Sean O'Neill

Eric Breon grew Vacasa from a business run off his dining room table to North America’s largest full-service vacation rental management business. Few startups have the awareness to know when they need different leadership to get to an initial public offering, and Vacasa may be a rare exception.

Longtime leader and co-founder Deep Kalra will remain critical at the company in a newly created role of executive chairman. The change in job titles is a reward for co-founder Rajesh Magow's years of work leading the India business. Both executives have pushed hard on a subscription model, one of Skift's Megatrends for 2020.

This week, travel startups Turo, H20, Gtriip, Beekeeper, Immfly, Wishbox, and NannyBag announced more than $57 million collectively in funding.

A federal judge heard closing arguments in the U.S. government's antitrust suit to block Sabre's acquisition of Farelogix. Inside the courtroom, Judge Leonard Stark's comments didn't show his hand. The case seems a close call.

For too long, Oracle Hospitality, a giant in the hotel tech space, has prioritized internal needs. Now it's changed its tune. It says it's making hotels the boss. The long overdue customer-first approach is laudable. But there's still work to do.

Frontify helps companies like Lufthansa keep their brand assets in order, while Upgrade Pack offers a subscription service for access to exclusive discounts on flight and hotel upgrades, plus other interesting startup ideas in this week's funding roundup.

At a stroke, Despegar will boost its annual revenue by about 25 percent. Acquiring Best Day Travel Group, one of the largest travel agencies in Mexico, will also solidify its set of products, including in the promising business-to-business segment.

It's notable that we had a much easier time finding experts who supported Sabre's proposed merger of Farelogix than opponents. But this court case will be decided on legal nuances, and its outcome is impossible to predict. We pity the judge who has to endure this crash course in airline technology and distribution.

Global payments technology and rules are changing swiftly, led by seamless innovations in Asia that are making life easier for consumers. Travel companies of all sizes are finally taking action in order to stay competitive.

It increasingly looks like what we expected will happen will come true: Chairman Barry Diller is likely to make Expedia Group's acting boss Peter Kern the permanent CEO. It's very probable, too, that Diller is shopping the online agency giant to potential buyers. But who would buy?