Articles tagged “online travel agencies”

Event planners are putting their money on the line when signing a room block contract, and often the gamble is just not worth it. If Stayker catches on, the group booking rate may start to pick up again.

It’s finally happened. AirAsia.com is selling other airlines on its website and app. Powered by Kiwi.com, it's a start. Getting direct contracts with airlines is next. Should online travel agencies continue to doubt AirAsia's foray into their turf? “Believe the unbelievable,” CEO Tony Fernandes said.

IHG represents a broader industry trend in that it's getting tougher with online travel agencies and wholesalers in the West while becoming more experimental with online travel sellers in Asia, where it needs help to grow its sales. Its use of new technologies to try to keep its strategy coordinated and to boost revenue are eye-catching.

The road back to a flywheel of growth would be a lengthy one for Booking Holdings. Google has a ton of data, too, as do other competitors. Can Booking Holdings create a product that is really deeper and differentiated from its rivals? That's CEO Glenn Fogel's bet.

The decline in group bookings is already being felt by some hotels, something that may stretch throughout next year.

Understandably, CEO Clare Gilmartin didn't want to play up moves into other travel areas too much at such an early stage, but we'll be keeping a close eye on how the company evolves over the next few years as it looks to diversify away from rail tickets and make more money in other areas.

MakeMyTrip definitely faces some near-term challenges, but it doesn't consider a recently announced regulatory probe in India to be one of them.

Airbnb may never become a clone of its online travel agency competitors, but it will eventually go more mainstream to attract a wider range of travelers and locals, as the Tiqets investment suggests.

There are floors full of marketing folks and techies at Expedia, Booking.com, United, and American Airlines who are measuring whether consumers click faster on the yellow button or the red banner. Can airline websites afford to be cheerleader, confidante, and payment processor simultaneously? Very doubtful.

Oyo has a hype machine to rival any brand. But beneath all of the disruption, some hotel owners complain its technology is unstable and lacks functionality, leaving them to clean up the mess. Growth for growth's sake may seem great for a unicorn-like valuation, but the hotel chain will need to grapple with flaws in its business model that can't keep pace.