Articles tagged “hotel urbano”

They're back. The Brazilian economy and Hotel Urbano have both suffered a very rough stretch. Co-founders Joao Ricardo Mendes and Jose Eduardo Mendes have reasserted themselves in leading the company, but haven't publicly articulated in detail how they will navigate their way out of the online travel agency's current predicament. It will definitely be tough going.

It is rare to see a company such as the Priceline Group take an impairment charge so quickly after investing. Even Priceline, in the short-term, at least, can get things wrong. Hotel Urbano needs more cash as the Brazilian economy and political system exhibited further stress, and the Zika virus took hold.

In contrast to its recent penchant for big acquisitions, the Priceline Group now seems to be content to take minority stakes, such as this one with Hotel Urbano, while Priceline focuses on integrating past acquisitions and its new B2B businesses.

Hotel Urbano is now offering short-term rentals while Expedia is showing HomeAway's vacation rentals and Booking.com has lots of apartment hotels. Convergence extraordinaire.

Hotel Urbano is focused on being a Big Data-infused travel company with an online travel agency platform in Brazil, one of the largest emerging markets in the world. Hotel Urbano claims it is not only riding that demand, but is also creating it.

2014 will be an interesting year to watch from traffic perspective. While Priceline Group has a huge lead, Expedia and Tripadvisor family will continue to duke it out.

The global travel industry is going through a lot of disruption, and the biggest sectors include the sharing economy and ground transportation, as well as one large potential winner in the hotel booking sector.