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Dennis Schaal, Skift
Booking sites' guests reviews on Google have been a highly charged issue for years. The latest is that Airbnb and TripAdvisor are willingly giving Google their guest reviews of vacation rentals, but they are busy figuring out how not to give away the store in the process.
3 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
The road back to a flywheel of growth would be a lengthy one for Booking Holdings. Google has a ton of data, too, as do other competitors. Can Booking Holdings create a product that is really deeper and differentiated from its rivals? That's CEO Glenn Fogel's bet.
5 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
The love-hate relationship between chains and owners is boiling over in Asia-Pacific where the trade war and Hong Kong protests are impacting owners in many destinations. Chains can be less hated by showing more meaningful support to struggling owners rather than just paying lip service.
5 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
In online travel, everything is tactical and not necessarily permanent. But for now, at least, those coveted Airbnb listings are appearing in Google's vacation rental pages in some European cities. This could have big implications for both companies if those listings remain.
6 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Flights are the next big thing for all of Booking Holdings’ accommodation platforms, not just Booking.com but Agoda and Priceline in Asia. In the region, where super-apps have taught consumers they can book everything on one app, and where even airlines want to be online travel agencies, it isn’t surprising Agoda is offering flights.
6 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Behind the scenes, there may be abundant reasons that Booking Holdings and Airbnb, for that matter, won't be dabbling in Google's vacation rentals business for the time being. Perhaps they are seeking to boost direct traffic or are unhappy with the economics and user experience. Expedia may be positioned to take some advantage.
6 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Trivago is trying to make peace with its largest advertisers, especially the biggest, Booking Holdings. These peace overtures seem to be working for now, but metasearch and advertising can be very fickle things.
9 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Hello, modern world of corporate travel and expense management, where words such as “compliance” are unfriendly and strange. Hello as well to Western investors — such as Silicon Valley's Accel — that are starting to find the Asian market irresistible.
9 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
There appears to be a growing chorus of voices saying they are not able to completely delist themselves from Agoda, which begs the question why they want to do so in the first place.
9 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Saudi Arabia is expanding its infrastructure to support 15 million Umrah visitors a year by 2020, and 30 million by 2030. WebBeds and Agoda are two major Asian players that are jostling for position in the promising niche.
9 months ago
Tom Lowry, Skift
Agoda has been an online travel leader in Asia for more than a decade. CEO John Brown doesn't doubt that it will stay the same, but the new competition sure indicates winter is coming.
11 months ago
Dennis Schaal and Danni Santana, Skift
The Singapore-based online travel agency is focused on expanding outside of Asia through the marketing of non-hotel accommodations on its site. This strategy could work well as homesharing continues to grow in popularity.
11 months ago
