Booking Holdings

The entire hospitality industry would agree that short-term rentals led the tentative recovery in the spring and into the summer in many parts of the world. But a key question will be how will they respond when hotels and cities come back in earnest — and with vaccines a real possibility, they certainly will.

If Airbnb hasn't already devoted resources anew to HotelTonight and expanding its hotel business, the short-term rental giant assuredly will once it goes public. After all, in addition to Google, Airbnb sees online travel agencies, with their wide breadth of accommodations' offerings, as its most significant set of competitors. 

In this roundup, we highlight our coverage of Airbnb's financials released ahead of its initial public offering (we wrote eight articles!), the key takeaways from the inaugural Skit Aviation Forum, and a look at smarter destination marketing.

Some rental property managers will appreciate Booking.com providing some resources to help struggling hosts keep up with cleanliness standards and improve their game. But others may question the fairness of the online giant scrutinizing one travel segment exclusively.

The typical Airbnb review talks up a rental's charms while overlooking vital information. The company's stock prospectus similarly skips some key details for understanding its business. But we can still infer a few things about the distribution dynamo.

The hotel distribution landscape is complex, with hotel rooms being sold and promoted in many different channels. Covid-19 has certainly impacted how and where hotel rooms are being distributed, but it is unlikely this disruption will be sustained long-term. That’s not to say that disruption isn’t coming, though.

Regulators in China, Europe, and the U.S. can certainly screw up on execution of their goals with over-regulation, under-regulation, or initiatives that are off-target. But there's something happening around the globe that points to a new and potentially hopeful era for competition and innovation.

With the recent launch of flights for its U.S. point of sale, and development of a payments platform, Booking.com continues to work on CEO Glenn Fogel's signature connected trip strategy. It's probably tough to learn too much so far about flights when hardly anyone is flying, but the initiative looks to be proceeding apace under the covers.

When GetYourGuide criticized Google for promoting an uneven competitive playing field, some GetYourGuide partners accused GetYourGuide of similar transgressions in the way it markets its Originals tours. GetYourGuide vowed to make amends, the results of which will only become clear in a few months.

Trivago has big structural problems, such as two online travel agencies being responsible for three-quarters of its referral revenue, but it appears to be managing costs and pumping out product changes during this down time. Give the company credit for maintaining a pulse.