2015 Archives

Be on the lookout for long-time business travel hubs to get even bigger and for the ever-growing hubs like India and Brazil to continuing proving they deserve larger slices of global business travel spending.

Premium passengers may be fewer in number, but they make up a big chunk of most airlines' revenue. Even when the economy keeps leisure travellers at home, business travellers still have to fly. And the affluent can fly whenever and wherever they please.

The post-stay hotel survey is here to stay, but mobile makes it possible to gather guests' thoughts more instantaneously on things like a property's restaurant or keyless entry, and hotels also place increasingly greater stock in reviews on property sites as direct bookings become more desirable.

By investing in Austin's super hip Bunkhouse hospitality group, The Standard Hotels can now bring its global gateway grooviness to trendy second tier cities in North America.

A very tiny slap on the wrist. That $2.7 million is likely less than Delta collected in baggage fees at one airport last year.

Expedia's acquisition of Orbitz Worldwide would indeed limit consumer choice. However, what the American Hotel & Lodging Association doesn't mention is that Expedia-Orbitz would only control about 15 percent of the overall U.S. travel market when you consider hotels' own websites, phone lines and offline options in general.

The global tourism map has been redrawn and we're already seeing travel brands feverishly try to break into developing markets at a heightened pace. The question is whether those markets' own hotel and airline competitors will have the gumption to take on that foreign entrenchment.

Convergence is happening big time these days as online travel companies around the world, driven by the varied and changing accommodations' needs of their customers, are rapidly expanding and will continue to broaden their array of lodging options.

The bigger challenge is to get airlines to get their collective heads around this concept, so one day passengers, and their knees, can enjoy cruelty-free flight on the Knee-Rescue seat.

We're still so very confused.