Vacasa Slashes Workforce and Other Top Stories This Week

Vacasa Slashes 17 Percent of Workforce in Second Recent Round of Layoffs: It’s clear that Vacasa’s ranks were bloated, and that the company was not very well-run in recent years. Like several other now-struggling, newly public companies, Vacasa faces a challenging road ahead.

The Expedia Case For and Against Keeping Orbitz and Travelocity: In Expedia Group’s efficiency drive, there’s a certain logic to killing some sub-brands as their market share plummets. But what about all those customers who still love Travelocity?

Accor CEO Defends Hotel Giant’s Latest Reorg: Many hotels needed refurbishment after the pandemic chaos, and Accor needed a refurb of its own. CEO Sébastien Bazin argues that his latest reorganization gives Accor the capability to become the world leader in luxury while preparing for a hybrid hospitality future.

Marriott Execs Say Blended Travel Here to Stay With New Product Opportunities: Marriott executives believe that the rise of mixed business and leisure trips poses challenges for tracking guest behavior. But the trend also creates opportunities to offer new products.

What I Learned in Davos About Managing Travel’s New Complexity: Having spent the last six years of my career focused on the “journey,” which is how all of us experience travel, solutions to the litany of requirements ahead are manageable. But today, our building blocks for managing tomorrow’s burgeoning global travel are only at a starting point.

6 Travel Startups From 2015: Where Are They Now?: Some of the companies Skift featured in its first travel startup funding roundup went on to thrive, while others … not so much.

Expedia Group Working With Tech Startups to Make Travel More Accessible: In Expedia’s move to inch the travel industry toward equitability, the company is helping startups solve their own problems and learning from them in the process. And the startups are learning from each other, too.

Tourism Agencies Use Mobile Data to Track Travelers Crashing With Friends and Relatives: Limitations on understanding the travelers visiting friends and relatives segment have been eroding, but they are still there when it comes to the imaginations of destination marketers. Tourism agencies should try to push the envelope.

A Third of Americans Plans to Cut Back on Travel Spending This Year: New Skift Research U.S. Travel Tracker: An increasing number of Americans have started to feel the pinch of increasing travel prices. Thirty-four percent of Americans, 10 percentage points higher than last October, plan to decrease their spending on travel in the next 12 months.

Blackstone, Starwood, Other Big Hotel Investors Prep for Dealmaking Rush Later This Year: When every investor in a sector says they’re “cautiously optimistic,” watch out.