2015 › November

Just as Starwood itself identified earlier this year, some of the hotels in the Sheraton portfolio don't meet brand standards and some of them may end up losing their flags under Marriott's leadership.

Money can't buy priceless memories, but it can buy everything that leads to them. Travel rather than material possessions is the new luxury for affluent travelers who want an experience that takes them further than their living room sofas.

As this TripAdvisor-Priceline Group partnership takes off, observe it closely because it signals a new stage in earnest in travel bookings -- the real emergence of third-party sites such as TripAdvisor and perhaps Google at some juncture that were primarily media sites as real forces in travel transactions.

Although five companies other than Expedia expressed an interest in investing in HomeAway or proposed an alternative transaction, only one, Expedia, made a full-blown acquisition proposal. That may say something about HomeAway's prospects, the very competitive marketplace in the vacation rental space and the broader sharing economy.

The tourism industry is starting to bounce back after Covid; for the big hotel brands, growth is on the agenda.

Hotels like that online travel agencies sell their rooms, but they'd much rather sell the rooms themselves -- especially as consolidation has given giants like Expedia more power over negotiating prices.

The devil is always in the details, but in this case (so far) the devil doesn't have any tricks up his sleeves.

Airbnb is evolving as a social network as much as a room sharing platform with services like its new Community Center page, which hosts and guests used right after the Paris attacks.

It's too early to tell how the Marriott/Starwood merger will impact individual brands, but it does give the new company stronger leverage in terms of online bookings and loyalty rewards.