Dennis Schaal, Skift
There's a ton of pressure on Booking.com's new chief marketing officer, especially given the fact that his boss said a few months ago that the brand's creative hasn't been up to par. The company wants to lean into brand marketing, but that means there has to be some stellar advertising to lean into. See the challenge?
4 days ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Airbnb overtook Expedia in room nights booked in the first quarter of 2019, but questions loom for 2020. Will Airbnb lose its focus as it vows to go public and become a broader online travel agency? Will Expedia, which seems lost in terms of creating a revised strategy, find its way? So many headlines to come.
2 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Expedia Group Chairman Barry Diller flew to Seattle to rally the troops. His message to all the employees around the world was, in essence, the sun will rise tomorrow at the travel giant. Impatient investors aren't quite as sure.
2 months ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
Kayak is making a landmark departure from its current strategy. It will add a tool to its mobile app to let users who book select short-term rentals and boutique hotels through it check in and check out via its app. That moves the travel metasearch player beyond merely listing accommodations to actually providing extra services for guests at partner properties.
3 months ago
Andrew Sheivachman, Skift
Creating the connected trip means online travel agencies will have to become high-powered, tech-first, traditional travel agencies. It sounds cool but probably isn't feasible without major upheaval across the global travel market.
3 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
From the wishful thinking and hype of years ago, the connected trip is beginning to draw real investment and become a thing. It will take a very extended period of time to make it a more meaningful development. In that faraway horizon, will there indeed be any differentiation among the leading providers?
3 months ago
Isaac Carey, Skift
Now that Zeno is well-established in Serko's home market, the next step is to bring that same popularity abroad. The travel management company is forming partnerships with major players to help it gain traction in the U.S. and Europe.
3 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Booking.com may be a household name in Europe, but Kayak and OpenTable are far better known in the United States. Parent company Booking Holdings is touting the three companies' ties to advantage Booking.com in a way that might be a tad confusing to travel industry executives or NYU Hospitality students, but consumers could care less.
3 months ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
Trivago's incoming CEO Axel Hefer signaled Thursday that the company would change its auctions to appeal more to advertisers. Most promising is how it will now let Booking.com and other advertisers bid for different types of customers for essentially the first time.
3 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Expedia Group's stance on resort fees could have been drafted by a United Nations diplomat. Expedia doesn't want to alienate hotels and seeks to pick up market share based on Booking Holdings' more forceful position. But it's hitting resort-fee-charging hotels right where it hurts — in the prominence of their listings.
3 months ago
Greg Stohr, Bloomberg
What's in a name? The stakes are probably higher than they once were given the rebranding of the parent company but will the Supreme Court justices agree with Booking.com's viewpoint?
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.
4 months ago
