Articles tagged “amazon”

It was telling that when the U.S. Department of Justice reviewed hotel competitors during its analysis of Expedia's acquisition of Orbitz Worldwide, the antitrust division cited TripAdvisor and Google as rising competitors but didn't mention Amazon.

The traditional travel video programming isn't dead, but how, when, and where we see it has radically changed.

Officials at Booking.com and Expedia know their hotel businesses are so far ahead of Amazon's nascent moves that they aren't cowering in fear at the might of Amazon. But you can bet they will be taking a hard look at the expanded Amazon Destinations today, as will the folks at Google and TripAdvisor.

With more airlines pushing the benefits of in-flight entertainment, we're reminded of something about bread and circus. JetBlue's investors will likely approve of this new partnership, which makes JetBlue happy too.

Don't believe Amazon's statements about its minimalist intentions in the hotel sphere. This is just the beginning. The next phase will be to really scale up the service with inventory partners.

Google was adamant that it needed to compete in local search and it didn't mind playing hardball with Yelp, TripAdvisor, CitySearch, and others to get its way.

And so it begins. Amazon is experimenting and grasping for new ways to makes its mark in the hotel business. The new effort, which rolled out in the last couple of weeks, has been in the works at least since last Fall. It is modest at this point but no one knows where it is heading.

Google dodged a bullet in 2013 when the FTC terminated its antitrust probe without forcing meaningful concessions or filing suit. Now we know that the rank and file within the FTC wanted to fight it out with Google in court.

Amazon is meeting with hotels and hotel middlemen to ramp up its hotel supply, but is taking a deliberate approach and is currently conducting A/B testing of its new hotel-shopping experience. But, this is obviously just the opening shot.

Well this is bound to be interesting. Amazon appears to be going it alone to launch its own travel service for independent hotels in drive markets. Amazon has huge marketing power, but don't expect Amazon Travel to turn the hotel industry on its head any time soon.