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Good Saturday evening from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, June 27, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features news of yet another claim being brought against Booking.com over its...more
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, December 13, 2024, is below. Google and its “efforts” to comply with the DMA again garnered most of the industry’s attention. As I...more
Good Sunday morning from Seattle... Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, July 19, 2024, is below. This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including news on the latest fines to be levied on...more
Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, July 12, 2024, is below. Marriott and its launch of a new small and medium sized business travel platform garnered most of the...more
Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending January 13, 2023, is below. This week’s Update features an interesting update on OTAs’ current loyalty programs and future ambitions and the recent (somewhat concerning)...more
It was another slow week in the online travel industry. Following up on our observations from a few weeks ago, we feature a story on banks’ now undeniable interest in travel. We also include a story on payments. This story is...more
This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including updates on Sabre’s attribution sales efforts and the growing importance of Booking.com’s mobile application in the U.S. Enjoy....more
After a few quiet weeks, last week produced a number of stories that caught our attention and made it into our weekly Update, including two interesting stories on customer reviews. Enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a number of stories on the largest online distributors as well as a story on an interesting new player that focuses exclusively on hoteliers’ “beyond bed” ancillaries and experiences. Enjoy....more
With this week’s Update, we welcome Amazon back to the distribution discussion with its recent introduction of Amazon Explore. Enjoy....more
It was a relatively quiet week for the distribution industry. Enjoy. Family Travel Club Launched in the Midst of a Pandemic - (“Online Family Travel Club Launched by Wall Street Journal Alums Unbowed by Pandemic,” Jul 20,...more
This past week, we saw a number of stories (including the one listed below) describing Booking.com’s potentially precarious financial position, which reveals just how broad of an impact this pandemic is having on the travel...more
Our holiday-abbreviated OTA & Travel Distribution Update is below. Happy Holidays....more
Startup Seeks to Turn Traditional Group Booking Upside Down - (“Booking Startup Stayker Makes Room Blocks Less Risky for Planners,” Skift Travel News on Nov 20, 2019) Launched last Thursday, Stayker seeks to disrupt...more
Japanese distributor Rakuten leads off this week’s Update with a story detailing the circumstances leading to the distributor’s recent commitment to abandon all contractual parity requirements. Enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a story on relative newcomer to third party distribution (Southwest Airlines) and includes, yet again, another update on the on-again/off-again saga of Booking.com commissions. Enjoy....more
This week’s travel-shortened OTA & Travel Distribution Update features two stories detailing two recently announced unique partnerships, one between Accor and Air-France-KLM and the other between Expedia and Lufthansa. We...more
This week’s Update features a story on an issue – OTA cancellations – that we’ve been hearing a lot about recently. Enjoy....more
Regulation of Large Online Platforms is Coming to Japan - ("Online platforms may face stricter rules, enforcement in Japan, panel says, MLex, November 5, 2018) Following up on a story (and prediction) included in last...more
This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including a story on an unique approach to loyalty. Enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including an additional story on last week’s announcement by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority regarding its recent commenced enforcement efforts against several...more
Our weekly client OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending April 20, 2018 is below. This week’s Update features a number of stories on the emerging tours and activities space. I also included the first installment...more
This week’s abbreviated OTA & Travel Distribution Update is below and features stories on the biggest distribution players – Ctrip, Booking.com, and yes, Airbnb. Enjoy....more
This week’s OTA & Distribution Update for the week ending February 23, 2018 is below. Other than Airbnb’s much publicized rollout of its 53 new product lines (an exaggeration, but not by much), last week was a relatively slow...more
Navigating Disruptive Climates, hosted by Washington Hospitality Association, was held on October 22-24, 2017 at the Tulalip Resort Casino in Tulalip, Washington. My presentation at the conference, "The War Rages: Hotels vs....more