Argophilia

Αργοφιλία: For the love of the journey.

Expedia

Travelers’ Hotel Choices: No Choice At All

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When Google acquired ITA flight software a couple of years back, a group of competitors went ballistic warning of unfair practices by the Internet search and ad giant. Most people back then blew off what FairSearch was contending, this author included. As it turns out, a half dozen court cases won and a lot of water under the hotel search bridge, and potential guests really have no choice at all. Google has rigged the hotel booking game into an ad recommendation one.

Q1 Profit and Loss: Weeding Out the OTAs

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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?

#Travel Tuesday Tips on Travel Tech: Don’t Cry for Expedia

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Reading news in travel technology this morning any interested party might be a bit confused over all the smoke signals going out from online players. The New York Times suggests simply “Fewer, Bigger Travel Sites”, Expedia stocks are down on the one hand, and their mobile app is revamped a superhuman helper on the other. Meanwhile a startup called Bookt LLC takes a shot at Airbnb.com and vacations. I guess the good news is, travel technology is really still alive and doing well.

Expedia Finalizes Acquisition of Majority Interest in trivago

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Expedia, a full service online travel agency with localized sites in 30 countries, has announced the completion of its acquisition of 61.6% of trivago GmbH, a hotel metasearch company. Following this acquisition, trivago will continue to operate independently from its headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany.For this majority package in trivago Expedia paid approximately €434 million in […]

Online Travel Sucking Wind with Consumers! Huh?

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A USA Today story from yesterday pretty much tells on an online travel industry that has failed on nearly every front to deliver. Let’s face it, just because you can book a plane or hotel on Expedia, this does not equal the innovation and awe so many have spoken of these last three years. Tnooz to this beleaguered writer, online travel should be farther along by now in delivering on its promise.

Expedia Designs Semantic Search Engine for Travel

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Expedia is taking the business of travel search up a notch, with reports suggesting it’s currently developing a natural language search engine that will provide a “more human” way of searching for flights, hotel rooms, restaurants and the like.

Big OTAs and Big Hotels in Price Fixing Lawsuit

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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.

Hotelogix 2.0 – Managing Help for Managers

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Hotelogix’s launch of feature-enriched Hotelogix 2.0, is cause for some cheers from hotel owners and managers alike. The news variant of the already widely accepted admin platform, carries not only ramped up channel management, but multi-lingual support too.

Treovi To Revolutionize the Online Hotel Industry

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Revolutionizing the online hotel industry, Treovi reservation service recently announced their main objective of excluding all existing online commissions and founding an equitable collaboration between hotels and their customers. Now this is news.

Will Expedia’s “Verified” Reviews Fly?

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Last week, Danny King over at Travel Weekly hit the nail on the head with his assessment of Expedia’s so called “verified” review system. Expedia Verified Reviews attempts to qualify hotel reviews using “use” of Expedia as a criteria. Having pushed TripAdvisor from the OTA nest on its own, Expedia seems intent on milking the last drop from the user review teat.

Selling Soap, Seats, & Other Hospitality Services In 2012

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An article on Tnooz last Friday peaked our interest, Xotels boss Patrick Landman offering up key variables in what will become the biggest online trade war ever. When Google, all the big corporate OTAs, and key independent online travel entities lock horns for a final round, a few will not be left standing.

OTA CEOs: Part III

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Continuing our series on decision makers in the online travel world, Argo jumps back in to an interesting Q & A session between reporters from USA Today and leading CEOs. Veronica Gould Stoddart and Roger Yu caught up with 6 top bosses at the recent PhoCusWright conference in Hollywood, Fla. We take up where we left off, analyzing answers to some key tech trend questions.

OTA CEOs: Part II

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Yesterday we began a series on online travel agency CEOs, and a recent interview conducted by USA TODAY’s Veronica Gould Stoddart and Roger Yu. We analyzed a bit, some key decision makers’ mindset on the question of whether consumers want (will get) richer content from these industry giants during their travel searches. Expedia, Orbitz, TripAdvisor, parent Expedia, Travelocity, and Priceline bosses all had their views there.

OTA CEOs and Who Has Your Back: Part I

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What do you want from information providers? How about service providers that offer information you need to know to make decisions? Where online travel is concerned, there has been a lot of shakeup of late over these questions. Can you trust reviews? Which OTAs can you trust? We decided to micro-analyze some questions and answers already provided by none other than USA Today, and the leading bosses of your online travel agencies.