This week’s Update for the week of March 26, 2017 is below:
Airbnb cracks down on San Francisco hosts, booting out hundreds
Revitalization Partners, Mar 24, 2017
Home-sharing company Airbnb says it has evicted 923 listings in San Francisco for violating its “One Host, One Home” policy. In a statement this week, Airbnb disclosed the figures of listings it had booted because they “appeared to be shared by hosts with multiple entire unit listings that could impact long-term housing availability.” Many of the listings it has removed (and the hosts it has evicted from the site) shared an address with other properties available on Airbnb..
Expedia Has a New Tool to Help Hoteliers Use Reviews to Improve Service
Skift Travel News, Mar 23, 2017
Today Expedia's computers are analyzing guest reviews. We predict that someday its computers will use the reviews to create software-generated, Zagat-style hotel summaries, for its search results.
Why Hotel Chains' Loyalty Programs Don't Pose A Threat To OTAs
Forbes Investing, Mar 21, 2017
Online travel agencies (OTAs) and hotels seem to have somewhat of a love/hate relationship. Though OTAs bring more customers to hotels because of the increased exposure that they offer, hotels need to pay a certain percentage of commissions to the OTAs, thus reducing their share of the revenues.