Online Travel News

Marriott might have made a great investment had it bought a chunk of Airbnb in 2015. Ultimately, Marriott opted to build its own with Homes & Villas.

Good morning from Skift. It's Wednesday, June 8, in New York City. Here's what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Travel brands have a unique opportunity to realize greater potential from their loyalty programs. Through creative merchandising that allows travelers to earn points and miles in different ways, they can grow ancillary revenue, build more meaningful customer relationships, and increase lifetime value.

Not too concerned about the Fitch downgrade, Oyo would rather look at the silver lining — a projected 80 percent growth in financial year 2023. The rating revision is in line with more modest expectations for Oyo's IPO.

Hopper's leave-for-any-reason hotel offering would seemingly be attractive to many guests, but can also be a headache for hotels and open to abuse.

In Skift's top stories this week, Chase pushes further into travel as a commerce category, investors view Instagram as a bigger platform for selling travel, and Qatar may be forced to prioritize World Cup fans over other visitors.

Please don't let us be misunderstood, the Big Three online travel CEOs proclaimed in recent interviews. Airbnb has great cash flow, Booking.com's Europe advantage over Expedia is not unmovable, and Booking is improving in the U.S. So there.

Agoda's new CEO appointment highlights the need for online travel agencies to be continually reinventing experiences from a technology point of view. If only the company would now balance it out by bringing in someone who understands the hoteliers’ perspective.

Ever wonder about the daunting challenge that Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern inherited from predecessors Dara Khosrowshahi and Mark Okertstrom when Kern took the chief executive spot under Barry Diller…

Whether it’s via Whimstay or others, the Hotwire-like selling of last-minute inventory for vacation rentals is destined to find a role in this very hot sector.