Expedia News

In Skift's top travel stories this week, we looked at changes in Air France-KLM's pricing strategies, Vrbo's attempt to woo disgruntled Airbnb hosts, Nashville's tourism strategy, and the Delta's reversal and the state of Georgia's new voter suppression law.

The impact of Airbnb's new ad campaign seems to be underwhelming to date. But if the idea is to broaden awareness about hosting, Airbnb may be willing to play the long game.

Midway through 2020, Expedia Group and its Vrbo short-term rental unit took the high road by not wanting to appear to be taking advantage of host anger at Airbnb's early-pandemic refund policies. But when your new host recruitment plan targets "superhosts," it's clear those calculations are long gone.

China's Trip.com Group is entering the content and advertising spheres to address longstanding weaknesses in its transaction business. It joins a plethora of travel businesses that are remaking themselves, whether they are launching financial services or subscription offerings, during the pandemic.

Airbnb will spend tens of millions of dollars, if not more, on its global advertising and referral campaigns to recruit more hosts, and that's probably a smart move. On the face of it, though, this proves that the company's host sign-up efforts are hardly organic, as one analyst alleged.

At a time when a travel operator like Expedia Group is shedding brands to become more focused, private equity firm Certares is investing in a broad array of travel assets. Divergent strategies for two very different companies. Certares' goal is likely to wrangle synergies while making a ton of money.

New data from AirDNA show that corporate hosts wield huge power on Airbnb's platform despite the fact that individual hosts make up more than 90 percent of hosting's ranks. Airbnb is empowering the growth of these property managers, but the result could be disenchanted hosts and guests.

Will Airbnb continue on its magic carpet ride after it reports its first earnings as a public company? Does the Airbnb brand beat Booking Holdings' real-world businesses, including hotels, flights and metasearch? Or has the market already decided that question?

Hoteliers sent about $50 billion of rooms a year through wholesalers in normal times. Expedia Group and WebBeds want to take larger shares of that market. But private equity-backed companies like Hotelbeds and Fastpayhotels see an opportunity, too.

Profit, revenue and trends became less relevant during the pandemic so many travel businesses with deeper pockets used the standstill to rethink their strategies. Plenty of the new efforts will fail, but on the other side of the crisis, some of these businesses will look significantly different.