Dennis Schaal, Skift
We've seen this playbook before. Google isn't making much money off its vacation rental business, and doesn't need to sweat it. With its domination of search, Google will take its time, build its global property numbers, and test what works. Competitors know what's coming.
2 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Is the Boston-Airbnb settlement, which calls for short-term regulatory platforms to comply with a city ordinance, a model for future agreements? Too soon to tell but what's clear is that the alternative accommodations industry will one day transition from outliers to regulated entities.
2 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
When you're Google, you can take more than a decade to hone a product such as Google Maps and attract more than a billion users without having to worry that it isn't making lots of money. But the monetization of Google Maps will soon start in earnest, and travel marketers, for the most part, will hustle to get in.
2 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
A new loyalty program and a brand campaign to bolster direct traffic and user engagement are among the measures TripAdvisor is working on to counter the fact that Google is getting more stingy in providing free traffic. But TripAdvisor is also hoping — and anticipating — that U.S. regulators will step in.
1 month ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Glenn Fogel adding CEO to his Booking.com title as Gillian Tans transitioned to a one-year chairwoman role was not the only element of the management shakeup at the parent company's largest brand in June. The executive changes were more far-reaching, and the implications are open-ended.
1 month ago
Sean O'Neill, Skift
Many hotel groups are directing more of their ad budgets toward price-comparison search sites. That's a boon for vendors providing connectivity and automation services. But it's also a welcome, if still modest, injection for metasearch players like Trivago that have recently been struggling.
2 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Trivago is trying to make peace with its largest advertisers, especially the biggest, Booking Holdings. These peace overtures seem to be working for now, but metasearch and advertising can be very fickle things.
2 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Travelers indeed shop all over the place when they are doing trip-planning. But to downplay Google's dominant role, as an exec did Tuesday, when travel brands are spending billions of dollars annually with the search engine-turned-travel-product operator, is disingenuous.
2 months ago
Dennis Schaal and Sean O'Neill, Skift
The travel industry is obsessed with Big Data and artificial intelligence. The genie is out of the bottle. But the best way to use it will trigger an intense debate and much soul-searching.
3 months ago
Andrew Sheivachman, Skift
Surveillance capitalism is due for a regulatory comeuppance in the next few years. Travel companies that make the decision to build brands around user privacy now will be ahead of the curve.
3 months ago
Brian Sumers, Skift
Some people can happily go all over the world without speaking the local language, and they still feel comfortable. But many others get nervous when they can't understand what's being said. If Google Translate ever gets so good that people can translate anything, anywhere, it could change how the world travels.
3 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Attribute-based reservations may go nowhere or they could transform the way people shop for hotel rooms in coming years. Marriott's Stephanie Linnartz believes consumers like the increased control they get when booking rooms with specific features.
3 months ago
