Travel This Week — What To Expect: Expedia-Hyatt Showdown Looms But a Deal Is Likely
Skift Take
We are not expecting Armageddon as the Expedia-Hyatt talks come down to the wire. Hyatt wants a fair deal, and Expedia stands to gain if it can retain the broadest depth of hotel content possible. The devil will be in the details but we expect champagne glasses to be raised this week.
This could be a pivotal week in online travel agency and hotel relations as Monday is the deadline for Expedia and Hyatt to reach a new distribution agreement. Meanwhile, Trivago is running on all cylinders — or more specifically, its advertising is seemingly playing on every TV channel you turn on — and elsewhere travel demand on a global scale for airlines, hotels, and tech companies appears to be having a very healthy moment.
Here's what's going on in Travel This Week — What To Expect:
Judgment Day For Expedia and Hyatt
I expect that the Expedia-Hyatt deal will get done, and we will hear about the successful conclusion of the talks sooner rather than later. Anything can happen before a new contract is signed, but I'm hearing that there will be no monumental crisis, no break in the Expedia-Hyatt relationship.
Both Expedia and Hyatt were being coy — in other words, not talking much to the press or even to Hyatt property owners — in the days leading up to the end of their existing distribution agreement on Monday. Hyatt is looking for a contract that doesn't leave it too disadvantaged versus big-kid and bulked-up Marriott and others when it comes to the compensation Hyatt must dole out to Expedia.
You might see these likely scenarios over the next few days: An announcement of a new agreement and how the Expedia-Hyatt partnership has never been niftier, and that's an outcome that I'm hearing is the most likely. On the other ha
