Dennis Schaal

TripAdvisor is just getting around to addressing all of the massive restaurant content that it already has. As metasearch players already know, Yelp and OpenTable should pay attention as TripAdvisor tries to eat their lunch.

It is an oft-repeated mantra by NYC tourism board, the 5-borough chant. Is it already happening organically without any push from NYC tourism & Mayor? We think so.

The luxury segment is having its moment, but it obviously isn't the be-all and end-all. Some 100 million Chinese outbound travelers are making their trip plans, and most of them won't be looking for luxury properties.

Northstar Travel Media has an abysmal record in digital media. For NTM to now try to hawk an SaaS reservations platform to its travel advertising clients will be an extremely tough sell. Hardly confidence-inspiring.

Blackstone had the resources and stomach to stick with its instincts, relying on data, and bought up distressed properties to great advantage during the recession. It is not a company to bet against.

For people who don't fly a particular airline very often, the in-flight entertainment lineup can be a wildcard and hard to predict. Iberia takes the mystery out of its in-flight entertainment options with an app that details all of the offerings before the flight,

Travelocity was once the darling in Sabre's portfolio, and now the fastest-rising star is its hospitality solutions business. It has plenty of room to grow, particularly in EMEA and APAC, where chains do not dominate and there is so much need for advanced technology solutions.

Finnair is trying to reinvent itself, in part by taking a hard look at 10 to 20 second-tier cities in China, as well as routes in other parts of Asia. What happens, though, when larger competitors get around to taking up some of the same opportunities?

Hipmunk is hoping that the funding will help it avoid the fate of Room 77, which also struggled to break out of the pack, and withdrew. Hipmunk is going to keep at it for awhile, but it has a tough road ahead of it given well-funded competitors such as Kayak, TripAdvisor, Google, and Trivago.

TripAdvisor is pushing hard to expand in Latin America, and the ambitious deal with Telefonica is part of that drive. So is launching ts city guides apps into Spanish and Portuguese.