More than six in ten travelers (61%) say they pick a destination for its great food or drink; Over half of global travelers (51%) are likely to seek out local street food markets; Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Brazil are among the top places to discover local food across the globe.
Booking.com
Booking.com Launches Startup Accelerator
Today Booking.com announced the launch of a new accelerator program, Bookingcom Booster, designed to jump start innovation. The new 3-week program gives startups the chance to pitch for grants of up to €500,000 euro.
Airbnb Really Is the Big Bad Wolf
The hotel industry is in a nightmare of dire concerns over a beleaguered hospitality market. Airbnb and the impact the so-called “sharing economy” is on every hotelier’s mind, and understandably. The industry is for all intents and purposes, lost in a forest like Little Red Riding Hood trying to figure how much business the Big Bad Wolf […]
Booking.com Releases “Best of Booking’s Best”
Booking.com just revealed their “Best of Booking’s Best” – the accommodations according to some 20 million real, relevant and recent customer reviews. The list provides summer travelers with more insight into the best places to visit and stay in the world.
Q1 Profit and Loss: Weeding Out the OTAs
In a 2014 economy seemingly stagnated OTAs and other travel businesses are feeling some pain. This is not the case for Priceline Group, which just showed a 1st quarter earnings jump of some 36% on international bookings. However, this company’s gain is evidently Orbitz’s and other digital travel business loss. Are we seeing a “weeding out” of good travel entities versus bad ones?
Big OTAs and Big Hotels in Price Fixing Lawsuit
A federal lawsuit naming the likes of Expedia, Orbitz, Booking.com, Travelocity, Trump International Hotels Management, Intercontinental, Kimpton, Sabre Holdings, Priceline, Marriott, Starwood, and Hilton alleges the companies conspired to fix hotel room prices. According to the news from Reuters, the suit claims the travel giants did so in an effort to fend off competition from smaller online retailers.
Hoteliers, Are You Using the Right Channels?
For businesses busying themselves trying to catch the social wave, to engage customers via digital channels, the learning curve can be steep. All along the path to competitive edge in online marketing, the pitfalls of “not knowing” end up costing companies before the online lesson is learned. Nowhere is this more evident than in the hotel industry. Using the wrong communicative channels, or using them in the wrong way, can determine who does and does not survive.