Articles tagged “oral history”

The phrase "listen to the customer" is a cliche. But in the early days of the vacation rental business, the smart move was to listen to what the marketplace was saying rather than force feed it the opposite.

In Skift's top stories this week, a breakup of Google’s advertising businesses could have significant ramifications for travel, U.S. travelers are more worried about surging prices than Covid, and Phoenix is the first testing site for Waymo's driverless cars.

Amazon is doing travel these days in India in its own image — as a way to build even greater traction for Amazon Pay. Hey Amazon, where to next?

When mergers go awry, it isn't always merely because the acquired company was a dog. Sometimes the purchaser likewise screws the whole thing up.

There were a ton of people who wanted the COO position at Uber, and it went to Expedia alum and former Orbtiz Worldwide CEO Barney Harford. The pressure will be on both Khosrowshahi and Harford to turn around the ridesharing company. As if there weren't abundant pressure already.

With a two-decade track record in online travel, Khosrowshahi has had his duck-and-cover as well as been-on-a-mountaintop moments. If Uber's looking for a steady hand, and a guy with experience who isn't afraid to take a U-turn when called for, then they could have done a helluva lot worse.

It’s hard to imagine Ace Hotels becoming what it is today without the visionary drive of its late co-founder, Alex Calderwood.

Moral of the story about the early years of online travel? Not to over-simplify, but be prepared to take risks, feel free to contradict conventional wisdom, and assemble the best damn team that you can.

Priceline.com downplayed Name Your Own Price four years ago as big thumbs and small screens on mobile phones made the relatively cumbersome bidding process anachronistic. Flight-bidding is gone. The services remains for hotels and car rentals but their days are probably numbered too.

Not everyone who drafted business plans, wrote the code, made sales calls or forged partnerships in the early days of online travel garnered glitzy headlines or even made it to 2016 to see how their labors all worked out. They -- and countless others -- are still worth remembering for their contributions.