Dennis Schaal

Travel-booking CEOs say the darnedest things: the Priceline Group's Darren Huston basically said he didn't waste $4 billion on acquiring HomeAway, like he thinks Expedia did, and Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi let the word out that his company had been shut out of TripAdvisor Instant Booking. One can only wonder what they are saying to one another when they huddle in private.

If the integration goes as Expedia and HomeAway envision then this merger can turn out to be transformational for both companies. If that becomes the reality, then the Expedia acquisition of Orbitz may end up being viewed in coming years as a mere footnote in Expedia's timeline when compared with the HomeAway buy.

It is very attractive for Booking.com to abstain from charging travelers a booking fee on vacation rentals. But the lack thereof means Booking.com's commissions may not be competitive and shareholders will likely demand that Booking.com maximize the revenue opportunity and impose the booking fee.

Paul English of Lola Travel wants to address some of the shortcomings, including the lack of human intervention in trip-planning, that were never addressed during his tenure at digital-only Kayak. Perhaps Kayak's new text-based travel service will fill some gaps -- if they really exist, that is -- as well.

The German regulator's ruling to reject Booking.com's reformed hotel rate practices as not going far enough could be a landmark decision if it holds up upon appeal and if other European countries follow Germany's lead. Booking.com may have the leverage to inhibit hotel partners from getting carried away on discounting but the ruling is a victory for consumers nonetheless.

As with many mergers, the jury is out on how Student Universe will fare within the Flight Centre umbrella. Will Student Universe, which was looking for a spark, now truly be able to grow with expanded resources or will broader corporate priorities overtake it?

OYO Rooms founder believes that the future of travel is brands becoming their own distributors, which is, of course, every brand's dream. It may turn out to be true for super brands in isolated cases but it would be a very fragmented and unsatisfying user experience. There is a lot of convergence going on but the mammoth online travel agency sector isn't checking out anytime soon.

The huge increase in visitors to National Parks the last few years should have Department of Interior leaders thinking about the next generation of accommodations in addition to keeping the legacy properties up to snuff.

Thomas Cook is facing increased competition in the Caribbean and a partnership with Lufthansa could help the tour operator to control its costs.

The bottom line is that new CEO Cramer Ball will have to get Alitalia into profit mode to please leading shareholder Etihad and it all seems like a doable thing.