Dennis Schaal Archives

Dennis Schaal is Skift’s Founding Editor and Executive Editor. Dennis has been a reporter focusing on online travel and short-term rentals for more than two decades at Skift, Tnooz, USA Today, and Travel Weekly. He is well-known for tough one-on-one interviews on stage at Skift events, including with the CEOs and top execs of Expedia, Uber, Booking Holdings, Priceline, Kayak, Hopper, and more.

Hotels

Airbnb’s Record Shows the Third Quarter Is the Charm

While you have to toss out Covid-ravaged 2020 as any kind of a barometer for a company's trajectory, during the last two-and-a-half years, Airbnb has only made a profit during its third quarters. If remote working becomes entrenched in coming years, then that can indeed help with Airbnb's seasonality issues.

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago

Hotels

IHG CEO Softens Stance on Brand Bloat and 8 Other Top Travel Stories This Week

In Skift's top travel stories this week, IHG is launching its 17th brand, global consultancies will cut business travel spend, Oyo edged toward an initial public offering, and British Airways' parent grew its startup accelerator during the pandemic.

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago

Hotels

Airbnb Claims Leadership of the Travel Recovery But Now Cautions on Variants

Airbnb is indeed showing strength, but is its hubris about leading the travel recovery a bit overblown?

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago

Online Travel

6 Expedia and Booking Online Travel Takeaways From Latest Financial Reports

While much of the talk these days is about digital nomads and remote workers, both Expedia Group and Booking Holdings have doubled down on commitments to brick and mortar headquarters. Which could mean that there may be real offices again after the pandemic.

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago

Online Travel

Tripadvisor Plus’ New Text Service Lacks the Human Touch

Tripadvisor's travel-planning help by text for Tripadvisor Plus subscribers plays to the company's strengths — user reviews and a global roster of hotels, restaurants and things to do listings. It really can't compete, though, with a real travel agent who has visited the destination and knows the hotel general manager personally.

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago

Online Travel

HotelPlanner in SPAC Deal as It Grows Ranks of 2,000 Gig Economy Customer Service Agents

HotelPlanner found itself a niche in leisure-oriented hotel bookings for groups. It is bent on disrupting the call center model in travel, but will have to prove that its gig-economy customer services agents can develop travel expertise.

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago

Hotels

Oyo Takes Step Toward Initial Public Offering

It's clear that Oyo will try to go public in some fashion. But will investors buy the story — and the shares?

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago

Online Travel

Expedia Awaits Comeback of International Travel to Solidify Market Share Gains

After shutting down or selling eight businesses — some of which were relatively inconsequential — since the beginning of 2020, Expedia Group doesn't expect any more such asset dispositions as part of its drive to make the company simpler and more focused. But selling brands may turn out to be the easiest part of the exercise.

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago

Business Travel

Would Facebook’s Virtual ‘Metaverse’ Make Your Travel Bucket List Obsolete? Hardly

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg believes the metaverse will one day supplant the mobile internet, and create the sense that you are actually together with someone else in a distant place. Whatever it ever ends up meaning to the travel industry, you can be sure it would develop into an advertising opportunity for the social network.

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago

Experiences

Did Kiwi Figure Out How to Hack Southwest for Flight Information?

Airlines have complained about the hidden costs of online travel agency web-scraping for years, but Southwest takes that sensitivity to a much higher strategic level. Kiwi apparently is adept at out-maneuvering Southwest's page-scraping roadblocks so the courts will have to sort it all out.

Dennis Schaal | 5 years ago