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
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 28, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features stories on a variety of topics including Perplexity’s big booking...more
3/31/2025
/ AirBnB ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Booking.com ,
Google ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Influencers ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Popular ,
Travelers ,
TripAdvisor
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 21, is below. This week’s Update features a number of stories on the EU’s renewed interest in pursuing competition compliance,...more
Happy Saturday from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 14, 2025, is below. What started as a relatively quiet week in the travel industry (other than the concerning reports from several...more
3/18/2025
/ Airlines ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Booking.com ,
Fees ,
Google ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Phishing Scams ,
Price Discrimination ,
Travelers
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 morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, January 17, 2025, is below. Other than Perplexity’s newly announced partnership with TripAdvisor (readers, please read the story...more
1/22/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Blocked Mergers ,
Booking.com ,
Google ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Popular ,
Search Engines ,
Travelers ,
TripAdvisor
Good Sunday morning and Happy New Year!! We are again providing a roundup of a few of the stories that we feel made the biggest impact in the online travel industry over this past year (and continuing into this year). ...more
1/7/2025
/ Accessibility Rules ,
Algorithms ,
American Airlines ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Booking.com ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fees ,
Final Rules ,
Google ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Layoffs ,
Marriott ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Price-Fixing ,
Travelers
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 for the week ending Friday, July 26, 2024, is below. It was a relatively quiet week this past week in the online travel industry, at least until Google’s...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
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
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 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
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
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
This week’s Update features updates on several recently featured stories, including Booking.com’s ongoing payment and fraud challenges and new legislative efforts to limit junk fees....more
11/2/2023
/ Airlines ,
Booking.com ,
Citibank ,
Fees ,
Google ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Marriott ,
Online Travel Vendors ,
Partnerships ,
Ryanair ,
Travelers ,
Vacation Rentals
From the number of announcements this past week by travel industry members detailing their new online small and medium business initiatives, someone must have deemed last week “small and medium business week.” We’ve included...more