Articles tagged “priceline”

Priceline showed up with a new brand and better partner access last week, which should please those who use the Points International network.

New functionality added by Points International grants users of that network access to the Priceline library of hotels. That's great for frequent flyers — especially those with miles to burn.

Who remembers Star Trek anyway? It's likely that just as many people or more know actor William Shatner through his Priceline advertising gig. Are big-name celebrities better in commercials than owls, gnomes, and belt-less soap opera stars? We're not sure of his return on investment, but at this point he can almost name his own price.

If you follow the money, you'll see that Booking.com, for good reason, is the parent company's favored brand even in the United States. Priceline, though, does have brand recognition and will try to make the most of it given the hand that it has been dealt.

Evolve or be crushed. That's CEO Glenn Fogel's philosophy about business in general and Booking Holdings in particular. But the move toward becoming more of a full-service online travel agency comes with the risk of losing focus on accommodations. No one ever said all this online travel agency stuff is easy.

Booking Holdings is still making considerable money from Priceline.com's bidding service for hotels. But the service has outlived its usefulness, and will likely fold within a year or two. Take a look at how Priceline.com markets other ways to book hotels on its site. Enough said.

Hotels.com, Egencia, Trivago, and HomeAway, among others, are all Expedia companies. The parent company wants Wall Street to understand that it is more than just the Expedia brand. The Priceline Group had long been associated with Priceline.com even though Booking.com is the company's largest brand. So there seemed to be more of a reason for Priceline's name switch than for Expedia's.

Executives at Booking Holdings, formerly the Priceline Group, feel aggrieved that the company isn't getting the credit it deserves in alternative accommodations. In a lot of ways, its battle with Airbnb is over business models. As Airbnb ramps up hotels, we'll have to see who blinks.

The name change to Booking Holdings reflects the reality that Booking.com dominates the parent company's business. Although the parent company still calls Connecticut home, the balance of power shifted long ago to Amsterdam.

As we've noted before, as much as hotels and online travel agencies may not necessarily love one another, they certainly need each other. Their current love-hate relationship will certainly change, however, if and when other players like Airbnb or Google become bigger players in the hotel booking space.