Hotel News

Expedia partnered with HomeAway on vacation rentals last week. One day it is going to partner with or acquire a sharing economy company built in the Airbnb mold, depending how the market shakes out. When you are as big as Expedia, you can afford to sit back and see how things shape up.

The presence of established players such as HomeAway and TripAdvisor, plus a market that isn't as addressable as it might appear, will make the vacation rental startup sector the next bubble.

Writing hotel reviews has become a common part of a travel experience. Guests and hotel managers are getting better at filtering through the noise to write and comment on the service and amenities that really matter.

A localized hotel experience is the #1 marketing mantra in the American hospitality industry today, three decades after Bill Kimpton invented the idea.

If Expedia was worried about angering hotels by pushing into vacation rentals, the cat is now officially out of the bag. Another factor behind the Expedia-HomeAway deal is that Booking.com has been making inroads in the U.S. with its 356,000 properties, and Expedia is hungering for more supply.

The hotel operators worry whether going green means sacrificing their service standards at times, and this study show it surely won't hurt. And there are bigger benefits beyond bookings, including energy savings and tax credits from local municipalities, among others.

If iPad users have more fun, staying at more luxurious hotels, that's not hard to believe. Hotels.com's high percentage of mobile, same-day bookers, though, seem off the charts.

It isn't just a "trend," it is about remaining relevant in order to attract the loyalty of the next generation traveler.

TripAdvisor is finding out that transitioning to hotel metasearch is very heavy lifting, and quite a gamble.

Regardless of the growing pains, peer-to-peer services such as Airbnb are on track for dramatic growth. NYC and other cities are going to have to find ways to deal with it.