Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, December 13, 2024, is below.
Google and its “efforts” to comply with the DMA again garnered most of the industry’s attention. As I...more
Good Sunday evening from Seattle . . .
As many of you know, I returned a few weeks ago from an extended sabbatical – three months well spent traveling, cooking, reading and driving my wife crazy. Now that I am back in the...more
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update (my last for the next 3 months) for the week ending August 2, 2024, is below. Last week was a busy week in the online travel industry with second quarter...more
Good Sunday morning from Seattle... Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, July 19, 2024, is below. This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including news on the latest fines to be levied on...more
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, July 12, 2024, is below. Marriott and its launch of a new small and medium sized business travel platform garnered most of the...more
7/16/2024
/ AirBnB ,
Airlines ,
Amazon ,
Booking.com ,
Business Travel ,
Carnival Cruise Lines ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Expedia ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Marriott ,
MasterCard ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Southwest Airlines ,
Travelers ,
Wells Fargo
Good Saturday afternoon from Manson, Washington...I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday week/weekend, at least those of you in the United States. Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, July 5, 2024,...more
Good Sunday morning from somewhere over Colorado . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, June 21, 2024, is below. It was another relatively quiet week in the online travel space, except, that is, if...more
It was a busy week in the online travel world as evidenced by the number of our stories. Enjoy.
Cruise Operators Prepare for Total Pricing. The recent announcement by some of the largest cruise companies to provide...more
This week’s Update features a variety of stories – STRs, algorithm leaks and Hilton campgrounds (sort of):
- Las Vegas Price-Fixing Case Is Appealed. A few weeks ago we reported on a Nevada federal district court’s...more
American Airlines’ decision to soften its approach on distribution with travel agents and advisors garnered most of the industry’s attention this week. Otherwise, the holiday week for many was relatively quiet. Enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including interviews with two of the online travel industries major influencers, Ariane Goren of Expedia and Drew Pinto of Marriott. I hope you enjoy....more
Booking.com’s “gatekeeper” designation under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and artificial intelligence’s increasing influence on online travel garnered much of the attention this past week. Enjoy....more
Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week is below. And for those mothers out there, we hope you had a great Mother’s Day! This week's highlights...more
5/15/2024
/ AirBnB ,
Airlines ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Expedia ,
Google ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Price-Fixing ,
Subscription Services ,
Travelers ,
TripAdvisor
This week’s Update again features a wide variety of stories, including an important update on the much beleaguered spokesman for metasearch site, Trivago. Enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a variety of topics – sustainability (x2), airline loyalty programs, NDC and direct booking campaigns (among others). I hope you enjoy....more
4/24/2024
/ Airlines ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Delta Airlines ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Expedia ,
Google ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Ryanair ,
Sustainability ,
Travelers ,
Wyndham
As you can see from our short list of stories below, it was a relatively quiet week in the online travel world. I hope you enjoy...more
This week’s Update features two stories from local (Seattle) publications. The first, from Seattle’s most well-known technology newsletter, Geekwire, provides a local perspective on Steve Singh’s ongoing efforts to create the...more
This week’s Update features multiple stories and perspectives on AmexGBT’s newly announced acquisition of CWT and Booking.com’s decision to drop its own sustainability ratings. I hope you enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a variety of topics, including Italy’s newly announced investigation of Booking.com, American’s ongoing battle with ASTA and Qantas’ new TMC portal...more
This week’s Update features a variety of topics including the latest on Indonesia’s efforts to regulate OTAs, Spotnana’s new “event” travel booking tool and new record marketing spending by the largest OTAs (no surprise)....more
This week’s Update offers two differing industry perspectives on Google’s DMA compliance efforts. We also update the status (demise) of TripAdvisor’s much criticized subscription program, TripAdvisor Plus. Enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a wide variety of topics – Hopper, Capital One vacation rentals, Expedia layoffs and Hilton campgrounds....more
3/6/2024
/ Airlines ,
Capital One ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Expedia ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
Hilton ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Marriott ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Resorts & Restaurants ,
Travelers ,
Vacation Rentals
Booking Holdings’ recent earnings release garnered much of the industry’s attention this past week for a variety of reasons, including legal. It will be interesting to watch how important changes to the legal landscape affect...more
TripAdvisor’s rumored sale garnered most of this past week’s headlines, though reaction to Expedia’s recent earnings release and in particular, Peter Kern’s announced departure, came in a close second. Salacious headlines out...more
The big news last week of course was Peter Kern’s announcement that he is stepping down as Expedia Group CEO in May. Peter’s announcement came as part of an otherwise robust quarterly earnings release for Expedia. What...more