Expedia News

With the competition heating up among short-term rental platforms, price parity issues may increasingly come into play, as they once did in the hotel industry. But with short-term rentals, given the ever-shifting guest fee rates, the pricing rules will be difficult to enforce.

It's never any fun when companies are reluctant to speak ill of competitors. But, when it comes to wooing hosts, little Vrbo believes it needs to explicitly tell hosts what it can do that giant Airbnb can't. The pitch may be useful in attracting a segment of hosts.

The increased importance of YouTube doesn't bode well for travel advertisers seeking to reduce their reliance on sister brand Google. Pay Google for search ads or spend money on YouTube — it all ends up in the same place.

Direct-booking advocates in the short-term rental space will face tough going long term because they have to deal with plenty of juggernauts. When the travel recovery gets under way in full, it will be Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia spending billions of dollars to win over fickle, bargain-hungry travelers.

Airbnb is trying to win on brand with a reduced reliance on Google while the smaller Vrbo embraced YouTube big-time, and will spend, spend, spend to advantage.

In Skift's top travel stories this week, we covered Marriott's superapp strategy in China and Southeast Asia, Expedia's loyalty push, three timely tourism campaigns, and the United CEO's thinking about a travel recovery inflection point.

The online travel industry focuses on every move or utterance from Airbnb and its CEO Brian Chesky. Not that Booking Holdings is an after-thought these days, but before Airbnb there was Priceline, Booking.com, and the Group's boss, Jeffery Boyd. Building blocks, certainly.

Expedia wants to help people find a new travel companion — namely Expedia. We've heard online travel agencies and others vow to become to become less price-oriented before, but fickle deal hunters will make that a tough pledge to fulfill.

Major travel companies like Hilton Grand Vacations are pumping millions, if not billions, of dollars into the idea travelers favor the familiarity of a brand. If it pays off, the vacuum of boutique offerings will be the next travel investment opportunity.

Airbnb officials fell in love with the perceived artistry of their TV commercials, which don't have a targeted message. That could produce aftershocks later this year if rivals take advantage.