Chase Bank Tees Up Consumer Travel Portal and More Top 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.

Chase to Launch Consumer Travel Portal; Claims Top 5 U.S. Travel Provider With $8 Billion in Sales: Chase is doubling down on travel as an aspirational commerce category for its customers, with giant numbers to back up its ambitions. Expect some more travel M&A by these banks.

Why Hotels Should Be Worried Now About Looming Stagflation: Stagflation, or a mix of slow growth and high prices, would be an unfamiliar crisis. Even the shrewdest hotel executives and investors would need to be on guard.

Inflation Be Damned as Companies Encourage Travel No Matter What: Pent-up demand seems to be trumping any worries that businesses might have over rising travel costs, which isn’t your typical pre-pandemic trait. But a clash with tourists this summer might put the brakes on spending.

Hopper and Expedia’s Vrbo Partner on Global Vacation Rentals: Hopper is deploying an oft-used playbook for getting its homes’ business started. But a cancel-for- any-reason feature, still in development, could add a twist.

History of Short-Term Rentals Filled With Arrogance and Missed Opportunities: The phrase “listen to the customer” is a cliche. But in the early days of the vacation rental business, the smart move was to listen to what the marketplace was saying rather than force feed it the opposite.

Is Instagram the New Google for Travel? These Startups Say It Is: Startups like Tripscout, which just raised $10 million in venture capital, and Curacity say Instagram is the Next Big Thing in selling travel, much as Google was in the 2000s. Companies like TripAdvisor were built largely on their prowess at search marketing. Investors are betting that a company like these will be next.

Qatar May Give Preference to World Cup Ticket Holders Over Other Tourists: At a time when every destination in the world is throwing its doors open to foreign tourists, accommodation-strapped Qatar may have to deny entry to ticketless tourists when the World Cup kicks off in the country in November.

Hotels Look to Alleviate Guest Stress Starting With the Journey to Get There: Travelers are ready to adventure again, but they just may not be ready for the pitfalls of getting to their destination. Hotels are enhancing wellness, relaxation, and convenience in anticipation of those often-rocky journeys.

Discounts on Last-Minute Short-Term Rentals Could Be the Next Big Thing: Whether it’s via Whimstay or others, the Hotwire-like selling of last-minute inventory for vacation rentals is destined to find a role in this very hot sector.

Global Tourism Must Confront These 3 Consumer Shifts in Its Sustainability Push: Travelers are hitting the road and the skies again in droves, but their mindsets and habits have morphed. How will the industry tackle the long-term impact of those changes, beyond surface implications? Sustainability discussions still remain far too lofty, far too slow in solutions, and far too focused on the outside visitor.