Traveling Blog: Airbnb Buys Accessibility Content + Sojern Acquires Ad Tech + Celebrity Builds Galapagos Ship

November 17, 2017

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Note From the Editor

There's nothing like a little mergers and acquisitions activity to kickstart a Friday. Airbnb picked up some content and a handful of employees when it bought Accomable, a business that helps travelers with disabilities find accessible accommodations. For all its faults related to racism and sexism, as well as discrimination against customers in wheelchairs, Airbnb has to get some credit for trying to address these issues while competitors are doing next to nothing.

The second acquisition of the day is all about focus, specialization — and client lists. Digital marketer Sojern bought Istanbul-based Adphorus, which spends its days helping online travel companies, airlines and hotels target customers through Facebook and Instagram. And, oh yeah, Airbnb acquired an ad-tech startup yesterday, too. There must be something about it.

— Dennis Schaal, Executive Editor

How Today's Top Travel Marketers Think About Customer Engagement [SPONSORED]

We hope this acquisition results in real changes to the Airbnb platform to not only reduce discrimination against travelers with disabilities, but also to verify details about accessible listings and make them much clearer.

Sojern Buys Ad-Tech Firm Adphorus to Better Compete on Facebook

Advertising on Facebook is an expanding strategic opportunity for travel brands. That's why travel marketing-tech startup Sojern is nabbing Adphorus, a travel specialist ad tech company in Turkey, as a bridgehead for growth.

Celebrity Cruises Is Building a Lux New Ship to Sail the Galapagos

People already pay a pretty penny to sail the Galapagos Islands. Will they spend more to do it on a new, high-end ship? Celebrity Cruises is banking on it.

Hostmaker Raises $15 Million for Short-Term Rental Management: Travel Startup Funding This Week

In the California gold rush, businesses once sold pickaxes to prospectors. In today's vacation rental gold rush, they're selling management services to the property owners. The safest bets are always adjacent services.

How Penny McBride, Co-Founder of Vertical Harvest, Is Strengthening Community Through Urban Farming [SPONSORED]

Sponsored by The Unbound Collection by Hyatt™

Penny McBride, co-founder of Vertical Harvest, is spreading the word about how sustainable food production and new economic business models can help build strong communities.

The Future Is Now — Corporate Travel Innovation Report

As Airbnb and ridesharing services have become more popular, travel managers are dealing with the ramifications of a shift away from traditional travel products. This shift will only accelerate in coming years.

The future you're promised is never the future you get. Google is touting artificial intelligence-powered translation capability as a transformative feature for its users, but it's really just an impractical repackaging of existing technology.

AccorHotels Has a Community Hub Strategy With Local Services App

This is a sign of a much bigger shift in the entire travel industry where travel brands no longer want to just be "travel" brands. Hotels don't want to just be hotels. Instead, they want to be platforms for offering you experiences whenever and wherever you may be.

Hilton and Marriott Turn to the Internet of Things to Transform the Hotel Room Experience

It was only a matter of time before the big brands started rolling this smart-room technology. But what will be even more interesting is seeing which brand's approach works better in a hospitality setting, and is more appealing not only to guests but to hotel owners, too.

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