Booking Holdings and Expedia spend billions of dollars each year to have their websites prioritized within Google search results pages, so any overcharging would hit them hard.
One of the key remaining questions is whether Southwest will start offering its flights for bookings on online travel agencies. The betting here is that Southwest won't allow Expedia or Priceline to get on board.
Would Priceline or other big travel advertisers want a co-branded booking experience with Trivago to increase bookings? Maybe, but these advertisers would likely spar with Trivago on the details of the co-branding.
Today's podcast looks at Google's surprising pivot on cookies, industry leaders' disappointment in travel's use of AI, and why Turkish Airlines doesn't believe in premium economy.
Cirium is a for-profit company, selling its data to corporations and the airline industry to more accurately measure flight emissions. Could its reluctance at this early stage to share that data with Google and Travalyst be out of self-interest?
Generative AI is still young, but some travel companies are encouraging workers to experiment as they determine how the tech will be used in the future.
HomeToGo plans to quash bait-and-switch pricing in the way it displays the total price of a short-term rental stay. But will consumers appreciate the effort if rivals' less-transparent prices appear lower?
Elliott Investment Management, which has a $2 billion activist stake in Southwest, was highly critical of the airline’s revenue forecast cut for the second quarter.