Dennis Schaal

Extended Stay America and Hilton are two totally different kinds of hotel companies, but Extended Stay America's IPO is likely to impact the timing and shape of a potential Hilton IPO. The most interesting thing is that if everything falls into place, it looks like Hilton's long-awaited IPO will finally be on tap for 2014.

Hell hath no fury like a travel agent scorned, but get real: Your market is a shrinking one. You can't put online travel and the mobile revolution back into the bottle. This battle was already fought and lost a decade ago.

Even when road warriors travel to meetings or events with colleagues they usually book their travel alone. This speaks in part to the inadequacy of group-booking options, and untapped opportunities for startups.

With U.S. airlines selling aisle, window and exit row seats for an extra fee throughout the aircraft, child-free zones could be a logistical nightmare even if it were a good idea.

With just 6.2% of travelers on Gogo-equipped flights using Wi-Fi you can see that the industry is headed toward free Wi-Fi on flights, assuming the systems can handle the bandwidth.

Will Travelzoo's entry into hotel booking be too little, too late? The deal publisher has a huge subscriber base to market to once the hotel-booking engine is in place, but competition is intense.

Leisure travel, particularly in the U.S., is leading the way within American Express' travel businesses, although it is a lot smaller than its global business travel unit, which is under pressure.

Priceline's iPad app reduces potential confusion about its panalopy of hotel services. Just tap on a services, such as Express Deals or Name Your Own Price, and you're in.

It looks like that supposed great divide between vacation rentals and Airbnb-style apartment rentals and shares isn't so immense. Or at least HomeAway will find out if it is cut out for the sharing economy.

You can debate whether Brand USA's strategy is the best way of promoting international visitations to the U.S. But, if the country is going to have a quasi-governmental tourism-marketing organization, it is tough for Brand USA to get on solid footing if it has to constantly look over its shoulder to figure out if it will get renewed funding life.