Articles tagged “metasearch”

Despite recent gains, Google Flights is still the price-comparison tool of tomorrow, and not today -- unless its scale makes the instant booking of flights a standard way of doing things.

It seems like everyone in hospitality (and travel in general) is looking at the tours and activities space these days.

Expedia poured money into Trivago marketing at a loss. Current Priceline Group CEO Glenn Fogel just spent $550 million on helping Kayak grow. Does this mean he’s going to open the bankroll even further to assist Kayak-Momondo in its expansion?

We have the technology, as they used to say on TV's "The Six Million Dollar Man." We have the capability to make booking flights on mobile better than it was before. Better... stronger... faster. But short-sighted airline business strategies seem to be holding back the hot price-comparison companies of the hour -- Momondo, Kayak, and Skyscanner -- from offering direct, or instant, bookings of flights.

Google is aggressively placing itself more prominently than ever between the consumer and the airline in the quest for bookings. What does it mean? Airlines are getting more qualified leads but are losing control and getting even more beholden to Google.

Operators of online travel websites, if they know what they are doing, never finish testing and learning, and always consider their products works in progress. TripAdvisor officials are obviously in no hurry to settle Instant Booking into a consistent user interface that won't confuse the hell out of consumers because they want to perfect it first. Public company or not, they are in no rush despite investor impatience.

A prudent strategy for Airbnb might be to initially partner with an online travel agency in an affiliate relationship so it can access flights for its customers. In that way, Airbnb could test whether its users want to book flights on the site without taking the big risks involved in making a large acquisition, which could always come later.

While the world is transitioning to mobile, there are still issues to work on when it comes to monetizing mobile search.

When you think of all the online travel companies constrained by a lack of marketing resources wipe Trivago out of your mind. The Germany-based hotel metasearch site spends a whopping 88 percent of its revenue on advertising. And, if it can pull off a successful initial public offering then Trivago will resupply its advertising war chest. The metasearch rich are getting richer.

As CEO Gareth Williams says, the Ctrip deal means that nothing and everything changes for Skyscanner. The focus of the business and the growth plans will remain in place but getting a wealthy new owner from the world's fastest-growing travel market will bring a multitude of new opportunities.