Articles tagged “online travel agencies”

Scores of Americans already use Rakuten.com for cashback without knowing it belongs to one of Japan's largest tech companies. Rakuten Travel wants to turn those shoppers into hotel guests.

Telling the middle class to swap Bali for Kashmir sounds noble. But when a Dehradun flight costs as much as a Colombo holiday, patriotism alone won't fix the math.

The AI strategy divergence among OTAs is no longer theoretical, with the approaches being which layer of the AI stack each one believes is worth owning.

The moment an AI agent handles the complexity of travel, the intermediation layer will have to answer why it exists — or at least why it commands the margin it does.

Most Indian online travel companies grew around flights. Ixigo grew around trains and buses, segments with thinner margins but massive volume. Europe, unlike many regions, still has a strong rail ecosystem. That makes it one of the few international markets where Ixigo’s core skills are directly relevant.

Two startups from two different worlds are quietly rewriting the rules of who controls the travel transaction, with fascinating implications.

Destinia relied on patience, timing and gumption to become a pan-European operator.

Indian OTAs are moving beyond pure search-and-book engines as they monetize peace of mind. The ones that stand to gain are those that explain risk clearly and give users the choice to offload uncertainty, at least until AI models can reliably handle rare, disruption-driven shocks.

OTAs are posting record revenues, and the top four still dominate. But they face a major shift if AI platforms bypass them altogether.

Better rates and more visibility are clear advantages for independent hotels. But the presentation still needs some work.