Articles tagged “layoffs”

The hospitality brand has had to take action to reassure investors it's not over-stretching itself, because they'll now be expecting much higher revenues as travel roars back.

We could hear more about Booking Holdings' rationale for eliminating a chunk of Booking.com's customer service workforce when the parent company reports its fourth quarter earnings February 23. It saves money to outsource operations, but doesn't foster better relationships with customers.

UK-based event tech unicorn Hopin is laying off 12 percent of its workforce, including its chief marketing officer, as it reels from the impact of Covid on events. 

Airbnb is smart to focus on its core accommodations' business, if that is indeed what it is really doing. The company has time to deal with all of the other stuff, from flights to hotels and experiences, once a real-life travel recovery has a pulse.

The bean counters, meaning the financial experts, at all of the major online travel companies have their work cut out for them as they monitor and try to predict the shape and timing of any potential travel recovery. These companies need to be nimble, and hoard their cash.

In Skift's top stories this week, Expedia conducted another round of layoffs, tech investors are drooling over the events industry, American Airlines is mulling bringing back the 737 Max before the end of the year, and Google founding itself dealing with a U.S. antirust lawsuit.

These layoffs at Expedia Group aren't particularly surprising, and were in the offing when travel demand plateaued in many countries starting in July and August. You can expect that Expedia will not be the only company forced into taking another whack at employee payrolls.

Ugh.

Despite the deep job cuts, the proprietary Skift Health Score calculates that Booking Holdings has far greater long-term strength than rivals Expedia Group and Trip.com Group. If you follow Booking.com's logic, the future of travel will be substantially smaller than its past.

Vrbo has been in the right place(s) at the right time, somewhat reversing a very challenged 2019. Is the changed trajectory a momentary blip in the throes of a pandemic, or will it be sustainable?