Max Starkov
Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant and Strategist
![](/bhr/files/2021/07/photo.-Max-Starkov.jpeg)
- Title Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant and Strategist
Max Starkov is a Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant with 30 years of industry experience. Max was the founder, President & CEO at NextGuest (NextGuest.com), a 150-employee hotel digital strategy, technology, and marketing consulting and services firm, which merged with Cendyn in Q1 2021.
Before NextGuest, Max founded and served as CEO of three Internet travel startups: Travelbreak.com 1995-1999 (direct supplier-to-consumer online travel marketplace), WhaleMedia.com 1999-2001(Winner of Microsoft’s Global RAD Award for hotel online booking systems), and NextGuest (formerly HEBS Digital) since 2001. Max received the most prestigious industry award, the HSMAI “Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing” and served on the HSMAI Digital Marketing Council.
He has an MS in Economics of International Tourism & Hospitality from Sofia University and an MBA in E-Commerce degree andBeta Gamma Sigma Honors from Fordham University in New York.