Booking.com tips

The longtime business models of online travel companies ranging from Airbnb to Expedia and Booking.com are getting increased scrutiny from the media and short-term rental hosts because these companies hold onto customer funds, and invest them for profits before disbursing them, sometimes months later.

Rumors have surfaced on social media that Expedia Group would announce this Thursday during its fourth quarter earnings call that customers would no longer be able to book vacation rentals on Expedia.com — but that’s not going to happen because it would be self-sabotage.

The Kansas City Chiefs weren’t the only ones celebrating on Sunday night. The companies that shelled out for spots during the big games, which more than 100 million people were expected to tune in to see, are watching closely as social impressions, commentary, and — in some cases — sales roll in.

Four major online travel companies had around $34 billion in cash and equivalents on the books at the end of 2022 — and that’s considerably more liquid dinero than they had at the end of pre-Covid 2019.

A task force at Booking.com is dedicated to exploring how generative AI could be integrated into the platform, but just to be clear — the company is not rushing into anything. 

What percentage of tech employees at Booking Holdings are women? How has the company’s total return compared over the last five years to its internet peers? Booking detailed information about these issues and others in a half dozen charts in its recent annual financial disclosure.

A shift in family holiday experiences and longer booking windows for tours are just some patterns shaping the upcoming peak summer season.

Despite all the hype around what generative AI could mean for the travel industry, the online travel agencies seem to be in agreement — there is potential, but there’s a lot of work to be done first. 

What’s next for Airbnb? Among the possibilities are a new array of services for hosts and guests, some for free and some for sale, and an advertising platform that might include sponsored listings.

Booking Holdings is one of the largest travel brands in the world, with business in hotels and other, accommodations, flights, holiday price comparison, car rental, travel extras, and restaurant bookings.

In the perennial quest to turn bargaining-hunting travelers with little brand loyalty into customers making bookings and generating revenue through paid advertising, Airbnb widened its already substantial advantage in 2022 over rivals Booking Holdings and Expedia Group.

Experiences play an integral role in the so-called connected trip, where travelers want to seamlessly plan, book, and manage in real time all aspects of their trip in one place. And TUI, the world’s largest tour operator, has just done a soft launch of what can best be described as its own flexible version of a connected trip with TUITours.com.

Despegar is increasing its product and geographic diversification but its net loss widened a tad in the fourth quarter because of weak travel demand and higher expenses.

Serial entrepreneur Paul English is back again with a new app called Deets, and he’s trying to disrupt the way people discover restaurants and hotels.

New York City is in the process of getting all the pieces in place to clamp down on illegal short-term rentals pending a July deadline when fines against both hosts and platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com for any non-compliance would begin.

Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel cited the “explosion of interest” in generative AI (artificial intelligence), but counseled that it would be prudent to be patient about delivering on its promises.

The days of the typical hotel search results page are numbered, thanks to large language models like ChatGPT.

Booking.com, which has marketing relationships with the International Cricket Council and the Union of European Football Associations, is playing ball with Major League Baseball.

Kayak exited the business of opening hotels and branding them as Kayak hotels, Skift has learned.

Remote work is embedded in the overall lodging sector, going by many speaker insights and observations shared on stage during Skift’s Future of Lodging Forum on Wednesday.

There has been so much coverage of generative AI at Skift over the last several months that it may have been hard to catch it all.