Articles tagged “connected trip”

Tripadvisor's travel-planning help by text for Tripadvisor Plus subscribers plays to the company's strengths — user reviews and a global roster of hotels, restaurants and things to do listings. It really can't compete, though, with a real travel agent who has visited the destination and knows the hotel general manager personally.

Booking.com faces tough-going in U.S. short-term rentals. Its business model has hosts perceiving they pay lower commissions to Airbnb, and the latter is has a big brand advantage. At the same time, Booking.com needs to defend Airbnb incursions on its own European turf.

For years, industry analysts would muse: When is Booking.com going to launch flights? Well, now that business is showing strength, albeit from a small base. Seen as strategic, that airline ticket business comes at a price — lower profit margins.

The geographic business mix of Booking Holdings has always been a tightly held secret. The trajectory of the uneven recovery, with the U.S. being its strongest and Europe the weakest regions, prompted the company the tell-all. The dynamic proved disadvantageous for Booking's short-term rentals.

JetBlue has a strong brand and plans to curate the short-term rental inventory it offers with the backing of its own customer service abilities rather than relegating that to a partner. This expansion is worth a try, but will come with brand risks.

Will it be hotels or alternative accommodations that bounce back first? Booking Holdings officials said they see a shift toward alternative accommodations when travelers are booking stays at least two months in advance. But this trend won't necessarily stick over the long term.

Booking Holdings hired a new marketing chief in 2019 because it knew that its brand marketing in the U.S. was falling short, particularly against household name Expedia. Booking is pivoting to address shortcomings, realizing finally you can't keep kicking the can down the road with basically the same strategy.

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.

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?