Hopper Co-Founder Dakota Smith Leaves, Putting Its B2B Arm in Question

Dakota Smith, a Hopper co-founder and the CEO of its B2B unit Hopper Technology Solutions (HTS), has left the company after about three years in the role. For hotels and partners that sell through travel portals powered by Hopper, it raises a fair question about who is steering the business that matters most to it.

Smith said in 2025 that HTS brings in 90 percent of Hopper's revenue. The unit supplies travel booking and rewards technology to partners including Uber, Expedia and RBC, and recently added Aven Hospitality. In other words, the consumer app most people know is now the smaller part of the story.

Smith has not said why he is leaving, and Hopper declined to comment. Skift's sources point to friction at the top. One investor said CEO Fred Lalonde's growing involvement in HTS meant there were "too many cooks in the kitchen." Another described the two-CEO setup as hard to work with. A senior B2B executive stressed that trust and relationships are what make HTS work.

The timing is awkward. In April 2026, Capital One bought the technology behind Capital One Travel, taking over supplier relationships and roughly 150 Hopper employees. Hopper has also won RBC's travel and rewards portal away from Expedia in recent weeks. Several Hopper staff have announced their own departures on LinkedIn.

For operators, the practical point is about channels. If you receive bookings through bank or rewards portals that run on Hopper technology, it is worth asking your distribution contact whether anything changes in how rates and inventory flow. Nothing has been announced yet, but leadership churn at a platform that has just lost one big client and gained another is something to watch.