Skift Take
We don't know much about Airbnb's thinking about launching a flights product, but an unrelated acquisition by Etraveli Group shines a light on some of the business issues Airbnb needs to consider as it crafts a strategy.
Sometimes a relatively small deal uncovers a broader market opportunity. For example, the actions of executives at a small company in Uppsala, Sweden, may echo the thinking inside a giant company in Silicon Valley because both face similar issues, though at different scales.
On Thursday Sweden's online travel agency group Etraveli said it had fully acquired TripStack, a Toronto-based airline distribution tech company.
In a roundabout way, the acquisition highlights similar issues to ones that must be on mind of executives at Airbnb, the short-term rental company that has been exploring a flights product of some kind.
When Airbnb begins selling flights, it will likely need to source its airfares from more than one type of travel distribution company because of industry quirks. It may also choose to mix-and-match flights across multiple carriers that don't have formal agreements with each other to get more coverage and lower prices than giants like Expedia and Ctrip currently offer.
Coincidentally the Etraveli deal clarifies some of the questions Airbnb and other players, such as possibly Amazon, face.
A Midsummer Deal
Etraveli and TripStack didn't disclose the terms of their transaction.
Etraveli Group is owned by private equity firm CVC, which bought it in 2017 for more than $550 million (€500 million) from Germany's ProSiebenSat 1 Media.
The TripStack acquisition included the acquisition of parent company Flight Network, a Canadian online travel agency, which had invested at least $4.5 million ($6 million Canadian) in TripStack's commercial launch a year ago.
The industry has known Etraveli best as an online travel agency group up until now.
As of 2014, it was dramatically smaller than Edreams
