Released April 2015: Welcome to the Europe installment of Skift’s annual State of Travel report, a series focusing on individual major global industry regions.
This is a good indicator of how millennials could still be retained by the organized hotel sector, though of course catering to the specific needs of this demographic is still important.
In the HomeAway-Airbnb-Booking.com love triangle, it is maverick Airbnb and Booking.com that actually have the most in common in terms of their preference for instantly confirmable bookings. And, like a scorned lover, HomeAway has been ratcheting up its criticisms of Booking.com.
The sharing economy has spread to every sector of the travel industry and every corner of the globe pushing it from a small community of global explorers to a full-fledged industry needing regulation and customer protection like the traditional market it sought to complement.
Everyone loves the concept of the sharing economy, but when it comes close to home, feelings about it are a lot more nuanced. Lots more research needs to be done at the local and neighborhood level on the effects of the sharing economy, positive and negative.
The new relationship shifts some of the responsibility of informing and educating hosts to Airbnb, which can use its platform to ensure they comply. This is a model that will likely be copied in other markets looking to legitimize the short-term rental economy.
It is interesting to see that the Travel Technology Association, which takes the online travel agency side on the hotel tax issue, is siding with members HomeAway and Airbnb on short-term rental legislation.
Despite some differentiation, Only Apartments faces a daunting task of standing out in new markets where some of its competitors are advertising on TV and have so much money to burn. If it can scale up by using channel managers, so can everyone else.
In certain settings and circumstances, and that includes airports and business travel usage, Zipcar is turning out to be an attractive option. Hey, even AARP members are getting on board.