rossanis points directly to the current definition of convenience.
"Convenience will no longer be a premium feature. It will be the baseline," Rossanis predicts.
For decades, the travel industry operated under the assumption that consumers would tolerate operational friction—such as waiting in long lines, navigating complex shuttle systems, or accepting "similar" substitutions—as an unavoidable part of the travel experience. But as on-demand digital services continue to mature, that tolerance is rapidly disappearing.
The next generation of travel companies will not be able to compete solely on the size of their inventory or the aggressiveness of their pricing. Instead, their success will be determined by how seamlessly they can adapt to the individual traveler’s needs in real time.
By building systems around traveler intent, removing friction across traditional category boundaries, and leveraging advanced technology to provide genuine personalization, forward-thinking mobility and travel brands are setting a new standard for how the world moves.
