Highest-Paid Online Travel CEOs and 8 Other Digital Trends This Week

Highest-Paid Online Travel CEOs of 2018: The CEOs of Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, and TripAdvisor all saw their total compensation fall in 2018, but only because 2017 was an exceptional year for each. Glenn Fogel of Booking and Mark Okerstrom of Expedia were each appointed as CEO in 2017, and Steve Kaufer of TripAdvisor received a long-term incentive award that was undoubtedly the envy of his peers.

Boutique Rental Brand Sonder Raises Another $225 Million: Sonder’s hotel-style serviced apartments operate in that sweet spot between Airbnb homeshares and full-on hotels. There are, of course, plenty of rivals doing a similar thing, but this funding round will enable Sonder to expand its business and give it a competitive edge.

How Sunweb Is Taking On Europe’s Biggest Tour Operators: Package holidays are still popular across much of Europe, and companies like Sunweb think there are plenty of opportunities for growth. Buying up rival tour operators helps with scale, as does the struggles of a competitor like Thomas Cook.

StayPlease Raises Funds to Expand ‘Slack for Hotels’: Travel Startup Funding This Week. This week’s travel startups, including Sonder, StayPlease, and Bolt, released a series of funding announcements, many of them for undisclosed amounts.

Travelport CEO Gordon Wilson Will Exit Role: Gordon Wilson will leave Travelport after taking the company private. The company has a travel technology veteran lined up to take the reins, and Travelport needs all the help it can get to compete against Sabre and Amadeus.

A Consolidated Biz Travel Market Could Mean More Personalized Booking: Watching how adoption of new distribution technology plays out in this early stage can give us a look into what to expect in the future. Especially if direct distribution ever moves into other areas of travel booking, like hotels.

Corporate Travel Is Getting More Customizable: There is a lot of buzz around what new distribution technology will do or won’t do for the industry, but really only one thing is certain: It’s way too early to tell.

Momondo’s Viral Video Is a Piece of Kayak’s Brand Marketing Strategy: When Booking Holdings acquired Momondo in 2017 to pair with fellow metasearch brand Kayak, officials said one of Momondo’s core strengths was its brand marketing bonafides. The World Piece video works because it stirs emotions, and this type of dynamic can go a long way toward creating a relationship between consumers and brands.

Thomas Cook Plans $940 Million Rescue With Fosun as Breakup Looms: The news isn’t great for shareholders, but it does offer some encouragement to employees and anyone who has booked a flight or holiday this summer.