Travel Loyalty News

This complaining from hotels is like the movie "Groundhog Day." How many times are we going to hear the same refrain? The OTAs are going to be a vital distribution channel for hotels for years to come, although smart hotels will make adjustments and seek to reduce their dependence on Expedia and Booking.com.

Brand loyalty in the travel industry has been an achilles heel with few being able to engender much of it. Miles and points are great, but it will be the experience, as well, that will make people keep coming back for more.

The Travel Wallet is a nice touch, as frequent flyers can now easily access mobile boarding passes, one-time United Club passes and flight notifications in one place. Beyond that the app has some nice additions, but nothing that knocks your socks, or anything else, off.

Hotels are looking to increase engagement with guests, and CheckMate offers some of the mobile tools to get the job done. It remains to be seen, though, whether any large chains will opt for CheckMate as their preferred solution or whether they will seek out alternatives.

The Orbitz partnership to power American Express Travel contributed about one third of Orbitz's all-important hotel room night growth in the third quarter. Orbitz has been doing some interesting things, including the relaunch of its rewards program, but it is still very rough slog ahead.

Orbitz Rewards members aren't going to get huge savings initially, but they will be getting something right away. Whether this will be enough to be a meaningful boost to Orbitz's hotel ambitions remains to be seen.

This is another reason to fly JetBlue, and will be very popular with travelers. It's great the way Family Pooling accommodates the varied shapes of families 2.0.

With Google Wallet, and Apple Passbook before that, Alaska Airlines is adding all of the bells and whistles to meet customers' needs when they are using their smartphones at the airport -- and most any place else.

Starwood is heavily focused on improving customers' digital brand experience. The iPad app, the first of several expected mobile upgrades, proves the hotel group understands its customers' needs.

Hampton kept it simple the last two years, responding to its own market research with a renewed focus on young travelers, a growing demographic that is quintessentially accessible due to its constant social media use. That simple approach seems to be paying off.