Dennis Schaal

For the hotel industry, the early booking pattern for this summer, if it translates at other chains, is a nice omen of sweet things to come.

Travelport is still overwhelmingly tied into the air business, but this acquisition and other recent moves helps it to begin the uphill battle to diversify.

The Priceline Group's culture is fairly buttoned up so the company wouldn't think about doing Airbnb-style apartment rentals at this juncture, but if the legal hassles eventually get sorted out, then Priceline would take a hard look.

TripAdvisor's in-house online travel agency, Tingo, is one of its booking partners for Instant Booking. That's an interesting twist for those who fear that TripAdvisor is a creeping online travel agency.

Don't expect Bitcoin to become the dominant way people book hotel stays on Expedia sites, but the move is in line with the company's desire to broaden its payment options.

I hate to see so many talented travel startup people working away at ideas that obviously have little chance to succeed. Do we need another trip-planning app or metasearch company? These are very early days for Uber and Airbnb, but it is totally evident that they have set out to do something different.

JetBlue's Mint business class should prove to be very popular, and there are enough improvements in the rest of the plane to ensure that the airline's existing customer base won't get alienated. Still, it remains to be seen how long JetBlue will keep Mint at its current price points, and whether the service will be an economic success.

The acquisition appears to highlight an effort by the Priceline Group to deepen its involvement with its hotel partners by providing digital marketing services above and beyond selling their rooms online.

As vacation home rentals and apartment rentals go more mainstream, you can expect more vacation rental management companies, broadly similar to Turnkey Vacation Rentals, to emerge as owners seek to make the hosting process more efficient and less of a hassle.

Grenada attracts a relatively older demographic, but the Grenada Tourism Authority is going new school in analyzing data to better attract younger, tech-savvy travelers to introduce them to "the spice of the Caribbean."