Pranavi Agarwal travel tips

Marriott and Hilton are the two largest and most well known hotel chains in the U.S. Both companies’ stock prices and valuations soared from their Covid-lows through 2021. After a pullback last year, hotel stocks have rallied again, lifted by strong demand and the continued travel recovery.

Many of the major hotels and online travel agencies have reported financial results for the first half of the year. The common message: Demand for travel remains robust, even as there is worry about an uncertain global economy and recession fears.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, January 27. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Inspirato, the luxury hospitality subscription brand, has cited “ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty” as it made workforce cuts and scaled back its 2022 financial outlook, yet this is at odds with the bullish commentary from other travel companies, especially as regions like Asia reopen for international travel.

Skift Research’s latest report looks at hotel performance by chain scale in times of crisis and recession in the U.S., as well as the comparison of unit growth strategies of major hotel brands post the 2008/9 Great Financial Crisis versus their current pipelines.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, March 10. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Skift’s Senior Research Analyst Pranavi Agarwal and Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill went live this week on LinkedIn to discuss Skift Research’s latest report that looks at hotel performance and unit growth by chain scale in times of crisis and recession in the U.S.

Property manager Sonder, received a notice of delisting from Nasdaq because the company failed to satisfy the minimum bid price listing rule as its common stock traded below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days. 

In this episode of the Skift Travel Podcast, Ankur Randev, chief commercial officer of Highgate, discusses the current hospitality investment climate with Skift senior research analyst Pranavi Agarwal.

Skift Research has gained unprecedented access to one of the fastest growing online travel agencies (OTAs) in North America – Hopper. We interviewed senior executives across each of Hopper’s verticals, in addition to their co-founder and their CFO, to produce a deep dive analysis of Hopper’s rise in travel. Since being founded in 2007, Hopper has become a formidable disruptor of the OTA market, which for so long has been dominated by the duopoly of the legacy players. It has leveraged big data, machine learning algorithms and predictive analysis to launch an array of unique fintech products that have been fundamental in helping it become the third largest OTA in North America.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, May 31. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

As we have written about in our deep dive on “Hopper’s Rise in Travel,” much of the company’s growth can be attributed to its expansion into fintech products, which has not only helped boost take rates and revenue gains, but has also allowed Hopper to be differentiated from the legacy players. Another way Hopper is distinct is its unique strategy around marketing and user acquisition – namely, how it avoids spending marketing dollars on Search Engine Marketing and instead focuses on product-led growth.

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Marriott is the largest branded hotel in the world with more than 1.5 million rooms, making it 35% bigger than its closest U.S. competitor, Hilton. It has, however, grown its rooms and pipelines more slowly than Hilton for many years, with 3.2% Net Unit Growth (NUG) in 2022 vs Hilton’s 4.5%, as shown in the chart below.

On Wednesday of last week, Skift broke the bombshell news that Expedia Group—the world’s leading Online Travel Agent—had decided to end its longstanding partnership with Hopper, a rival OTA that Expedia had nonetheless been providing hotel and vacation rental inventory for many years. What’s more, Expedia used their announcement to voice concerns about several practices employed by Hopper that they perceived to be detrimental to consumers.

The market for tours, activities, and experiences represents one of the most opportunistic and untapped prospects within the travel industry. It is highly fragmented, with a long tail of small suppliers, and it is rapidly shifting online. That makes it an attractive space for online intermediaries to consolidate market share from small offline players. 

The travel industry faced unprecedented challenges during the pandemic, but its recovery is proving to be remarkable. Travel stands tall as an absolute megatrend, with immense potential for growth despite short-term economic concerns. This was one of the main takeaways of a LinkedIn Live session with the authors of Skift Research’s State of Travel report.

In September 2021, Google launched an advertising product called Google Things To Do, which lists not only the top attractions in a city but also options to book tickets via direct sites or online travel agencies. As we show in the screenshot below, though Google displays paid sponsored listings near the top of the site, its main organic booking list prioritizes the direct website over the sites of aggregators such as Viator, GetYourGuide and Musement, to name a few. 

U.S. hotel companies saw China’s economic rise as an engine to drive hotel development. But China’s economic turmoil may upset their plans.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, August 15. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Wyndham and Choice Hotels are two of the largest asset-light franchisors of hotel rooms in the U.S., with nearly 100% of their portfolios under franchise agreements. Both Wyndham and Choice skew to the midscale and economy chain scales, unlike their more upscale peers Hilton, Marriott and IHG.