Booking Holdings

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.

Every travel brand engaged in mobile -- and that should be all of them -- should read about Booking.com's big-picture vision for mobile. Hipmunk and Expedia are also going down this road, albeit to a lesser degree.

There are too few travelers with Google Glass to make a hotel booking app useful -- outside of the PR buzz -- at this point.

Amadeus provides the technology, which keeps the travel sector moving - from initial search to making a booking, from pricing to ticketing, from managing reservations to managing check-in and departure processes. It is this strong commitment that we believe will enable us to continue working with our customers and partners to shape the future of travel.