Dennis Schaal

Expedia inherited some minority investments in travel startups from HomeAway and Trivago, and made a few of its own in 2015. Look for Expedia to spread its money around in 2016, making additional minority investments, as well as a big acquisition or two.

TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer gets mystical about the company following "our North Star, navigating our path toward creating the best user experience in travel." Investors could care less about TripAdvisor journey toward the North Star as long as it means great returns on their investments, which ultimately is Kaufer's goal, as well.

Expedia checked off several items atop its acquisition shopping list in 2015 but it isn't done yet. As its CEO says, "We will continue to shoot bullets and see what's out there in the world."

Don't expect JetBlue Technology Ventures to start throwing big bucks into travel startups. Instead, the airline is looking for some brand benefit from getting involved in the startup scene and to get access to some new technologies along the way.

Expedia is upsetting the proverbial apple cart in introducing hotels bidding against one another for prime placement in Expedia's search results. It's a bold move that could have a far-reaching impact across the online travel agency and hotel industries.

Google is already the dominant player in travel advertising but now, after four years of acquisitions and product development, the search giant is finally integrating its flight and hotel products and becoming the booking power some feared.

The Spirit CEO's vision is for low fares on cramped planes that are clean and run on time. These sort of changes are heavy-lifting for a growing airline and would muffle some complaints but might not be enough to really change the airline's reputation.

Concur's travel and expense offerings are a high-profile element of SAP's portfolio rather than blending into oblivion. SAP has not shut down Concur's Perfect Trip Fund and continues to invest in travel startups.

As TripAdvisor Instant Booking kicks into gear it appears as though it is breaking new ground and becoming a hotel-friendly channel -- for chains that sign up, that is. Chains such as Hilton Worldwide and InterContinental Hotels Group, which have not hopped on the bandwagon, can probably afford to sit on the sidelines for awhile to gauge how the whole thing shakes out.

Last year we said that ever ything is a booking site and this year it went beyond our expectations. The one-time gatekeep-ers mare now the booking outlets, too.