Booking Holdings

Hotel site Getaroom.com tried to drive consumers from its Web site to a call centers for up-selling, but the much larger CheapOair is intent on doing both -- perfecting online booking and giving travelers that option, but also prodding them to phone agents in its company-owned call centers.

Steve Singh is one of the most-forward-looking CEOs in the travel industry, and Concur's $150 million Perfect Trip Fund is actively investing in that vision.

The Priceline Group is moving much closer to Ctrip with a minority stake and CEO Darren Huston points to a series of additional moves in China in the next few years. Ctrip, though, hasn't always played well with other partners so it remains to be seen whether familial relations between these new second cousins will be long-standing.

Having hard proof that Rocketrip's product influences employee behavior will be a major selling point for the startup and inform its incentive system.

Who asked who out? OpenTable kicked off the sale process and approached the Priceline Group about an acquisition via email in mid-April in a process that ultimately involved six other companies. The usual suspects likely expressed interest, and Priceline's initial non-binding bid was first and substantially higher than that of the other bidder.

Bridging the gap between B2B and B2C is important for startups who want to build a brand while attracting enough customers to make money and build a viable business.

Cost and schedule are the two factors that most poignantly impact an individual's ability to travel and the U.S. Travel Association's efforts to improve infrastructure will likely have too little an impact to be noticeable among everyday flyers concerned with their own travel limitations.

The Priceline Group's culture is fairly buttoned up so the company wouldn't think about doing Airbnb-style apartment rentals at this juncture, but if the legal hassles eventually get sorted out, then Priceline would take a hard look.

The acquisition appears to highlight an effort by the Priceline Group to deepen its involvement with its hotel partners by providing digital marketing services above and beyond selling their rooms online.

Mobile bookings are on the rise worldwide and increased adoption in Asia is more likely due to the kind of devices that people own than their booking preferences.