Booking Holdings

It's really tough to judge a brand's performance in the midst of a pandemic, but OpenTable clearly deserved more focus given the fact that travel and dining are completely different businesses. Once again, travel and dining aren't always natural playmates.

All of the world's consumers and businesses will suffer if governments turn the internet into a "splinternet." Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel is one of rare U.S. public figures to say this out loud.

A hotel price war hasn't materialized as some dreaded. Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel sees an opportunity to prove the value of his brands as a source of demand for hotels and managers of alternative accommodations.

Sometimes CEO views of where online travel is headed seem more about the capabilities of their companies than anything else. Will pandemic-induced travel preferences make for dominant trends five or 10 years from now? Highly doubtful.

After missteps in thinking it could grow its own attractions business and catch larger competitors, Booking.com's relaunch is the next stage in its evolution. The tours and activities sector is a lot more competitive now than it was even two years ago when Booking acquired FareHarbor. Hence, the need to reboot.

Despite the deep job cuts, the proprietary Skift Health Score calculates that Booking Holdings has far greater long-term strength than rivals Expedia Group and Trip.com Group. If you follow Booking.com's logic, the future of travel will be substantially smaller than its past.

Trivago was glad to see that Booking Holdings kept on advertising, however modestly, and upped its bidding in Trivago auctions while many other partners went silent. If Booking is gaining a bit of market share, it is far from seeing a clear path to recovery as travel demand's trajectory remains a crapshoot.

It's tough to say in what form Kayak would enter the hotel business, if it does. If there ever were a Kayak-branded hotel, it's safe to say that Marriott and Accor have nothing to worry about.

How are the global travel companies weathering the once-in-a-century coronavirus storm and what are their prospects for recovery? The new Skift Health Score has the quantified answer through a well-vetted unique score. Dig in.

Nothing like a world-shattering crisis to force companies to look into the mirror and contemplate a makeover. Will consumer travel preferences change forever because of coronavirus? Forever is a very long time.