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.

Tour Operators

TUI Group’s Largest Shareholder Hit With European Union Sanctions

How will TUI Group respond to the European Union's sanctions against the tour operator's largest shareholder? The issue goes beyond any potential financial fallout and becomes one of corporate responsibility and the integrity of the TUI Group brand.

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago

Travel Agents

Flight Centre Confronts Airline Commission Cuts

Flight Centre Travel Group is a global travel agency so it should be able to handle Air New Zealand and Qantas getting around to slashing travel agent commissions two decades after Delta Air Lines kicked off the trend in the U.S. It won't be without some pain, however.

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago

Online Travel

Hopper Inherits an Air France-KLM Partnership as Part of Acquisition

The acquisition of Smooss clearly wasn't a budget buster for Hopper, but it could be another piece in the unglamorous behind-the-scenes tech effort to smooth the way for distribution deals with airlines.

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago

Online Travel

Booking Holdings Looks to Pull Away from Airbnb on Profit Margins

As part of its "connected trip" and loyalty strategy, Booking Holdings argued it can convince hotels and other partners to offer up substantial discounts and perks, and this would spur incremental bookings. But do hotels really want to be a cog in building the Booking.com brand?

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago

Online Travel

Wego Acquisition of Cleartrip Middle East Would Create Online Travel Group

Booking.com has a substantial presence in the Middle East, but there is a vacuum that Wego Group and homegrown players could begin to fill over the next few years.

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago

Online Travel

Tripadvisor Plus Is Case Study in Online Travel Hype

Less than a year ago, a Tripadvisor pitch deck about Tripadvisor Plus touted its "multibillion dollar revenue potential." Despite the company expressing confidence in Plus when it scrapped its business model in September, Tripadvisor admitted last week "we haven't found the product-market fit that we're looking for."

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago

Online Travel

6 Expedia Group Takeaways From Its Annual Report

How things change: Expedia said its sale of Egencia won't have a major impact on operations or financials, although in years' past the company touted Egencia as a rising star. In 2018, Egencia was its own Expedia reporting segment and accounted for 8 percent of gross bookings.

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago

Online Travel

Skift Forum Europe Preview: Booking.com on the Right Way to Regulate Online Travel

As the Booking.com vice president said, consumers do indeed have myriad choices in how to book hotels in Europe. But it is also true that Booking.com wields a lot of power when it comes to the prospects for the large swath of independent hotels in the region.

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago

Experiences

The Tripadvisor Earnings Call That Became a Sales Pitch for Viator

Whether it is hotel-like commission levels on the online travel agencies, new product features, or market share gains, Tripadvisor was unabashedly selling the virtues of a Viator IPO — or deal. It's not a winner-take-all market, but rivals have narrowed any competitive gap.

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago

Online Travel

Tripadvisor Files Paperwork to Take Viator Public

You can look for plenty of wheeling-dealing behind the scenes as Tripadvisor mulls taking Viator public and investigates alternatives with potential buyers or partners.

Dennis Schaal | 4 years ago