Dennis Schaal

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.

Hotels

Hilton Sees Filling Rooms on Weekends as New Trend

For chains such as Hilton Worldwide, which attract their share of business travelers, figuring out a way to fill rooms on the weekends is a constant challenge. Hilton is making progress, though, and perhaps the trend of road warriors tacking on leisure trips could be a contributing factor.
Dennis Schaal |
Online Travel

Interview: Kayak CEO on Downplaying TV Ads and Direct Bookings

Kayak started the direct-booking trend among travel metasearch sites, but now CEO Steve Hafner says improvements have been made on partner sites so direct booking is no longer a priority and can hurt, rather than help, turning lookers into bookers. Have the conditions really changed or is this Priceline Group-speak?
Dennis Schaal |
Online Travel

TripAdvisor Launches Personalized Hotel Recommendations

That whole Big Data thing is kicking in as TripAdvisor, which pegs itself as the largest online travel site in the world, has plenty of data as its disposal to use for personalized hotel recommendations. In a few years, this should be the norm across most of the travel industry.
Dennis Schaal |
Online Travel

Hipmunk Displaces Orbitz as Yahoo Travel Provider

Yahoo Travel opted to reach a deal with a search site, Hipmunk, which means in some cases users will have to navigate to Hipmunk and then navigate again to an online travel agency, airline or hotel site to complete their bookings. A little clunky, although Hipmunk also provides direct bookings on Hipmunk.com in some instances.
Dennis Schaal |