Articles tagged “metasearch”

It has taken a long time for rail companies and governments to loosen their grip on the data they control. Now that its happened, GoEuro and others operating in multi-modal metasearch are well placed to take advantage.

CEO Fabio Cannavale has spent the last few years snapping up companies across Europe and as the company looks to supplement its online travel agency model with a media/advertising business, expect to see more deals in the near future.

Six years after brashly boasting about how it would disrupt travel search, Hipmunk, which had to compete against larger players with more ample war chests, is exiting into the business travel portfolio of Concur. Hipmunk's turn toward business travel may make it more of a business-to-business play than its current consumer incarnation. As Concur's TripIt example shows, it remains to be seen how innovative Hipmunk can be given larger corporate priorities within SAP/Concur.

With the threat of direct booking, the constant spending by traditional online travel agencies, and the move to mobile, metasearch has been forced to rethink its role in the booking funnel.

Hipmunk's user experience in hotel search feels more convenient than on many other metasearch and booking sites but like everyone else, Hipmunk is experimenting and has plenty to learn. We have a long way to go but that's no surprise to anyone.

In online travel and the lodging industry, as well as politics, astute observers follow the money. As it is with Marriott: The chain is using TripAdvisor 1) for bookings with lower-than standard online travel agency commissions and 2) to advertise even-lower-cost direct bookings on Marriott.com. Makes perfect economic sense.

The European regulatory probe of Google on several fronts is putting pressure on the U.S.'s FTC to jump into the fray after bowing out under less-than-stellar circumstances a few years ago. Still, don't expect any meaningful changes in Google's practices until the regulatory processes likely wind through the courts.

Momondo Group is still a relatively small fish in a big pond when measured against the larger, global metasearch players. Still, the Group, with its dual-brand approach and increased investment, is obtaining some scale -- 95 million visits during the first quarter of 2016 -- and is becoming part of the conversation.

Whether it's on hotel, online travel agency or metasearch sites, having attractive pricing is a very powerful thing. We think Kaufer is a smart guy. He knows he isn't going to get hotels' special rates for loyalty program members today, but he's trying to lay the groundwork for a deal later on.

TripAdvisor continues to labor to transform its business from a media/advertising model toward a booking site -- under the glare of all-too-often impatient pundits and investors. The big decline in its revenue per hotel shopper, meanwhile, is likely a temporary hurdle but TripAdvisor management still has a helluva lot to prove.