Sean O'Neill

New data from China's travel tech giant TravelSky shows that the country's pace of air travel growth slowed in the first half of the year. But the country remained the fastest-growing region in the world in terms of aviation and traveling.

Game on, Oracle. But like everything in the hotel sector, the battle between next-generation hotel tech players and established titans will take years to play out.

Zhiketong stands out for receiving investment from top-tier investors and travel companies. The company helps hotels and other firms market their services to travelers via WeChat, a messaging service and payment platform. Hotels like WeChat because it charges lower commissions than online travel agencies like Ctrip.

A British Airways hiccup earlier this month was merely the latest tech outage at a number of airlines. Why does the industry suffer from so many glitches? Experts point to some deeper reasons beyond the commonly heard "old tech" explanation.

Sabre had tried the unorthodox legal tactic of pursuing its $360 million acquisition of Farelogix, an airline tech vendor, without waiting for approval from U.S. antitrust watchdogs. But it apparently didn't count on federal attorneys claiming they have text messages between Sabre executives acknowledging the anti-competitive nature of the deal.

Many grandmothers have tighter password security than tech vendor [24]7.ai allegedly did. A hacker had an easy time accessing the vendor's code, and through it, the payment card data of up to 825,000 Delta customers. No wonder the airline is suing.

The short-term goal of the deals is to win more work from hotel management companies. The long-term goal is to sell the combined portfolio. We look at the merits of Accel-KKR-owned Cendyn's acquisition of Rainmaker. We also look at potential acquisition targets.

Investors have bet on some innovative business models. AirPortr has hand-delivered about 100,000 bags from homes to airports, lifting a worry off the hands of Londoners as they pass through airport security. PaulCamper is an Airbnb for RVs. Meanwhile, SpaceBox converts spare hotel rooms into video game halls and other social zones for college students.

Spirit's decision to buy more airline technology from Sabre signals two things. Sabre has overcome a sales slump. And Spirit is investing to cope with its growth.

The travel technology giant said Wednesday it would go ahead with its planned $360 million acquisition on August 21. If the U.S. federal attorneys aren't happy about it, they can sue, Sabre said. No travel tech company has used, and threatened in public to use, its lawyers as much as Sabre in the past decade.