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 you are Booking.com (or its parent, Booking Holdings). It has been a tough couple of weeks for the large OTA. Enjoy
- When All Other Strategies Fail. It has been a tough couple of weeks for Netherlands based Booking.com. As the fallout of Booking.com’s recent gatekeeper designation under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) continues to unfold (including this past week’s announcement that it was abandoning all parity provisions for European hotels), an exasperated Glenn Fogel had little left to say other than that the EU’s rules were “dumb.” I’m sure we’ve all had weeks like that.
Have a great week everyone. I look forward to seeing many of you at the HSMAI event in Charlotte this week.
Booking.com chief slams EU over ‘dumb’ regulations
June 20, 2024 via Financial Times
Booking Holdings has refused to rule out leaving the EU over “dumb” regulatory burdens that its chief executive says are putting the online travel group at a “competitive disadvantage”. Glenn Fogel attacked new EU digital rules that have forced it to allow hotel companies to offer lower prices on their own websites than on Booking.com, the US group’s Amsterdam-based subsidiary.
Air Canada to scrap GDS surcharge for most fares
June 17, 2024 via Travel Weekly
Air Canada plans to go live with NDC content within Sabre in the coming weeks. And, the airline is doing away with a surcharge on legacy GDS bookings for all but the lowest fare classes in each cabin. Air Canada last year implemented an NDC strategy that offers incentive payments for NDC bookings and assesses a surcharge on legacy GDS bookings.
