Online travel newsletter tips

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.

Expedia Group has completed another round of layoffs. Tript Singh Lamba, a senior vice president of the travel booking giant, sent an internal message about the layoffs last Thursday, which was obtained by GeekWire.

Google is one of the undisputed heavyweights in online travel. So when one of the key masterminds behind all of its travel platforms and products talks about where the search giant is heading, it’s worth paying attention to.

The vice chairman and CEO of Expedia Group, Peter Kern, covered a lot of ground during his session at Skift Global Forum in New York City in September. Kern gave his perspective on mergers and acquisitions, technology, and micro-services.

Property manager Sonder is positioning itself long-term to take advantage of higher-spending business travelers, and added 200 corporate travel accounts — and a former CWT CEO to its board — during the third quarter.

Big Tech companies are laying off tens of thousands of people. 

Improved customer experience was the driving hypothesis behind Originals, GetYourGuide’s private label offering. Reports that it is ending raise the question of why.

California-based RedAwning announced it acquired channel manager Lexicon Travel Technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Online travel platforms that pay close attention to the unique curation of their tours and activities will own the longtail game of discovery.

On the Beach Group CEO Simon Cooper, who founded the UK-based beach holidays online travel agency in 2004, will resign his post within the next 12 months, and Chief Financial Officer Shaun Morton will take over the CEO duties, the company announced.

Travelzoo, a hotel and package deal publisher, said in a financial filing on Tuesday that it would ask its stockholders to approve making a metaverse experiences scouting business a wholly owned subsidiary of Travelzoo. The business, Metaverse Travel Experiences (MTE), is currently wholly owned by Azzurro Capital.

Before the pandemic, the tech startup ResortPass had partnered with a little more than 100 hotels, offering a software platform that can book guests for day use of their amenities. 

Rocked by a Covid relief financial scandal that led to the jailing and resignations of now-former CEO Fabio Cannavale and chief operating officer Andrea Bertoli, Amsterdam-based Lastminute.com’s shareholders elected Luca Concone as an executive director, and he’ll serve as CEO.