Expedia ended its Hopper partnership in 2023 for 17 months over deceptive practices. Now the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, in another reputational hit, has reached largely the same verdict, with a $35 million price tag.
Booking Holdings has an uphill climb to rival Expedia's scale in B2B, but the formation of a consolidated business unit could help Booking become a more formidable competitor.
Scapia won’t fight online travel agencies on price. Instead, this travel fintech is betting that everyday spending, loyalty rewards, and payments will determine where the next generation of travelers book trips.
Chinese OTAs have long offered airport transfers and chauffeur services through third-party partnerships. If completed, Tongcheng's Dida acquisition would make it one of the first to own the ride-sharing marketplace itself, rather than plugging into someone else's.
Whether or not travelers trust AI would almost be irrelevant to OTAs if the LLMs don't trust them enough to surface their inventory for discovery. The contest is on behind-the-scenes battle to become the LLMs' OTA fave.
Visa just officially launch a consumer travel site that competes with the banks that pay Visa to issue their cards. That's the real story here, the structural conflict of a payment network establishing direct relationships with cardholders and entering into the banks' own travel businesses.