Articles tagged “online travel agencies”

Every smart travel agency and consortium has plans to better integrate one-on-one service with mobile technology. But maybe English, with his established tech savvy, can finally crack the perfect formula for bringing agents into the digital age. The hard part will be acquiring customers, especially when using a mobile app as the sole method of client interaction.

Hilton's CEO's statements that the chain achieved three key goals in negotiations with major online travel agencies show that the parties' standard ways of doing business are evolving. If Nassetta's statements are to be believed, then Hilton won some tools for improving its economic position and winning back some direct traffic.

Mobile is the present and future of travel booking as desktop slowly creeps out the backdoor during the next decade. Mobile's future also doesn't necessarily mean apps, as brands devote major redesign efforts to their mobile sites for travelers weary of having too many apps.

TripAdvisor wanted to keep the details secret. But the price for finally getting the Priceline Group/Booking.com into TripAdvisor Instant Booking was playing the online travel agency exclusivity card. Expedia is shut out for now and can join later. Will Book on Google play a similar game?

Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin thinks the hotel industry has failed to get a wake-up call over the last 15 years and has missed out on wave after wave of digital innovation. He's saying all the right things about Accor addressing these past shortcomings, although the jury is still out on how much he'll be able to accomplish.

Understanding how Priceline.com turns lurkers into customers is key to gauging its success.

As this TripAdvisor-Priceline Group partnership takes off, observe it closely because it signals a new stage in earnest in travel bookings -- the real emergence of third-party sites such as TripAdvisor and perhaps Google at some juncture that were primarily media sites as real forces in travel transactions.

Hotels like that online travel agencies sell their rooms, but they'd much rather sell the rooms themselves -- especially as consolidation has given giants like Expedia more power over negotiating prices.

Having an updated, well-thought out strategy for group business is essential for hotels. These tips from CVENT will help hotels stand out in the ever-competitive group business travel industry.