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

Is Blackstone's Extended Stay America IPO a Trial Run for Hilton?

Extended Stay America and Hilton are two totally different kinds of hotel companies, but Extended Stay America's IPO is likely to impact the timing and shape of a potential Hilton IPO. The most interesting thing is that if everything falls into place, it looks like Hilton's long-awaited IPO will finally be on tap for 2014.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Media and PR

Travel Agents Get Angry About the Internet 15 Years Too Late

Hell hath no fury like a travel agent scorned, but get real: Your market is a shrinking one. You can't put online travel and the mobile revolution back into the bottle. This battle was already fought and lost a decade ago.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Business Travel

How Americans Traveled Domestically Last Quarter: Mostly Alone

Even when road warriors travel to meetings or events with colleagues they usually book their travel alone. This speaks in part to the inadequacy of group-booking options, and untapped opportunities for startups.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Airlines

Child-Free Zones On Airplanes? U.S. Airlines Reject the Idea

With U.S. airlines selling aisle, window and exit row seats for an extra fee throughout the aircraft, child-free zones could be a logistical nightmare even if it were a good idea.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Airlines

10 Most Wi-Fi-Connected U.S. Airports and 10 Least-Connected

With just 6.2% of travelers on Gogo-equipped flights using Wi-Fi you can see that the industry is headed toward free Wi-Fi on flights, assuming the systems can handle the bandwidth.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Hotels

Deal Publisher Travelzoo In Profit Plunge as It Tries to Diversify

Will Travelzoo's entry into hotel booking be too little, too late? The deal publisher has a huge subscriber base to market to once the hotel-booking engine is in place, but competition is intense.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Business Travel

American Express earnings impacted by slump in global business travel

Leisure travel, particularly in the U.S., is leading the way within American Express' travel businesses, although it is a lot smaller than its global business travel unit, which is under pressure.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Hotels

Priceline updates iPad app with emphasis on hotel deals tonight

Priceline's iPad app reduces potential confusion about its panalopy of hotel services. Just tap on a services, such as Express Deals or Name Your Own Price, and you're in.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Hotels

HomeAway Gets Closer to Airbnb-Style Rentals With Control of Asia-Pacific Site

It looks like that supposed great divide between vacation rentals and Airbnb-style apartment rentals and shares isn't so immense. Or at least HomeAway will find out if it is cut out for the sharing economy.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Media and PR

Brand USA's Funding Under Threat After 2015, and Congress May Not Help

You can debate whether Brand USA's strategy is the best way of promoting international visitations to the U.S. But, if the country is going to have a quasi-governmental tourism-marketing organization, it is tough for Brand USA to get on solid footing if it has to constantly look over its shoulder to figure out if it will get renewed funding life.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago