Pricing tips

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, December 9. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Our latest Skift Travel Health Index, shows that the global Travel Health Index stood at 102 in December 2023, capping a big year for the global travel industry.

American Airlines has responded to the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) complaint about the airline’s ticket distribution through the New Distribution Capability (NDC), calling it “a frivolous compilation of rhetoric and unsupported allegations.” 

The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) claims that American Airlines has removed 40% of its fare inventory from distribution channels used by travel agents and travel management companies following the implementation of new systems with the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) New Distribution Capability (NDC) technology.

Among the options that Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is mulling to remedy what he said is a “huge problem,” namely cleaning fees, is giving hosts the ability to levy “variable” cleaning fees.

Travel prices across Europe have started to decline, following months of continuous hikes in air fares and hotel rates. However, they’re expected to remain highly volatile for several years as the market undergoes a correction.

Bowing to criticism about surprise fees that potential guests encounter late in the booking process, Airbnb announced Monday that starting next month it will begin displaying the total price of a stay before taxes, but including its own fees and hosts’ cleaning charges, at the very beginning of the search process.

Middle-income consumers paid premiums for hotel rooms as pent-up demand and savings boosted people’s taste for travel post-pandemic. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, the world’s largest hotel franchisor — whose brands mostly target these consumers — enjoyed quarter-after-quarter of room rate gains throughout 2022.

What can we expect from Airbnb? While there’s no timeframe, a marketplace is in the works where hosts might pay to contract cleaning services and the company may implement tax-inclusive pricing in places where it doesn’t do so already.

Rising hotel room rates in the U.S. are still contributing to an overall rise in the national cost of living, but the pace of hotel rate hikes is slowing, according to new numbers released on Tuesday.

Disney has reached a preliminary settlement in a lawsuit over alleged deceptive practices tied to its Magic Key program. 

Ever since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT service last December, travel companies have been rapidly devising strategies to use generative AI to boost business.

Experiences have seen a significant increase in pricing, with gains averaging 18% over the past four years. This is according to data analysis from two marketplaces for tours, activities, and attractions: GetYourGuide and TicketLens.

It’s been a long time coming, but it’s now a bare fares world.

There’s a mounting possibility of a big shake-up in how you purchase your airfare, some travel outlets report: Major airlines might soon employ a new technology called dynamic pricing to assign different fares to different types of air passengers without their knowledge.

Fees are now more or less an expected part of booking airline travel, especially bag fees. But as the practice grew over the past eight or nine years, consumer advocates have fought for, if nothing else, maximum transparency around what those fees are so that consumers can make informed buying decisions. Until now.

When the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) proposed drastic hikes to admission fees last fall, the reaction was swift and negative. It seems the NPS heard what people will saying.

Disney’s CEO Bob Iger thinks park prices are just right and is not concerned with rising ticket costs.