Articles tagged “vrbo”

Airbnb has been a savvy public relations practitioner throughout the years, and the volume of press releases the company churns out annually is legion. Brian Chesky's yearlong digital nomad stint aligns with the company's brand narrative and marketing strategy.

No big surprises on Google Maps, but Booking.com outpaced rival Airbnb in downloads in the online travel agency category globally by nearly 20 million in 2021. That's not a game-changer, but it's important if Booking is going to eat into Airbnb's daunting direct-booking advantage.

Airbnb proved to be more nimble in 2021 than many of its competitors, and is leading the grand online travel experiment in reducing over-reliance on Google.

Trip.com Group, Airbnb, and other online travel agencies have all made commitments to up their travel inspiration games. Pandemic uncertainties and anxieties will bolster their efforts.

The party house problem is a persistent one in the short-term rental industry. The more industrywide collaboration the better.

Booking CEO Glenn Fogel's "connected trip" strategy has drawn critics, but he did make a compelling case for the need for it, and just how broken the travel experience still really is.

Both Sonder and Vacasa need to clean up customer service issues, but they are probably not so acute as to give investors much pause.

Critics blasted Airbnb for relying too heavily on Google advertising to obtain customers in 2019. But in the beginning of 2021, Expedia outspent all of its rivals on paid marketing and made some gains. Expedia and its Vrbo brand are making no apologies for it.

Peter Kern is correct that Expedia Group currently offers broader travel services than do Airbnb and Booking Holdings, but whether Expedia can gain ground on its rivals and can execute on its strategy are entirely different questions.

Business school students can probably debate this question endlessly and there would be merit in either position: Should smaller companies copy their larger rivals or vice versa? In the Google era, marketing power often wins the day — but differentiation still counts.