Sean O'Neill, Skift
This year Lufthansa made a series of small moves that, when looked at together, reveal a doubling down on its multi-front strategy to pressure Amadeus, Travelport, and especially Sabre to conform more to its preferred airline distribution practices. Connect the dots, and it looks like a low-grade war.
4 hours ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
It's a matter of probability that some companies will face cash crunches. It appears HotelQuickly has. But global travel search companies need to detect problems sooner. They must quickly put a pause on referring consumers to troubled companies before too many victims pile up.
21 hours ago
Colin Bertram, Bloomberg
Quieter locales in Scotland, New Zealand, China, and Mexico lead Airbnb’s trending destinations for the coming year. Note that these statistics show gains in search interest from small base numbers and so they're somewhat misleading. Paris hasn't lost its status as a popular spot, for instance.
2 days ago
Personalization is already a critical component of today’s travel industry business strategy. But as we learned from this Skift Global Forum panel, the industry now needs to evolve beyond personalization to embrace “hyper-relevance,” a practice where companies use customer insights to better serve the constantly changing needs of travelers.
4 days ago
Sarah Enelow-Snyder, Skift
This week in digital news, Trivago has a court date to address reportedly misleading consumers about its hotel comparisons. Then, Expedia insists that alternative accommodations aren't a huge threat to hotels, and we have more analysis of the massive Marriott data breach.
2 days ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
All is not well with Zuji, a pioneer in the online travel space in Asia-Pacific. An ownership that is more adept at aviation than running an OTA may be an issue, but it’s clear the entry of global OTAs flush with marketing wherewithal and expertise is making it difficult for the pioneers to compete.
3 days ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
This week investors bet more than $104 million on companies that help people plan trips (Tourlane, SnapTravel, Fineway, and AsiaYo), recruit hotel workers (Hosco), create adventure travel content (Roam), and book medical tourism (Hospals).
3 days ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
It's rare to have an Expedia CEO speak so candidly about Google's threat to his own company. After all, Google knows how to punish companies when it wants to. Given Barry Diller's recent statements, and Okerstrom's view, there must be a lot of concern in Expedialand behind the scenes.
4 days ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
Travelport has only been on the public market for four years, but hedge fund Elliott Management believes it can engineer a leveraged buyout that will unlock more value from the company. A spin-off of payments unit eNett is a likely early goal.
4 days ago
Sean O'Neill and Dennis Schaal, Skift
The acquisition of once-high-flying Tripping.com as a distressed asset was a losing deal for investors. It's not clear what the payoff will be for HomeToGo acquiring a Silicon Valley rival at vacation rental price-comparison. HomeToGo faces daunting expectations now, having raised $150 million.
5 days ago
Natalie Wong, Bloomberg
The travel industry startup ecosystem could use some fresh ideas, so we salute new investors placing bets like Steph Curry, the basketball star playing for the Golden State Warriors. Curry's investment in SnapTravel, a messaging-based hotel booking tool, holds promise but the outcome remains uncertain for the company, which has raised $22.4 million to date.
6 days ago
Allan Leibowitz , Skift
Trivago has reportedly admitted to misleading consumers about its hotel comparisons and will have to appear in court later this month to defend its actions. This comes as Australians are being whipped up to boycott foreign-owned hotel aggregators that are accused of ripping off local hotel owners and operators.
7 days ago