Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending May 2, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features stories on many of the large online players, including first quarter earnings...more
5/6/2025
/ AirBnB ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Booking.com ,
Expedia ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Priceline ,
Travelers ,
Uber ,
YouTube
Good Sunday morning from Seatle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, April 4, is below. This week’s Update features a number of follow up stories on topics covered in recent Updates, including...more
4/8/2025
/ Airlines ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Booking.com ,
Expedia ,
Google ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Popular ,
Rental Property ,
Travelers
Happy Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 7, 2025, is below. The past week was relatively quiet one, with only minor announcements by a few of the largest industry...more
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, February 28, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features a variety of stories from a variety of sources, including some new sources....more
3/4/2025
/ Airlines ,
Amazon ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Big Tech ,
Expedia ,
Google ,
Hidden Fees ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Southwest Airlines ,
Travelers
Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, February 7, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including details on Expedia’s recent quarterly...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 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
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 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 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
With many in the industry getting their first look at Google’s proposed “DMA” changes to European Union search results, many of this past week’s industry headlines were focused on the proposed changes and the industry’s...more
This week’s Update features one of several stories published this past week regarding the escalating fight between renegade airline Ryanair and several of the large online travel platforms. We’ve also included a few stories...more
This past week was dominated by stories regarding AI’s application and use in the travel industry (we’ve included only one of those stories) and recent activity on resort fees (two stories this week). Some highlights...more
It is earnings season, which makes for a longer Update than usual:
- Expedia Enjoys Strong Third Quarter Results. While I am still working my way through the recent Expedia Group earnings call transcript, news of the...more