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.

Hotels

The Trouble With Managing Managed Vacation Rental Listings

The Vacation Rental Management Association doesn't have the digital savvy or clout to forge a new set of business relationships between professional managers on the one hand, and online travel agencies and vacation rental sites such as HomeAway, on the other. Too little, and way too late.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Cruises

Why Travel Agents and Telephones Still Rule Cruise Booking

If you thought social travel and trip-planning were hard, just consider online cruise booking, where travel agents and the phone are still the predominant tools.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Ground Transport

Ride-Sharing Firm Lyft Enters Sacramento and Uber Responds

The taxi industry is going to have to get used to it. There is more competition now in the form of Lyft, Uber, and services such as Zipcar. Although individual startups may come and go, the ride-sharing concept is here to stay.

Tony Bizjak | 13 years ago

Hotels

7 Things Priceline’s Jeffery Boyd Changed About the Business of Travel

Priceline's Jeffery Boyd is going out -- from the CEO post, at least -- at the top, and the guy with a banker's demeanor will come to be viewed as a rock star of online and mobile travel. We don't know about groupies, but there certainly are a ton of imitators.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Online Travel

Priceline Overtakes Expedia in Gross Bookings for the First Time

The changing of the guard is now official -- in more ways than one.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Airlines

Spirit Airlines CEO Thinks There’s Plenty of Room in Ultra Low Cost Carrier Club

Spirit's Ben Baldanza appears to be a kinder, gentler Michael O'Leary. Baldanza takes inspiration from Ryanair's market share as Spirit is slated to add about 90 additional planes by 2021 to help take a much bigger piece of the pie.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Hotels

HomeAway Must Determine How to Prevent War Between its Customers

This will be an interesting dance for HomeAway, which clearly wants to cater more to the major players, meaning professionally managed properties.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Hotels

HomeAway Takes a Controlling Stake in its 21st Vacation Rental Company

HomeAway's history is rollups in the vacation rental space, from around the globe. It has this down.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Airlines

FAA Issues New Pilot Training Rule to Fix Colgan Air Deficiencies

The FAA has been fairly rigorous in taking remedial steps to respond to the Colgan Air crash even if sometimes the bureaucracy moves very slowly.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Business Travel

Customers Prefer National Car Rental in J.D. Power Survey

An expedited car rental pickup process may be more important to business travelers than the latest in-car GPS or other technology amenity.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago