Andrew Sheivachman, Skift
Online booking sites still treat potential customers with disdain using manipulative marketing tactics. As airlines and hotel chains have adopted these methods, it calls into question what a world without them would really look like. Google offers a hint.
2 weeks ago
Danielle Hyams, Skift
This week in digital news, swiping a credit card to make a purchase suddenly seems dated. In a field rife with options, travel brands should take care to make sure customers can pay by their preferred method. Plus, a wave of new regulatory reviews of online travel platforms could reveal key business practices that were previously shrouded.
3 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal , Skift
Online travel companies have faced intense regulatory scrutiny almost since the first days of internet bookings. But "you've got mail" these days is less likely to be a cheery email notification than a demand for court appearances and audits.
3 weeks ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
At a stroke, Despegar will boost its annual revenue by about 25 percent. Acquiring Best Day Travel Group, one of the largest travel agencies in Mexico, will also solidify its set of products, including in the promising business-to-business segment.
3 weeks ago
Danielle Hyams, Skift
Tripadvisor — in a fight to maintain its share of the travel market — is beefing up Viator and will start treating the tours-and-activities booking agency as its own brand. Plus, after years of criticism for prioritizing its own travel products above others, Google is changing the way it monetizes its flight search.
4 weeks ago
Sean O'Neill and Dennis Schaal, Skift
It increasingly looks like what we expected will happen will come true: Chairman Barry Diller is likely to make Expedia Group's acting boss Peter Kern the permanent CEO. It's very probable, too, that Diller is shopping the online agency giant to potential buyers. But who would buy?
4 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Flush with SoftBank and other venture capital money, GetYourGuide and Klook, as well as Airbnb and Booking.com, are nipping at Tripadvisor's heels in tours and activities. Tripadvisor will try to leverage its brand, Viator, which already had a following before Tripadvisor absorbed it, to keep the insurgents at bay.
4 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Along with its dining reservations business, Tripadvisor's tours and activities unit had been a bright spot. But well-funded competitors such as GetYourGuide and Klook have tightened the race, and Tripadvisor is feeling it.
4 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
With potential pressure from U.S. regulatory authorities and perhaps displeasure from airlines, Google is making the biggest change to the way it monetizes flight search since it launched Google Flights in 2011. Perhaps free search engine optimization for flights isn't dead after all.
4 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Airbnb has legions of critics, and it knows that its articulated stakeholder goals will get intense scrutiny. But if the company turns some of these corporate governance aspirations into reality, then it could emerge looking pretty good compared with many established travel industry companies offering just lip service.
1 month 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.
1 month 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.
1 month ago
