Booking Holdings

It’s probably a tiny blip on the radar of Priceline and Expedia but Hostelworld is quietly building up a nice niche business. How long can it be before one of the bigger players shows an interest?

Booking.com may be marginally ahead of Airbnb in the listings race, but for practical purposes you can call it a draw. It's game on, though, pitting Booking.com's renowned demand aggregation and marketing resources versus Airbnb's brand advantages, and the resources it would gain by doing an IPO and becoming more comprehensive.

If Airbnb is successful with Airbnb Plus, it will ensure that alternative accommodations are no longer seen as an alternative. But making it a success will be easier said than done.

Booking Holdings is still making considerable money from Priceline.com's bidding service for hotels. But the service has outlived its usefulness, and will likely fold within a year or two. Take a look at how Priceline.com markets other ways to book hotels on its site. Enough said.

Airbnb always gives us plenty to talk about — and this episode of the Skift Podcast features a lively conversation about the many ways the homesharing company is venturing beyond its original focus and disrupting wide swaths of the travel industry.

Booking.com keeps hinting that it intends to become a full-service travel agency. But these products are often less profitable than hotels. So it risks a bumpy ride. No wonder it is considering revamping its rewards program and building a chatbot to help with merchandising.

The battle for online travel dominance began long ago, but now it's really getting serious. Count this as Airbnb's official opening shot toward Booking and Expedia.

Booking.com now wants to sign up all types of alternative accommodations, even short-term rental apartments that face increased regulation in many cities. CEO Glenn Fogel seems to think that the ultimate winner of the online travel game will be whoever has the most beds in the end.

When we asked then-Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in 2016 whether Airbnb was going to eat his lunch, he responded that he was very well-nourished. But it now appears as though Airbnb has an insatiable appetite. Join us on a Skift Call March 13 to assess the Airbnb threat to hotels and online travel agencies.

Executives at Booking Holdings, formerly the Priceline Group, feel aggrieved that the company isn't getting the credit it deserves in alternative accommodations. In a lot of ways, its battle with Airbnb is over business models. As Airbnb ramps up hotels, we'll have to see who blinks.