This week on NOT DONE, I sat down with my longtime friend and industry pioneer Lou Zameryka. Lou was employee #2 in the Americas at Booking.com and helped shape one of the most disruptive companies in travel history. Over 17 years, he watched Booking scale from a scrappy European startup into the world’s largest online travel agency, with over 28 million listings worldwide and more than 1.5 million room nights booked every single day
But Lou’s story doesn’t stop there. He left the safety of a global giant to launch Venture Hospitality and wellness-focused businesses like Alively, proving that risk-taking and resilience fuel true leadership.
🔑 Key Takeaways from My Conversation with Lou
Early-Stage DNA
Lou thrives in the messy, formative years of businesses. From opening new hotels to joining Booking when it had just 50 employees globally, he’s built a career on being “early” and embracing chaos….
The OTA Advantage in the AI Era
We dug into what AI-enabled “zero-click search” means for hotel distribution. Lou believes Booking and Expedia’s structured data advantage could make them the “default source” for AI models feeding consumer travel recommendations. That could disrupt Google Ads while actually strengthening OTAs’ positions..
Wellness as a Leadership Edge
Lou runs 60 miles a week, often before most of us finish our first coffee. His “Vitaliance” framework combines vitality + resilience to show leaders how wellness fuels sustainable performance. He shared how early morning runs gave him clarity and energy that translated into sharper boardroom negotiations..
Risk & Reward
Leaving Booking was Lou’s boldest bet. His view: most people don’t take enough risks, and when you move, “the universe tends to move with you.” That’s a powerful reminder for anyone considering their own next step.
⚡ Cool Facts About Booking.com
Booking was acquired by Priceline in 2005 for just $133 million. Today, it’s worth over $100 billion in market cap.
In its early years, Booking ran 1,000 A/B tests simultaneously, pioneering the culture of relentless iteration that Silicon Valley later embraced.
Booking has been Google’s single largest advertiser for more than a decade, spending over $3–4 billion annually on search ads…. Curious how AI will change this…
Its loyalty program, Genius, counts more than 150 million members, rivaling the reach of major hotel chains’ loyalty programs.
🎧 Listen to the Episode
Don’t miss this one. Lou’s mix of contrarian insights, wellness practices, and first-hand disruption stories will challenge how you think about hospitality, AI, and leadership.
✨ This week is another NOT DONE triple drop so be on the lookout for yet another on Friday…