Dennis Schaal, Skift
Sabre's arguments that UK regulators would merely fall in line if a U.S. court backed Sabre's merger with Farelogix were naive. The UK ruling was essentially correct about the proposed deal stifling innovation, and somewhere airlines are quietly celebrating the ruling.
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.
7 months ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
It's rare for airline contract disputes with distribution companies to reach this outcome. Finnair will suffer financially until it cuts a deal. Sabre, for its part, risks embarrassment if it's seen as bullying a midsize carrier. Nobody usually ends up winning in these classic games of chicken.
8 months ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
IHG represents a broader industry trend in that it's getting tougher with online travel agencies and wholesalers in the West while becoming more experimental with online travel sellers in Asia, where it needs help to grow its sales. Its use of new technologies to try to keep its strategy coordinated and to boost revenue are eye-catching.
8 months ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
Tech provider SiteMinder is the latest firm to make it easier for smaller hotels to adopt new tools from other third-party vendors to manage their properties. The trend could give the little guys more weaponry in online sales — and help SiteMinder become more valuable for hotels.
8 months ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
FareHarbor and Bokun act as if they're unstoppably on the way to becoming giants. But the market for booking systems for sightseeing and experience operators remains very much in flux.
8 months ago
SkiftX
Hotel merchandising and distribution were hot topics at this year’s Skift Global Forum in New York. In this video recap from the event, we learn about attribute-based selling, a strategy that helps hotels better align customer needs with property amenities during the booking process.
9 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
In an I-just-saw-an-elephant-fly moment, Marriott International will be directing businesses to Expedia Group to access certain Marriott wholesale rates. Bedbanks, tour operators, and smaller online travel agencies that play games with room rates are put on notice.
10 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Marriott could do a lot worse than tying its fortunes in China to the e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba. Rest assured that this won't be the last big partnership for Marriott in the country. These are, after all, early days.
12 months ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
Travelport sees an opportunity to gain share with mid-market travel management companies in the U.S., which seems plausible. But it will need to keep up its pace of adopting new technologies and policies to pull that off.
1 year ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
For pundits looking for a headline that Marriott won reduced commissions from Expedia, the reality is likely far more complex than that, and it might take an audit over the next few years to truly sort out the revenue impact. The new deal has Marriott properties remaining for sale on Expedia brands, as the two companies march off into the sunset maintaining their rough-and-tumble, if symbiotic relationship.
1 year ago
Rebecca Stone and Seth Borko, Skift Research
Our latest Skift Research report provides a look-back on 2018 and details our 2019 economic expectations for the U.S. and globally. All in all, we expect a solid year of economic growth in 2019 which should translate well for the travel industry.
2 years ago
