Dennis Schaal Archives

Dennis Schaal is Skift’s Founding Editor and Executive Editor. Dennis has been a reporter focusing on online travel and short-term rentals for more than two decades at Skift, Tnooz, USA Today, and Travel Weekly. He is well-known for tough one-on-one interviews on stage at Skift events, including with the CEOs and top execs of Expedia, Uber, Booking Holdings, Priceline, Kayak, Hopper, and more.

Online Travel

Interview: Hipmunk CEO on Online Travel’s Race to the Middle

In the end, the way things are going, airlines will become hotels, and hotels will become airlines. Taxis will become Ubers, and Ubers will become taxis. Convergence, baby.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago

Online Travel

Priceline CEO Takes a Shot at Expedia’s Growth Strategy

The Priceline Group won't admit it but its management is feeling the heat from Expedia Inc.'s moves. Adding Orbitz Worldwide to Expedia Inc. will only increase Expedia's inorganic growth, which is growth nonetheless.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago

Online Travel

Priceline Group to Acquire Rocketmiles for $20 Million

This Priceline Group's acquisition of Rocketmiles would be a small one, but could be additive to the group's hotel business.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago

Hotels

What Expedia and Priceline Growth Means to an Independent Hotel

Independent hotels and chains will all feel the impact of the consolidation of Orbitz Worldwide into Expedia Inc. Independents didn't have much clout before the acquisition, and the chains will feel the pressure, too.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago

Online Travel

Vacation Rental Distributor BookingPal Attracts $5 Million in Funding

The global distribution world has long offered vacation rentals to travel agents but the investments by Amadeus Ventures and former Sabre CFO Jeff Jackson in BookingPal symbolize new and more serious interest.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago

Online Travel

Interview: How HotelsCombined Builds a Brand Out of an Affiliate Business

Can a metasearch company serve two masters: its affiliate partners and its own brand? HotelsCombined is dancing that dance and will let us all know the answer eventually.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago

Hotels

Interview: HomeAway CEO on Whether His Company Is Next Acquisition Target

HomeAway just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Now there is a big question as to whether it will still be an independent company by the time the 11th anniversary rolls around. The company would be expensive to buy, but the betting here is that someone will acquire it, sooner rather than later.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago

Online Travel

Google’s Quiet Moves to Dominate Hotel Metasearch

Google’s revamped Hotel Ads — which amounts to a streamlined metasearch feature right within Google search results, obviating the need to navigate to Google Hotel Finder – will likely turn out to be one of the most important developments in the metasearch field in 2014-2015.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago

SkiftX

Expedia Will Pay Orbitz $115 Million if Antitrust Complications Scuttle Acquisition

The antitrust prospects of Expedia Inc.'s $1.6 billion acquisition of Orbitz Worldwide hinge on which prism competition authorities choose to view the deal. Expedia would have a 75 percent share of the U.S. online travel agency market but consumers have plenty of other ways to book their trips, too.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago

SkiftX

Expedia Hopes Orbitz Acquisition Will Help It Sell More Flights

Building an online flight business, with all of the inherent complexities, is very difficult work. Expedia Inc. is going to throw some more money at it, and it can make gains while providing an additional differentiator from Booking.com, which offers lodging only.

Dennis Schaal | 11 years ago