Online Travel’s Letters to Shareholders Should Nix the Fluff, Stick to Facts
Skift Take
When asked a few years ago whether Booking.com was a disruptor, CEO Glenn Fogel said "no." Online travel companies should prove their innovation, not make excessive boasts.
Dennis' Online Travel Briefing
Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, Executive Editor and online travel rockstar Dennis Schaal will bring readers exclusive reporting and insight into the business of online travel and digital booking, and how this sector has an impact across the travel industry.If your company's shareholder letter announcing earnings needs to repeatedly publicize how innovative your business is or how the guest experience you offer is one of "uncompromising quality," are you actually a bit insecure about it all?
As author Ernest Hemingway advised about the best writing: Show, don't tell.
In earnings reports, just let the numbers and their explanations do the talking. It's best to lose all of that excessive fluff.
Airbnb is one of the chief practitioners of public relations-strewn earnings reports in the online travel/short-term rental sector, and Sonder tends to dip in. Plenty of companies in other sectors self-promote to a fault, as well, and marketing-heavy earnings missives and announcements appear to be a trend.
In its first quarter shareholder letter, Airbnb cites its 1. "adaptability and relentless innovation," 2. "our culture of relentless innovation," 3. "our innovations are insp
