Breaking news and insights about online travel booking, online travel agencies, travel startups, venture capital investments, and more essential news about digital travel.
Sean O'Neill, Skift
This week, travel startups announced more than $100 million in funding. One company to call out is Xiezhu. It provides software and hardware to about 8,000 hotels in China. We expect broad growth in the "smart hotels" trend, which involves devices such as electronic door locks for guest rooms that can be opened by voice or facial recognition.
19 hours ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
To call a company the best-capitalized hotel tech startup might seem like pointing out the tallest leprechaun. But while SiteMinder serves only about 36,000 hotels out of a million worldwide, new funding from cash-rich investor BlackRock could fuel the hotel connectivity startup's growth substantially.
1 day ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
It isn't very unusual for a company like Hipmunk to get acquired and then to fade into oblivion in the clutches of a much larger corporation. That's the way it goes in the heartless mergers-and-acquisitions game.
3 days ago
Accenture Interactive + Skift
The world is awash in data, but as consumer skepticism about Big Tech is on the rise, travel brands need to rethink the way they use information to generate hyper-relevant offers. The winners will hit the right mix of helpfulness and relevance, evolving beyond personalization to forge even deeper and more meaningful relationships with consumers.
1 day ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
Despegar doesn't follow the same playbook as the global online travel players. Charting its own path has worked for the Latin American agency. Expect Despegar to make a strategic acquisition this year to support its heady plans for growth.
4 days ago
Kristin Majcher, Skift
Brazil’s CVC Corp.’s purchase of Argentina’s Almundo is a strategic move to increase its digital reach — but more importantly it helps CVC build even greater scale beyond its home borders.
5 days ago
Sarah Enelow-Snyder, Skift
This week in digital news, a lawsuit against TripAdvisor tests the limits of its responsibility to travelers, and check out our 2020 megatrends for a big-picture look at Google's role in travel, the future of payments, and more.
5 days ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
This week, travel startups DAQ Soft, The Guild, Shep, Hellotickets, Bob, Beonprice, Whizar, IceLolly, and Your Rentals raised funding. It's great that angel investors continue to support early-stage companies.
1 week ago
Patrick Whyte, Skift
Those headline fines were pretty jaw-dropping, but it seems more than likely that they will be massively reduced whenever they are finally rubber-stamped.
1 week ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Airlines, hotels, and booking sites have divergent reasons for leaning into or out of TV advertising. Attracting more direct bookers is always a goal, but sometimes competitive reasons, or the emergence of new platforms, skew the TV budgets.
2 weeks ago
Richard Whiddington, Jing Travel
Singapore is ahead of the curve when it comes to its Chinese inbound strategy. It's the first country destination to roll out a WeChat Mini Program specifically targeted to Chinese business travelers attending meetings and events.
2 weeks ago
Associated Press
Airbnb is taking measures to verify its listings as a safety measure, but it looks like police want more, like this request for hosts to register in North Carolina. Good idea.
2 weeks ago
