Booking Marketing Chief Skeptical Rentals Will Recover Faster Than Hotels

You're not alone. Even the top marketing boss of one of the world's largest resellers of travel isn't sure about his vacation plans. Like many travelers, Arjan Dijk, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Booking.com, is still watching how the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is unfolding. "I'm thinking of my summer plans, and I'm probably going to Spain, but I'm still a little bit like, okay, hmm, I'm not completely sure," said Dijk, when he gave a feisty interview for Skift Forum Europe on Tuesday. Dijk said his teams only use marketing to help speed up growth in regions and demographic segments that are showing momentum toward buying travel. Showing Skepticism Dijk slammed Airbnb's view that people will flock to vacation rentals rather than hotels as a safer bet during the pandemic, in response to a question from Dennis Schaal, executive editor at Skift. Some recent data has suggested vacation rental bookings are strong relative to hotels, and Airbnb said its