Expedia’s Anxious Workers and 12 Other Top Digital Stories This Week

What Barry Diller Told Anxious Expedia Workers About the Future: Expedia Group Chairman Barry Diller flew to Seattle to rally the troops. His message to all the employees around the world was, in essence, the sun will rise tomorrow at the travel giant. Impatient investors aren’t quite as sure.

How Tiny Sun Country Struck an Unlikely Deal With Amazon to Transport Packages: Sun Country is America’s smallest airline that operates big jets, like Boeing 737s. It competes in a scale business, so it is always at a disadvantage. The good news is that management has been prioritizing innovation.

JetBlue Founder David Neeleman Selects Salt Lake City as Headquarters for New Airline: Utah has always been a fine place to base a regional airline. But it’s an unusual spot to build what is almost certainly going to be a nationwide carrier. But with technology, founder David Neeleman is betting that where an airline is headquartered no longer matters.

Airbnb Will Roll Out Policy That Aims to Protect Hosts From Scheming Guests: Many Airbnb hosts of the mom-and-pop variety — yes, there are a few left — feel aggrieved when they welcome guests into their homes and have to bear the consequences of hostile reviews penned with the worst intentions. Airbnb is trying to tip the balance back toward hosts — and probably making neither party totally happy.

Thomas Cook Collapsed Owing at Least $12 Billion: Yes, you read that number correctly. Thomas Cook’s directors have rightly come in for plenty of criticism, but others — including the UK government — need to have their record examined as well.

Merger Leaves Australia With Powerhouse Instant Booking Platform for Events: As Spare Workspace and Venuemob join together, Australia’s events market is in for a big change. This has significant implications for instant booking throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Booking Forces Combine to Dominate the Aussie Events Space: This is an exciting time to be a player in the event tech space. As two key Australian events companies come together, the region’s meetings industry is on the brink of change.

Will Anything Change at American Express GBT With New Investor Money? The travel management company is now valued at $5 billion, but so far its strategy seems pretty much the same: make acquisitions, especially in tech.

American Express GBT Just Got a Bunch of New Investors — So What Now? American Express GBT continues to dominate the travel management space, and this new money will only accelerate its growth.

Domio Raises $50 Million for Apartment-Style Hotels: Travel Startup Funding This Week: This week, travel startups, including TravelFlan, Beachy, HalalBooking, and GuruWalk, announced more than $63 million in funding. Most notably, Domio disclosed a $50 million Series B round, underscoring the ongoing growth in the short-term rental of apartments with hotel-style services.

Which Brand Will Win the Holiday Wearable Battle? After Peloton’s advertising fiasco, other fitness technology brands will likely step it up this season and market themselves as the “It” holiday gift. And because wearables cost so much less than a Peloton bike — even for the top-of-the-line Apple Watch — chances are they’ll see a surge in seasonal sales.

Announcing Our 4 New Skift Summits in 2020: Skift’s promise has always been to go deep into all of travel. Now we are going to take that a step further with four new sub-sector summits in 2020 to complement our broader global forums. We are taking the conversation to the next level.

Skift Forums 2020: Tickets Now on Sale: We have a lot in store for 2020. Join us at one (or more) of our forums this year in Madrid, Singapore, and New York City.