Articles tagged “search”

Listen now to a conversation with Google Travel Managing Director Richard Holden at Skift Global Forum in September 2021 in New York City.

It's a nice step for Google to provide more information about hotels' sustainability practices in search results. But will the company have the guts to get "political," in the eyes of some, and push hotel listings higher or lower based on environmental practices?

Who said investors no longer want to bet on consumer-facing travel startups that compete with Google? HomeToGo is in talks to go public via a blank-check company owned by Lakestar. It'll be an approximately $1.2 billion deal, sources tell Skift.

Savvy consumers used to searching for hotel stays and seeing how rates change based on alternative dates may be disappointed in this Airbnb feature. That's because it doesn't do precisely that for a specific property. Still, the tweak is a nice twist in short-term rental trip planning.

Behind the scenes, there may be abundant reasons that Booking Holdings and Airbnb, for that matter, won't be dabbling in Google's vacation rentals business for the time being. Perhaps they are seeking to boost direct traffic or are unhappy with the economics and user experience. Expedia may be positioned to take some advantage.

Along with marketers’ heavy investment in digital, the quality of digital advertising continues to improve with more advanced targeting and measurement capabilities. Optimized marketing success requires the right media mix and the right types of technology.

Google clearly places its own travel businesses front and center in its search results to the detriment of competitors. Google argues that this benefits consumers. If you buy that argument, then you also probably believe that Google always knows best.

What would make Expedia obsolete and cause Khosrowshahi to leave? Expedia's apparently outgoing CEO answered that question for us last year and talked about big technology trends a few years in the offing. But is he bolting because he thinks Expedia's best days are behind it?

Rectifying the difficulties in shopping for hotels online is a tremendously complex problem given travelers' fickle nature -- a business trip today, a romantic escapade tomorrow -- and varying quality levels from property to property even within a given brand. Trivago at least recognizes what one of the main problems is in matching a traveler's hotel preferences with the right hotel and hopes to address it with a heftier bank account after conducting its IPO.

Despite Terry Jones entering the travel inspiration space with lots of smart-computing power, plenty of dollars and few illusions, success could be daunting. Is the technology remarkably better than those of competitors, and will the solutions be a priority for often-overwhelmed tourism boards and hotels?