Insurance tips

Twelve travel tech startups announced more than $147 million in fundraises in the past two weeks.

Ebix Inc, the financial technology firm and parent company of EbixCash in India, has filed for bankruptcy in a North Texas court and the impact on operations in India remains uncertain.

As the U.S. government remains unable to agree on a funding bill, a government shutdown will likely begin on October 1 at 12:01 a.m. unless a deal is reached by September 30. The shutdown would last for an unknown amount of time until funding can be passed.

Airbnb took several steps to ease the process of onboarding new hosts, increased damage protections, and added a half-dozen new search categories, including trending homes and those adapted for wheelchair access.

California-based climate risk technology company Sensible Weather is expanding out of the U.S. into Europe following a new partnership with Ireland’s Campsited.

If you’ve never heard of Iceland-based booking website Dohop, you should check them out. The company has been nominated for two World Travel Awards—World’s Leading Flight Comparison Website and World’s Leading Travel Technology Partner—and recently launched an amazing tool called FLYR Fare Protection, in partnership with FLYR.

Airline fees remain a “pain point” for many travelers, and the pain is getting worse. Despite all the focus, however, you still see some public confusion. The latest exhaustive report (104 pages!) from IdeaWorks presents a good starting point for a dispassionate assessment of the realities and myths of airline fees.

With a travel insurance policy (and any other kind of insurance coverage) the devil is in the details—more specifically, the fine print. And one word can make a huge difference in your risk coverage: “unforeseen.”

Do you rely on a Citi travel card for perks like insurance and lost baggage protection? You might want to take a look at your card’s newly updated benefits: Citibank is sharply reducing the travel add-ons, dropping a slew of protection benefits on all the cards that previously offered them.