Abode Worldwide appoints Wouter Geerts to lead new Market Intelligence and Research division

LONDON, 1 September, 2026 — Abode Worldwide, the strategic public relations and communications agency for hospitality tech and proptech brands, has appointed Wouter Geerts as Head of Market Intelligence and Research, marking a major expansion of the agency’s research capabilities.

As Head of Market Intelligence and Research, Geerts will expand Abode’s own research and market intelligence, strengthening the data, research, and analysis behind its strategic work, while building a dedicated offering for companies across the hospitality, property, and living technology sectors.

The new capability will give clients deeper intelligence on their markets and competitive landscapes, helping them understand how their sectors are evolving, identify emerging opportunities and shifts, and make more informed business and communications decisions. It will also expand Abode’s ability to develop original research and proprietary data for clients, including original branded reports and bespoke market studies, helping companies build credible evidence around their positioning and the areas they want to lead.

Geerts joins Abode from hospitality technology company Mews, where he served as Director of Market Research, leading research into the hotel technology landscape and the forces shaping the sector. He previously spent 5 years at Skift, rising to Head of Research and helping develop the research and data products behind Skift Research. Prior to Skift, he launched the short-term rental coverage at market research company Euromonitor International. Geerts holds a PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London, and serves on the advisory board of Hotel Management School Leeuwarden at NHL Stenden.

His appointment builds on Abode’s existing proprietary industry research, including its annual Short-Term Rental Tech Index, which maps the global short-term rental technology landscape, and Hospitality Tech Investment Index, which tracks investment across hospitality technology.

The expansion comes as consolidation, converging technology categories and AI reshape the hospitality technology landscape. As those boundaries shift, original data and credible evidence can help companies define and defend their position in the market, substantiate their expertise and build authority with customers, investors and the wider industry.

The appointment follows three consecutive years of 30% annual growth for Abode Worldwide. Founded by Jessica Gillingham in 2017, the agency now works with hospitality and living technology companies across the UK, Europe, North America and APAC, and was named Best in Communication at the 2025 Skift IDEA Awards. The new division forms part of a wider expansion of Abode’s capabilities, alongside a growing owned content offering that enables clients to build authority across their own channels as well as through earned media.

Jessica Gillingham, CEO and Founder of Abode Worldwide, said: “I’ve known and admired Wouter for many years, and he is one of the people I respect most in hospitality research. He has an exceptional ability to understand where markets are heading, interrogate the data behind them and turn complex shifts into intelligence that businesses can actually use.

“Abode has always been deeply embedded in the sectors we represent, and we’ve seen through our own research how valuable original data and market intelligence can be. Wouter gives us the expertise to build that into a much more substantial part of what Abode does, strengthening the intelligence behind our own strategic work and creating a powerful new capability for our clients.”

Wouter Geerts, Head of Market Intelligence and Research at Abode Worldwide, said: “I’ve spent my career researching travel and hospitality and helping businesses make sense of how markets are changing. What attracted me to Abode was the opportunity to build a market intelligence and research capability within a company that already has deep expertise and relationships across hospitality technology.

“Companies need to understand the market around them as clearly as they understand their own business. That means knowing where categories are moving, how competitive landscapes are changing and where new opportunities are emerging. I’m excited to bring that perspective to Abode and its clients, while building original research that contributes useful new data and insight to the wider industry.”

Abode Worldwide works exclusively with hotel technology, short-term rental technology, and living sector proptech companies to help clients define their category and build authority. Visit https://abodeworldwide.com/