Articles tagged “metasearch”

Google’s revamped Hotel Ads — which amounts to a streamlined metasearch feature right within Google search results, obviating the need to navigate to Google Hotel Finder – will likely turn out to be one of the most important developments in the metasearch field in 2014-2015.

Booking.com and now TripAdvisor are getting deeper into the B2B side of the hotel business. That leaves Expedia as the holdout that so far is maintaining its focus on hotel distribution and is sticking to its proverbial knitting.

A smart look at the factors, including the rush toward direct bookings, that are shaping the entire metasearch sector in 2015.

There is no question that Kayak management would kill to be the beneficiary of the kind of marketing/advertising commitment that Expedia is making to Trivago. It is really tough to compete with one hand tied behind your back.

It's has to be a comeuppance for Expedia to see its offspring, TripAdvisor, turn into such a formidable frenemy. On the other hand, Expedia shareholders made plenty of money off the TripAdvisor spinoff and are laughing all the way to the bank.

Dohop is carefully picking its spots: Going all in on the B2B side of the business, targeting the Middle East, and working with low cost carriers on in-app flight bookings. All of that focus and contrarian thinking could work in its favor, although competing against much larger competitors could be as difficult as scaling an Icelandic glacier.

Expedia Inc. is following the TripAdvisor playbook on Trivago, which could go the spinoff/IPO route one day. The Priceline Group, meanwhile, is focusing on Booking.com and new-prize OpenTable as priorities while being measured about Kayak's international expansion.

Even large online travel agencies like Expedia need marketing partners, and that is where the metasearch sites come in. In Expedia's view, its own subsidiary Trivago is helping Expedia compensate for the traffic it is losing, and will continue to lose, from TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor is injecting a healty dose of competition into hotel metasearch, and is finding a way to give hotels more power in a way that competitors aren't doing. Funny how things change: TripAdvisor, hotels' best friend.

Will the immediacy of Orbitz Worldwide's loyalty program redemption be a difference-maker in helping to build its global hotel business? CEO Barney Harford is counting on it.