Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our first Online Travel Update for 2025 is below. The past two weeks produced a number of interesting stories, including the Department of Justice’s attempt to stop the planned Amex GBT...more
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 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
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 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
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
Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending February 17, 2023, is below. This week’s Update features a number of stories coming out of last week’s quarterly earnings releases by several of the largest online travel...more
2/23/2023
/ Airlines ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Expedia ,
Fees ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Marriott ,
Mobile Apps ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Resorts & Restaurants ,
Travelers ,
TripAdvisor
Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending February 10, 2023, is below. This past week saw the beginning of quarterly earnings releases by the major platforms, with Expedia and its meta search platform, Trivago,...more
Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending January 13, 2023, is below. This week’s Update features an interesting update on OTAs’ current loyalty programs and future ambitions and the recent (somewhat concerning)...more
It was another slow week in the online travel industry. Following up on our observations from a few weeks ago, we feature a story on banks’ now undeniable interest in travel. We also include a story on payments. This story is...more
This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including updates on Sabre’s attribution sales efforts and the growing importance of Booking.com’s mobile application in the U.S. Enjoy....more
Last week’s Update features a variety of stories, including FlightHub’s attempt to resurrect its reputation and US Airways’ latest claims against Sabre. Enjoy....more
Last week was all about loyalty as we saw a number of stories on the new roles that technology and online platforms are playing for hoteliers seeking to update and expand (or even launch) their loyalty programs. We include...more
After a few quiet weeks, last week produced a number of stories that caught our attention and made it into our weekly Update, including two interesting stories on customer reviews. Enjoy....more
4/12/2022
/ AirBnB ,
Airlines ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Booking.com ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Competition ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Defamation ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Expedia ,
Google Maps ,
Health Inspections ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Libel ,
Marketing ,
Online Reviews ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tortious Interference ,
Travelers ,
Yelp
This week’s Update leads with an important Data Privacy Update from Eva Novick, the newest member of our firm’s privacy and data security team. If you currently operate a loyalty program (or plan to introduce one soon), I...more
2/21/2022
/ Airlines ,
Amazon ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Climate Change ,
Cruise Ships ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Data Privacy ,
Expedia ,
Hotels ,
Online Platforms ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Priceline ,
Travelers
This week’s Update features stories on Kayak, Hopper (again) and Shiji, and includes an important privacy update from California on loyalty programs....more
Our cruise industry friends make an appearance in this week’s Update, one of their first appearances in some time. Enjoy....more
11/9/2021
/ Advertising ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Cruise Ships ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Fair Trade Commissions ,
Hotels ,
Huawei ,
Marriott ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
South Korea ,
Travelers ,
Trivago
This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including stories regarding Expedia’s planned roll up of its loyalty programs and Marriott’s recently announced loyalty program partnership with Japanese e-commerce platform,...more
10/18/2021
/ Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
E-Commerce ,
Expedia ,
Google ,
Hotels ,
Marketing ,
Marriott ,
Mobile Apps ,
Online Advertisements ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Partnerships ,
Personal Data ,
Refunds ,
Rental Property ,
Subscription Services ,
Travelers
Skift’s annual Skift Global Forum, which was held this past week, produced a number of newsworthy items for this week’s Update. Enjoy....more
10/4/2021
/ Airlines ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Expedia ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Mobile Apps ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Rental Property ,
Short-Term Loans ,
Subscription Services ,
Travelers ,
TripAdvisor ,
Vacation Rentals
Where did summer go? It was another quiet week in the online travel world, though I expect things may pick up in the weeks ahead as everyone returns from their summer breaks. Enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a number of stories on the largest online distributors as well as a story on an interesting new player that focuses exclusively on hoteliers’ “beyond bed” ancillaries and experiences. Enjoy....more
5/3/2021
/ Booking.com ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Expedia ,
Hotels ,
Occupancy Tax ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Partnerships ,
Rebranding ,
Sales Tax ,
State and Local Government ,
State Taxes ,
Tax Legislation ,
Travelers ,
TripAdvisor
With this week’s Update, we welcome Amazon back to the distribution discussion with its recent introduction of Amazon Explore. Enjoy....more
10/12/2020
/ AirBnB ,
Amazon ,
Booking.com ,
Business Development ,
Business Opportunities ,
Capital Raising ,
Certifications ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Expedia ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Popular ,
Rate Parity Agreement ,
Travelers
As summer was coming to a close last week (and people everywhere were doing best to hang onto the last few glimmers), there was little noteworthy news coming out of the distribution world. Enjoy....more
9/14/2020
/ Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data-Sharing ,
Google ,
Hotels ,
Marketing ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Opt-In ,
Popular ,
Privacy Policy ,
Travelers
It was a relatively quiet week for the distribution industry. Enjoy.
Family Travel Club Launched in the Midst of a Pandemic -
(“Online Family Travel Club Launched by Wall Street Journal Alums Unbowed by Pandemic,” Jul 20,...more
8/3/2020
/ Booking.com ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Customer-Loyalty Programs ,
Expedia ,
Fair Trade Commissions ,
Hotels ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Rate Parity Agreement ,
South Korea ,
Travelers