As a sage songwriter once said, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." Trivago CFO Axel Hefer knows that, and he said current headwinds are obviously harder to manage than tailwinds. But if Trivago can work its way out of the mess it's in, it may emerge as a stronger company.
Tripping, a leader among vacation rental price-comparison startups, is facing fierce competition from rivals like HomeToGo, Holidu, and Hundredrooms thanks to a flurry of fundings in the past year.
Room Key is a bit like the train in the children's story, "The Little Engine That Could," which kept saying "I think I can, I think I can." While Room Key may never become the next Kayak, it may help hotel chains gain more direct bookings.
This relatively small deal tells a larger story about the structural reasons why hotels have been behind the curve in digital marketing relative to retail and other sectors.
Google wants consumers to buy more travel on it. That may prompt industry players to closely patrol the gray line between the search giant referring more customers to them and Google becoming customers' first choice for booking trips.
What do a debate over landing pages, the acquisition of Momondo, a shift into hotel software services, and regulators forcing changes in online travel agency contracts have in common? Each of those seemingly unrelated things may have pushed Priceline to toggle back its spending on Trivago.
Google made its claim to fame partly on the simplicity of its user interface. Its new interface for flight search is a return to its elegant design roots.
Two deals in the space of a week show how serious Skyscanner is about improving the content it offers to customers. The days of it being a pure price-comparison site are definitely over.
Lastminute.com Group’s traditional business of flight sales isn’t as profitable as it once was so growing metasearch makes sense. And while this deal isn’t a gamechanger it does represent an expansion into accommodation.