Articles tagged “orbitz”

A metasearch-like advertisement on an online travel agency site isn't going to get anywhere near the the sort of clout that sites such as TripAdvisor, Google and Kayak can wield, but it enables OTA sites to get into metasearch in a modest way to appease consumers' inclination to comparison-shop without taking a lot of the risk.

Was TripAdvisor's CEO Stephen Kaufer worth $39 million in 2013? That amount is a bit of an anomaly as it includes $38 million in stock options, and he won't be eligible for more until the Summer of 2017. Although there are complaints that TripAdvisor gives geographic growth a higher priority than short-term shareholder return, we don't see anyone complaining.

There were two interesting announcements from major travel sites April 28: TripAdvisor added Wendy Perrin, formerly of Conde Nast Traveler, as its travel advocate, and Yahoo Travel relaunched with an emphasis on editorial, but also very heavy on travel inspiration and sponsored content. TripAdvisor has one of the most well-rounded travel sites on earth, and Yahoo is being Yahoo.

Expedia and TripAdvisor have subsidiaries in China, Priceline has gone the partnership route with Ctrip, and now Orbitz Worldwide wants to get in on the action in a more meaningful way through its HotelClub subsidiary. HotelClub will have to do some heavy lifting in China, which is a coupling, discounting and highly competitive market.

The Expedia.com homepage redesign is trendy and artsy, with lots of open space and a search widget placed on top of an inspirational photo. Simplicity, photo-led search and responsive design are trending now -- until the next big thing comes along.

The rise of metasearch as led to consumers comparison shopping in big ways, the shopping cart abandonment numbers are in line with that.

Orbitz will feel the most pain from the end of its exclusive relationship with Kayak, and will try to make up for it by forging new relationships with other metasearch players around the world.

Was the Expedia-Travelocity deal just a harbinger of things to come? Expedia thinks so and is looking for additional online travel agency partners who would consider outsourcing the hard stuff to Expedia.

It was a great year on the stock markets in 2013 for online travel agencies as a whole. Their businesses are increasingly global, and many are benefiting from expansion into developing markets and boosting their hotel products.

From the front lines of online and mobile travel, Orbitz Worldwide still thinks it can be a winner as an insurgent, although there hasn't been any major evidence of a surge.