Sean O'Neill

Sean O’Neill is Skift's senior hospitality editor, reporting on hotels. Send him news tips at [email protected]. He's been a full-time journalist for two decades. He lives in Washington, D.C. Stop him before he starts another home improvement project.

Latest Stories

Online Travel

Skift Tech Forum Preview: Travelport’s CEO on a New Era for Airline Merchandising

CEO Gordon Wilson of Travelport says his technology company is making it easier for airlines to display on travel agency "shelves" their content in the way they want. If true, that could significantly help airlines maximize their revenue.

Skift Tech Forum Preview: Travelport’s CEO on a New Era for Airline Merchandising

Online Travel

Agoda Names New CEO as It Aims to Go Global

Agoda's new CEO John Brown will be leading the company to increasingly push into Europe and the Americas, beyond its traditional online travel agency turf of Asia Pacific. The early numbers show that parent company Booking Holdings is putting its money where its mouth is.

Online Travel

Amadeus Sees No Impact Yet on Airlines’ Pushback With New Distribution Models

For a couple of decades, distribution technology giants like Amadeus dictated contract terms to the airlines. But airline groups are leading a revolt to try to impose a new model on the middlemen. It's too early to say who will get the upper hand.

Amadeus Sees No Impact Yet on Airlines’ Pushback With New Distribution Models

Online Travel

Travelport Lost Lucrative Flight Centre Contract to Distribution Rivals

No word on yet on what activist hedge fund investor Paul Singer of Elliott Management might try to pressure Travelport do this year. But research analysts expect that, at the very least, the travel technology company will be pressed to spin off its fast-growing eNett payments business.

Travelport Lost Lucrative Flight Centre Contract to Distribution Rivals

Online Travel

Life House Raises $40 Million to Modernize Hotels: Travel Startup Funding This Week

Life House is a hospitality company that strives to be an experience platform offering more than mere beds to sleep in, echoing some of the Megatrends Skift identified for 2018. But it's unclear why investors in the company think it will scale as rapidly as venture capitalists typically expect.

Business Travel

Sabre’s Back to the Basics Strategy Shift Starts to Bear Fruit

CEO Sean Menke has gained breathing room to provide positive surprises. Getting cloud-based distribution and operations software right is hard. So the company is relying on concepts from top-tier management consulting firms as guidance.

Sabre’s Back to the Basics Strategy Shift Starts to Bear Fruit

Online Travel

Google Plans to String Its Travel Assets Together

We come in peace, a top Google executive essentially said while addressing the travel industry on Thursday at Skift Forum Europe in Berlin. One possible industry response might be: "Trust, but verify."

Google Plans to String Its Travel Assets Together

Online Travel

BlaBlaCar Buys Less to Plug a Carpooling Tech Gap

It’s too early to know if short-distance, urban carpooling from BlaBlaCar can effectively compete with taxis and car-hailing apps like Cabify, Lyft, and Uber. But as a defensive experiment, the move makes sense.

BlaBlaCar Buys Less to Plug a Carpooling Tech Gap

Online Travel

Expedia Sold More Than $500 Million in Tours and Activities in 2017

Expedia's half-billion dollars of online sales may seem large. But it's a tiny sum in the context of the company's overall sales. It is still early days for the online management and distribution of activities, despite the recent frenzy of startup acquisition.

Expedia Sold More Than $500 Million in Tours and Activities in 2017

Online Travel

Guesty Raises $19 Million for Vacation Rental Sales: Travel Startup Funding This Week

Travel startups raised more than $128 million this week. Tel Aviv-based Guesty, which is like a Salesforce for vacation rental property managers, was one of the fortunate companies.

Guesty Raises $19 Million for Vacation Rental Sales: Travel Startup Funding This Week