Articles tagged “wholesalers”

Hoteliers probably disliked Amoma.com more than any other online travel agency in the past few years. Amoma often undercut hoteliers on price. Now its reported troubles may have repercussions across the hotel and online travel industry for companies like Hotelbeds, Google, and Booking.com.

Webjet has really transformed its business over the past few years through a couple of sizable acquisitions. The Australian consumer market is proving pretty tough, so pursuing a strategy of global expansion in the wholesale arena makes sense.

A recent Today Show segment touting Costco Travel is riling ASTA, as are Four Seasons ads on Facebook promising perks for direct bookings. Travel advisors are irked as well, but are finding ways to hold their own.

Consumers often wonder where they can find the lowest rate for a hotel room online. Oddly enough, a hotel's managers may not know the answer. Mysteriously discounted rates from small sites and apps are popping up more often online, even in markets like the U.S. where a few hotel groups dominate.

Since 2016, the quiet wholesaler marketplaces for hotel supply have become noisy as private equity firms invested $2.9 billion to make Hotelbeds Group a market leader. Expect more consolidation.

The wholesale travel sector is under pressure from shifts in how hotel companies distribute their rooms. Tourico's new tech for agencies and airlines may help boost sales and margins in the face of these trends.

Hotelbeds appears determined to buy up the competition in order to retain its dominant position. What is unclear though is what happens to Kuoni Group once the transaction completes as GTA represents almost two-thirds of its turnover. Will it continue on as a smaller company or continue to be broken up?

Apple Leisure Group is competing with cruise lines to attract the business of American travelers to Mexico and the Caribbean. Like cruise lines trying to win over first-time cruisers, Apple Leisure Group is attempting to get Americans who have never had a passport before to get off the couch and experience their first foreign vacations.