Online travel newsletter tips

Expedia Group announced after its fourth quarter 2023 earnings call that Ariane Gorin would become the online travel agency’s CEO on May 13, succeeding current CEO Peter Kern. Gorin will join the board of directors, where Kern will remain. Barry Diller will continue in his roles as Expedia Group’s senior executive and chairman.

Tripavisor plans to release a metaverse experience later this year. 

Reverse stock splits are almost never a good sign and companies have a tough time recovering. They do it when their shares are in the basement and they’re at risk of a delisting.

It’s been a momentous year for the travel industry and the Skift Research team. Across our 50-plus reports, we created hundreds of charts to visualize the data behind the travel industry.

Tripla, which provides a booking engine to hotels in Japan and Southeast Asia, has acquired a hotel tech company in Taiwan.

Trip.com Group said Thursday that it has selected Amazon Web Services as its “strategic cloud provider” in a multiyear deal meant to drive innovations in travel bookings, personalized recommendations, and customer service. 

Mondee has acquired an AI company called Purplegrids in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $19 million.

Uber is working on a lot of projects to push its business beyond its traditional focus. 

Vacation rental property manager Vacasa has been plagued by the same problem for multiple quarters: homeowner churn. 

In the latest episode of the Skift India Travel Podcast, Krishna Rathi, country director of Agoda in India, in conversation with Skift Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia, talks about the online travel company’s growing focus on India. Agoda launched its first-ever television commercial in India last week. Echoing Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern’s thoughts, Rathi notes that there’s a strong alignment between Agoda’s core values and the Indian market. 

Airbnb’s recent quarter was its most profitable ever and also the best in terms of revenue, according to a shareholder letter the company released Wednesday.

Online travel agency MakeMyTrip announced that it is acquiring a majority stake in Indian intercity car rental company Savaari.

IHG Hotels & Resorts recently rolled out a function that allows guests to find and book rooms based on certain attributes, a project it says has been years in the making.

Since ChatGPT was released last November, several other well-funded companies have released their own versions in an effort to compete. 

Expedia increased spending 10 times over five years to advertise vacation home rentals on Google, but the online travel agency saw no increase in traffic because the search giant has been prioritizing its own flight and hotel products. 

That’s how Kumar opened Booking’s “How India Travels” report release on Wednesday in Delhi, which cited several reasons for the optimism: 

Airbnb is finally ending its Airbnb Plus program after several years of it being an inconsistent priority, Skift has learned. The official end date is November 6.

Florida-based VTrips, a vacation rental property management company, laid off around 75 employees, more than 9% of its full-time workforce, in late September, Skift has learned.

Uber is pushing forward with experiments in other areas of travel. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi detailed some of the plans on Thursday during the final session of the 2023 Skift Global Forum.

Denver-based property manager Evolve is laying off 20% of its workforce, Skift has learned.

Property manager Vacasa announced its intent to conduct a one-for-20 reverse stock split that’s geared to get its share price higher than $1 per share and therefore to be continued to trade on Nasdaq.