Articles tagged “metasearch”

It isn't very unusual for a company like Hipmunk to get acquired and then to fade into oblivion in the clutches of a much larger corporation. That's the way it goes in the heartless mergers-and-acquisitions game.

Booking sites' guests reviews on Google have been a highly charged issue for years. The latest is that Airbnb and TripAdvisor are willingly giving Google their guest reviews of vacation rentals, but they are busy figuring out how not to give away the store in the process.

The so-called relevancy assessment, which had Trivago punishing big advertisers for landing pages that didn't perform well, and other factors, proved to be a multiyear disaster for the metasearch company. The company has ditched the policy — and now its CEO.

Touring Bird gained no traction in the real world outside Area 120, and for all the inroads metasearch has made in hotels, flights, and cars, it has really struggled in emerging categories where the products aren't cookie-cutter such as in vacation rentals, and tours and activities. After all, when experiences are unique or varied, comparing them is hard.

In an I-just-saw-an-elephant-fly moment, Marriott International will be directing businesses to Expedia Group to access certain Marriott wholesale rates. Bedbanks, tour operators, and smaller online travel agencies that play games with room rates are put on notice.

Many hotel groups are directing more of their ad budgets toward price-comparison search sites. That's a boon for vendors providing connectivity and automation services. But it's also a welcome, if still modest, injection for metasearch players like Trivago that have recently been struggling.

Trivago is trying to make peace with its largest advertisers, especially the biggest, Booking Holdings. These peace overtures seem to be working for now, but metasearch and advertising can be very fickle things.

An exclusive first look at Ixigo's fiscal year financials reveals that the travel price-comparison startup is growing rapidly. Its story suggests how business models that originated in Western markets sometimes need to adapt to local needs to succeed in emerging markets.

Google has taken a huge next step, putting all the pieces together, by including flights, hotels, packages, and trip-planning tools on a dedicated website and in Google Search and Google Maps. Google's foothold in travel just got even larger.

Google is eating the world. When metasearch sites such as Trivago see a strategic benefit in increasing their advertising in Google metasearch, it's not only enough to make your head spin, but it's ominous from a competitive standpoint, as well.