Short-Term Rental’s Own Dotcom Bubble and 10 Other Top Travel Stories This Week

Throughout the week we are posting original stories night and day covering news and travel trends, including on the impact of coronavirus. Every weekend we will offer you a chance to read the most essential stories again in case you missed them earlier.

Short-Term Rental Sector Could Be Headed for Its Own Dotcom Bubble Burst: HomeAway Co-Founder It’s a dire warning from one of the sector’s most experienced founders and investors — but just don’t talk about trends until 2023, HomeAway’s Carl Shepherd made a point to add.

How Travel Visas and Assessing Risks Changed During the Pandemic Providing Covid-19 updates and other advice became big business during the crisis, and looks set to become even more important as governments experiment with reopening their borders.

Will It Be Airbnb, Sonder — and Then Everyone Else? Laurence Tosi and Allen Mask both have skin in the game when it comes to the prospects of Airbnb and Sonder. Are they downplaying Airbnb’s challenges, and Sonder’s breakout potential?

Wyndham Signs on for Next-Gen Technology From Oracle Hospitality Technology is developing faster than many hotels’ ability to implement it, so some chains turn to tech specialists to stay up to date. Wyndham is tapping Oracle Hospitality for its full-service brands and Sabre for its select-service brands.

U.S. Airlines Brace for Another Lost Summer for Transatlantic Travel The EU may very well open to vaccinated Americans this summer but airlines and analysts are already writing off 2021 as yet another lost summer travel season on the transatlantic. Better luck in 2022.

Florida Tourism Produces Original Amazon Prime Series as Marketing Goes Hollywood Florida’s tourism marketers are going the extra mile to beat the competition this summer: co-producing and launching an original series set in St. Pete-Clearwater and launching on Amazon Prime Video. It’s a whole new tourism marketing frontier. Action!

Roadside Hotels Could Draw Investor Interest From a Biden Boost for Infrastructure Building better roads and airports across the U.S. will help build hotel profits, but not everyone will see an infrastructure windfall. This is largely a boost to brands like Choice and Wyndham — already profitable and not facing the uncertain recovery hurdles that some competitors face with business travel.

Accor May Use SPAC to Own Real Estate While Still Trumpeting Asset-Light Strategy Accor doesn’t want to own real estate, but it does want to throttle ahead with growth in the lifestyle hotel sector — where many of the remaining independent operators own their real estate. A SPAC can help Accor balance this kind of conflict in future acquisitions.

Expedia’s Vrbo Warns of Limited Home Rental Supply at Summer Hotspots Vrbo President Jeff Hurst looks to build on the full-home rental site’s growth momentum coming out of the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean travel this summer will be a breeze: book early or have a back-up plan is his advice to travelers.

Lessons for Travel’s Recovery From Anthony Bourdain’s New Book Look (and learn) before you leap into a new trip was the mantra of the late Anthony Bourdain. That kind of thoughtful travel can prevent a lot of headaches this summer as the world gears up to exercise its pent-up vacation demand.

JetBlue Sets August Date for Long-Anticipated London Flights JetBlue will finally land in London in August. But with U.S.-UK travel still up in the air, can its upgraded service at cheaper-than-the-competition fares woo travelers as hoped?