Booking.com tips

Do you remember a few years ago how there was so much talk in online travel about the Booking Holdings–Expedia Group duopoly? How Expedia Group, which owned Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and Hotels.com, and Booking, with brands including Booking.com, Kayak, Priceline and Agoda, controlled the hotel market and a whole lot more in travel?

After collaborating with several major online agencies, and more recently Google, not-for-profit Travalyst has now added two global distribution systems to its sustainable travel coalition.

In an era when travelers see short-term rentals as an ever-more attractive choice, Booking.com’s mix of bookings for these types of accommodations on its platforms in the third quarter ticked up just “slightly” compared with 2019 to around 30 percent, the company said. Isn’t this an historic failure? Shouldn’t Booking.com be gaining more ground?

Skift kept an eye through much of 2022 on which travel tech startups raised money, documented in this weekly startup funding roundup. 

In an effort to placate guests upset with sticker shock over surprise fees at checkout, Airbnb rolled out the ability for guests to view the total price of a stay before taxes in initial search results in many parts of the world.

Despite lots of vacation rental industry talk about making inroads in attracting more direct bookings, a global survey of property managers and individual hosts reported those percentages were stable, if not decelerating.

While U.S. and European-based online travel agencies fret about the impact of inflation and potentially softer travel demand, Argentina-based Despegar sees a more stable economic climate on its Latin America home turf.

UnderTheDoormat Group CEO Merilee Karr said her company’s new technology and distribution agreement with Visit Oman can be a novel approach to short-term regulation — one where technology can spur governments to embrace the sector rather than shun it.

At various junctures during the pandemic, Booking Holdings faced difficulties because of the weakness of the euro and China’s shuttered borders but now stands to make strides because of favorable foreign exchange trends and China’s travel reopening.

Whether it is out of ego or for personal financial incentives, companies sometimes do mergers and acquisitions for the wrong reasons, and many academic studies show that takeover deals generally turn out to be “losers.”

Are carbon offset programs bad news? In many ways, believes Tom Kershaw, Travelport’s chief product and technology officer, making a case for more measurable and achievable ways to reach environmental goals.

Expedia and Booking Rebuild for Post-Pandemic Landscape: New Skift Research: Travel is back in full swing and Expedia Group and Booking Holdings are now fully recovered versus the pandemic. But under the hood, big changes are underway as these two booking sites revamp their strategies for the future.

Airbnb expanded its law enforcement portal to nine languages as part of the platform’s efforts to fight child exploitation, the company said.

The most important story I wrote about online travel and short-term rentals in 2022 was my massive, three-part .

Property manager Sonder did something that Airbnb can’t and most management companies have been loathe to do — the company eliminated cleaning fees for guests.

Booking Holdings has an answer to critics, who over the last few years mused that its best days were behind it, and that online travel agencies generally would be hard-pressed to rekindle the growth of yesteryear.

The old boys network in online travel — yes, let’s call it what it is — has reunited again to accomplish a formidable goal that has frustrated numerous startups in the past. The aim is to disrupt online cruise booking.

In an effort to combat the hold that online travel agencies have on the hotel market, Trivago is focusing on building a capability for direct access between hotels and travelers. 

A strategic partnership with Booking Holdings is helping expense management company Serko recover from the pandemic.

FareHarbor, the Booking Holdings’ tours and activities reservations tech platform, has a new CEO, Skift has learned.

It’s tough for a National Football League team to make a return trip in two consecutive years to the Super Bowl, but online travel company Booking.com will be doing just that with a fourth quarter advertisement during the telecast.