Andrew Sheivachman, Skift
Online booking sites still treat potential customers with disdain using manipulative marketing tactics. As airlines and hotel chains have adopted these methods, it calls into question what a world without them would really look like. Google offers a hint.
3 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal , Skift
Online travel companies have faced intense regulatory scrutiny almost since the first days of internet bookings. But "you've got mail" these days is less likely to be a cheery email notification than a demand for court appearances and audits.
4 weeks ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Airbnb overtook Expedia in room nights booked in the first quarter of 2019, but questions loom for 2020. Will Airbnb lose its focus as it vows to go public and become a broader online travel agency? Will Expedia, which seems lost in terms of creating a revised strategy, find its way? So many headlines to come.
2 months ago
Maria Lenhart, Skift
Music tourism, much like adventure or wellness travel, is a fast-growing niche worthy of travel advisors' attention. Not only does it appeal to all age groups, but clients will appreciate help in obtaining tickets and making travel arrangements built around events.
2 months ago
Maria Lenhart, Skift
The experiential travel that millennials and other younger people crave may be best provided by professionals, not booking tools.
2 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Facing intense competition and a company in disarray, the Expedia Group board and senior executive Barry Diller have no time to dillydally. No one can forecast what the online travel market will look like in the next five years, but Diller et al need to find a couple of top executives who can quickly figure out Expedia's path forward.
3 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
The road back to a flywheel of growth would be a lengthy one for Booking Holdings. Google has a ton of data, too, as do other competitors. Can Booking Holdings create a product that is really deeper and differentiated from its rivals? That's CEO Glenn Fogel's bet.
4 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Since Saudi Arabia introduced a new tourist visa on Sept. 28, the focus has been on what it means for non-Muslim leisure travelers. But the new visa holds a bigger significance for the huge Muslim travel market in Asia and elsewhere.
5 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Like low-cost carriers before them, low-cost hotel chains are playing a big role in the growth of online travel in Southeast Asia, according to a new Google report.
5 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
The CEOs of Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, and TripAdvisor all saw their total compensation fall in 2018, but only because 2017 was an exceptional year for each. Glenn Fogel of Booking and Mark Okerstrom of Expedia were each appointed as CEO in 2017, and Steve Kaufer of TripAdvisor received a long-term incentive award that was undoubtedly the envy of his peers.
8 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Expedia wants to help put customers in touch with hotels to sort out travel complications. That seems like it would be a complicated dance because Expedia doesn't readily share much customer information with hotels, a longtime grievance in the lodging industry.
8 months ago
Natalia Drozdiak, Bloomberg
The omnipresence of wholesale hotel rates making their way onto online travel sites is becoming epidemic, and the big online travel agencies may be trying to throw their weight around to stem the flow. That is raising antitrust concerns, as this complaint points out.
9 months ago
