Rewards Programs and Co-Brand Relationships Between Credit Card Issuers and Merchants - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Do Gift Cards Keep on Giving How the Law Affects the Consumer, the Retailer and the State
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 first Online Travel Update for 2025 is below. The past two weeks produced a number of interesting stories, including the Department of Justice’s attempt to stop the planned Amex GBT...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 is below. And for those mothers out there, we hope you had a great Mother’s Day! This week's highlights...more
This week’s Update features a variety of topics – sustainability (x2), airline loyalty programs, NDC and direct booking campaigns (among others). I hope you enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a wide variety of topics – Hopper, Capital One vacation rentals, Expedia layoffs and Hilton campgrounds....more
If your business offers a loyalty program in conjunction with a gift card, you likely already know that Section 520-e of New York’s General Business Law took effect December 10, 2023. This new law gives consumers a set grace...more
Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending February 17, 2023, is below. This week’s Update features a number of stories coming out of last week’s quarterly earnings releases by several of the largest online travel...more
Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending February 10, 2023, is below. This past week saw the beginning of quarterly earnings releases by the major platforms, with Expedia and its meta search platform, Trivago,...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 stories on Kayak, Hopper (again) and Shiji, and includes an important privacy update from California on loyalty programs....more
Skift’s annual Skift Global Forum, which was held this past week, produced a number of newsworthy items for this week’s Update. Enjoy....more
This week’s Update features a variety of topics – OTAs, short-term rentals and loyalty. 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 OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending June 8, 2018 is below. This week’s Update is a lengthy one and includes our sixth and final installment of our series in anti-trust challenges to hoteliers’...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
This week’s OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending Friday, October 13, is below. This week’s Update features stories on short-term rentals (or should I say hotels?), OTAs and loyalty. I hope you enjoy....more
This week’s OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending September 29, 2017 is below. This week’s Update is a lengthy one and contains a number of stories that, although not directly associated with distribution, I...more
This week’s OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending September 22, 2017 is below. This week’s Update features a wide variety of stories on distribution, short-term rentals and loyalty programs....more
A number of updated and new stories in this week’s OTA & Travel Distribution Update for the week ending July 14, 2017. We hope you enjoy. Expedia’s MeetingMarket Now Speaks English [OTA/GROUP] ("Expedia extends...more