Articles tagged “metasearch”

Expedia is upsetting the proverbial apple cart in introducing hotels bidding against one another for prime placement in Expedia's search results. It's a bold move that could have a far-reaching impact across the online travel agency and hotel industries.

Paul English of Lola Travel wants to address some of the shortcomings, including the lack of human intervention in trip-planning, that were never addressed during his tenure at digital-only Kayak. Perhaps Kayak's new text-based travel service will fill some gaps -- if they really exist, that is -- as well.

No one, including the Expedia CEO, knows where some of these converging booking and price-comparison trends will end up. The winners will be people and companies flexible enough to reinvent their businesses every few years.

Oh, it's downright trendy. Trivago's new tilt toward building direct ties to hotels takes place as TripAdvisor is signing up chain after chain for its book-on TripAdvisor Instant Booking product, Google has debuted a similar initiative, Booking.com has created its BookingSuite hotel division, and Expedia has debuted a mobile app for hotels to manage rates and access analytics.

Does this new affiliate relationship between Skyscanner and Hipmunk portend a more strategic partnership in the future? Neither company is pointing to such a scenario for now.

Which ads get credit, and how much, toward the last click? Damn, it's complicated. Some travel companies are just now transitioning from analysis to action.

Travel metasearch continued its growth spurt in 2014, and 2015 is shaping up as a year of disruption. And some of this disruption is coming from the travel suppliers themselves.

As hotels seek to increase their direct bookings, the time has come to rethink the way to approach metasearch.

While the blurring of the lines between metasearch sites and online travel agencies is taking place, there are legions of critics and boycotters, including some major online travel agencies, airlines and hotel groups.

In the end, the way things are going, airlines will become hotels, and hotels will become airlines. Taxis will become Ubers, and Ubers will become taxis. Convergence, baby.