Breaking news and insights about online travel booking, online travel agencies, travel startups, venture capital investments, and more essential news about digital travel.
Danielle Hyams, Skift
This week in digital news, Expedia Chairman Barry Diller led an eventful earnings call during which he tore into the company's work-life balance and bloat, but also admitted he was just beginning to understand the business. Plus, Skift Research explores Google's far-reaching impact on the travel industry.
18 hours ago
Patrick Whyte, Skift
Speculation continues to grow around Lastminute.com Group's ownership. In the meantime it's getting on with expanding its presence across the globe.
3 days ago
Xinyi Liang-Pholsena, Skift
For many players in Asia’s tours and activities space, dealing with mounting coronavirus cancellations is proving to be a pain point without the aid of robust technology systems in place. This crisis will be a sharp reminder that digitalization is the way to go.
3 days ago
Adara + Skift
Capturing the attention of the modern traveler in today’s fast-paced digital world is complex and competitive. Travel marketers must use trusted, accurate, and timely data to build successful campaigns that respond to customers’ increasing demands for personalization.
2 weeks ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
Of particular note this week is that top-tier European venture capital firm Lakestar has bet on two companies: Impala, which helps hotels talk to other businesses, and Limehome, a next-generation hotel brand. Lakestar is best known for having invested early in companies like Airbnb, Skype, and Spotify. The travel sector can use all the smart money it can get.
3 days ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
The straight talk from Diller and Kern will likely delight Wall Street, and rankle former management and current employees. Employees will have to buy into the new vision if there's any hope it will become reality.
3 days ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
When Tripadvisor first started diversifying away from its hotel-auction business several years ago, it was mostly aspirational because its experiences and dining businesses were relatively small. Now there is a bit of revenue meat on those bones. Still, meaningful profits will be slow going in this competitive climate.
4 days ago
Lauren Ward, Skift
Event planners can expect increasingly aggressive pitches from hotels as group bookings decline and the threat of coronavirus continues to loom. The new year is already taking some unique turns.
4 days ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Trivago CEO Axel Hefer said the company will focus on those things it can control. But the issue for Trivago and some competitors is that there is so much they can't control, including Google's incursions, the rise of Airbnb, and the whims of major online travel agency advertisers when they cut their metasearch spend.
5 days ago
Lauren Ward, Skift
A predicted dip in group bookings is making hotels more aggressive on bookings, with future uncertainty compounded by coronavirus and the 2020 election.
5 days ago
Sam Nussey, Reuters
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son's strategy of investing heavily in headline-grabbing startups is certainly risky. Will investors continue to back him?
5 days ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
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.
6 days ago
