Sean O'Neill

Sean O’Neill is Skift’s Senior Hospitality Editor. Sean’s forte is reporting, and he’s broken multiple hotel industry scoops. He has also conducted 1:1 interviews on stage with the CEOs of Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Hyatt, and Wyndham.

Online Travel

Priceline Invests $450 Million in Chinese E-Commerce Giant Meituan-Dianping

The deal shows the pragmatism of Priceline Group's new CEO toward China. Glenn Fogel chose to sync up with an additional local player rather than rely just on its existing partnership with Ctrip.

Sean O'Neill | 9 years ago

Online Travel

Trivago Launches a Subsidiary to Sell Hoteliers on Its Business Tools

Trivago, its parent Expedia, and Booking.com all want to provide business services to hotels. It's easy to see the potential value to resource-strapped hotel managers. Still, many hoteliers remain suspicious of these giants.

Sean O'Neill | 9 years ago

Hotels

Airbnb Reverses Strategy in Return to Affiliate Partnerships With Big Players

The homesharing giant is only partnering with websites that attract at least a million visitors a month. Airbnb is calculating that the revenue upside would be worth the brand sacrifice that comes with affiliate marketing.

Sean O'Neill | 9 years ago

Online Travel

Vacasa Raises $103 Million as Venture Capital Commits to the Property Management Sector

Vacasa spent years building a business before venture capital came along for the ride at this level. Its fate now depends on how well it executes the sometimes-cumbersome task of on-boarding new properties at scale, and whether it can avoid hubris.

Sean O'Neill | 9 years ago

Online Travel

14 Apps to Calm Your Travel Mind

Permanxiety is now a sad fact of life. But you may be able to stress less if you lean on a handful of smartphone apps that can help you avoid health risks, security threats, and other potential travel snafus.

Sean O’Neill | 9 years ago

Online Travel

Location-Data Specialist Mapbox Raises $164 Million: Travel Startup Funding This Week

Mapbox’s funding shows that Google will once again face competition for location-based data, which is good for market dynamics.

Sean O'Neill | 9 years ago

Online Travel

Snap’s New Feature for Hotels and Destinations Shows the Promise of Visual Search

The messaging app bets it can leap into becoming a platform for discovering places and hotels. Odds are against the company. But odds are in favor of visual-first search becoming widespread.

Sean O'Neill | 9 years ago

SkiftX

Leading Companies in Tours and Activities Emerge But There Is Still a Vast Sprawl of Competitors Below

There is still a ton of consolidation to come in tours and activities as smaller consumer and tech companies, in particular, will get bought up or fade into the waiting arms of the usual suspects, which will pick up some of the pieces.

Sean O'Neill | 9 years ago

Airlines

Airline Data Powerhouse Needs to Evolve as Fast as Airfares Have

The fare-filing clearinghouse ATPCO needs to adapt to airline distribution's rapid changes. Much depends on whether its new CEO can boost the organization's metabolism.

Sean O'Neill | 9 years ago

air canada amadeus passenger service system Toronto Pearson International Airport

Airlines

Amadeus Wins Air Canada Contract as It Digs In Deeper in North America

With this deal, the Madrid-based technology giant has scored another win in North America, after having finished moving Southwest Airlines to Amadeus' reservations platform earlier this year.

Sean O'Neill | 9 years ago