Latest News about Online Travel Booking Sites and OTAs by Skift

Despegar Files for $100 Million IPO and Expedia Could Benefit From Its Growth

Sean O'Neill, Skift

Despegar is on track to attract a $1 billion valuation. That's impressive. But its newish CEO needs to pivot the business away from a reliance on selling airline tickets, which are becoming less profitable for his firm by the day.

23 hours ago

Travel-Tilting Hedge Funds Are Investing in Airlines and Online Travel Agencies

Dennis Schaal, Skift

Follow the money — at your own risk, of course. These two hedge funds are putting their money in airline and online travel agency stocks, often investing in competitors. Rising tides lift all boats, after all.

2 days ago

Skift Global Forum 2017: Learn From Online Travel’s Most Influential CEOs

Dennis Schaal, Skift

From overtourism and artificial intelligence to direct booking campaigns and the latest deals, there's a lot of ground to cover with the most influential decision-makers in online travel.

4 days ago

Lastminute.com’s Growing Pains Show Change in Online Travel Retail

Patrick Whyte, Skift

Being a pure play flight seller is a business approach that has probably had its day (unless you can guarantee huge volumes). Lastminute.com Group's diversification strategy over the last few years makes sense but if it is going to work it will take time.

5 days ago

TripAdvisor’s Hotel-Bidding Slump and 12 Other Digital Trends This Week

Sarah Enelow, Skift

This week in digital news, we explained the state of travel distribution in 9,000 words and TripAdvisor tried to boost its underperforming hotel business with more TV ads.

6 days ago

Can TripAdvisor Blame Its Hotel-Bidding Slump on Expedia or Priceline?

Dennis Schaal, Skift

TripAdvisor is still a must-have marketing channel for online travel agency and hotel advertisers. But if the Priceline Group and Expedia tilt their spend more toward other marketing vehicles, there aren't a lot of other players with the marketing resources they have to make TripAdvisor whole.

1 week ago

Priceline Group Facing Tough Calls on China Expansion

Sean O'Neill, Skift

Priceline Group's CEO Glenn Fogel has repeated his view that Asia is the company's most important market. We don't think he'll try to acquire Ctrip. But additional moves are possible.

1 week ago

TripAdvisor Aims to Keep Up Its TV Ad Blitz to Lift Its Sagging Hotel Business

Sean O'Neill, Skift

TripAdvisor plans to spend more than $35 million on TV ads between July and September to boost its business. Brand advertising can help the company although it is a very competitive environment.

1 week ago

Trivago Urges Independent Hotels to Get More Involved in Digital Marketing

Sean O'Neill, Skift

Public companies rarely take on projects where the benefits may not appear for years to come. So kudos to Trivago for risking that with its marketing tools for hotels. That said, the effort is still a risk.

2 weeks ago

Chatbots Are the Future and 11 Other Digital Trends This Week

Sarah Enelow, Skift

This week in digital news we talked about chatbots and artificial intelligence, specifically that they're finally having a noticeable impact on meetings and events.

2 weeks ago

UK Cruise Agency Buys German Rival to Create ‘European Leader’

Patrick Whyte, Skift

Cruise.co's mix of reviews and vacations has helped fuel its rise. Its private equity owners obviously want it to get even bigger and to do so it needs to buy up the competition.

2 weeks ago

Ctrip and Skyscanner: A Look at How the Deal Went Down

Jared Wein, Skift

Ctrip’s purchase of Skyscanner continued the trend of metasearch consolidation and should provide Ctrip with support for its outbound and inbound businesses.

3 weeks ago