Sean O'Neill

This week, travel startups announced about $9 million in funding. Lucky companies include Frontdesk, a short-term apartment rental manager, ZuBlu, a booking service for underwater adventures, Arcis Tours, which runs BLive-branded electric bike tours in remote Indian locales, and Privadia, a rental agency for luxury villas.

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, once said that it's "only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked." Some of the 57 travel startups worldwide that raised funding in the first months of the year may be about to reveal all.

The surge in requests for refunds on canceled flights has given cover for con artists to commit a few types of fraud. Airlines need to tap better ways to protect themselves and travelers.

Itilite, a business travel management startup based in India, differs in emphasis from companies like TripActions and Travelperk. It's notable for focusing on mid-size to large companies, rather than small businesses. It also recommends only a few travel options to users on a first search.

Sanitizing robots. Amazon's touchless checkouts for airport stores. Contactless dining. Airports had already been embracing automation, but the crisis may accelerate the pace of change.

We read the 100-page rulings on the proposed merger of Sabre and Farelogix so you don't have to. Airlines want to take over a lot of the tech work from Sabre and its rivals and pay travel agencies directly for bookings. American Airlines says the new model has already saved it millions. But the rulings found few tech vendors up to the task.

Emadri, which makes money from packing and trip planning, and Hotel Data Cloud, which provides content distribution tools to hotels, have announced seed rounds of funding this week.

The hotel room bedbank Hotelbeds confirmed on Thursday that it had received a loan of about $435 million (€400 million), boosting its cash cushion. But will cautious travelers be as interested in the company's typically non-refundable rates and otherwise typically restricted offers during months of uncertainty about possible travel restrictions?

In the past two months, travelers have bought roughly 100 million points and miles a day, on average. That's good news for cash-strapped airlines and hotels. They're using promotions to transform potentially costly refunds for canceled travel into less costly miles and points.

All Nippon Airways has invested in Avatar-in, a startup that lets travelers use remote-controlled robots to see experiences far from them. Meanwhile, Eddy Travels, a digital booking assistant, has raised funding, too, despite the crisis. Keep hope alive.