Expedia News

After years of relative neglect as big online players focused on hotels, companies such as TripAdvisor, Expedia and Google are investing in and giving new attention to flight products. Kicking and screaming, airlines may end up having to pay more attention to their customers.

Buying TripAdvisor would be a very large -- albeit relatively cheap -- acquisition given its current stock price. One very significant impediment, especially for Priceline, is the fact that Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, which has historic ties to Barry Diller's Expedia, controls TripAdvisor. Still, for the right price, Liberty would have to consider a sale of its prized asset as TripAdvisor goes through a very challenging and prolonged transition.

Though bots still aren't completely frictionless and can't think like a human (yet), they certainly offer a way for consumers to have a conversation with a brand during the booking process that wasn't possible before. And it is potentially a very cheap channel for the brands.

Barry Diller, the senior executive at both IAC and Expedia, doesn't need any more plaques on his mansions' walls but he is one of the people who had oversized influence in making online travel what it is today. He had a great eye for how e-commerce would emerge and he pulled the trigger on his great acquisitions.

As when it acquired Travelocity in early 2015, the Expedia Inc. acquisition model for Orbitz and CheapTickets is to slash employee rolls, find other cost synergies, move the newly acquired companies to the Expedia technology platform and continue to market the slimmed-down brands. As Orbitz begins its 16th year, it wouldn't be surprising to see the brand get more aggressive in its advertising.

Booking.com rode the agency model, which is attractive for its lack of complexity in forging online travel agency-hotel relationships and consumer-friendliness, into the growth engine of a $68 billion business. Its executives did so by ignoring the trendiness of the crowds and sticking to their own beliefs and vision.

We're not giving away all the good stuff. You still need to read the entire thing.

Two decades after the birth of online travel, more than two dozen founders and key players exclusively tell Skift how it all happened. This is a story of a history that changed the future of travel forever. Dig in, this will take a while.

Digital video is one of the most effective ways to captivate an audience. As ad products evolve to make digital video more interactive and audiences more targetable, travel brands need to rethink their content mix to stay relevant. To learn more, download the e-book here.

The first quarter is a popular time for travelers to start planning spring break and summer travel. Based on TV spending estimates for the first quarter, it's clear that the top spending brands such as Southwest Airlines, Trivago.com and Royal Caribbean are bent on getting Americans enamored with the thought of summer vacations.