Traveling Blog: Google's Big-Advertiser Bias + The Airbnb Threat + Cruise Line's Millennial Reversal

March 9, 2018

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Editor's Note

Google should be all about serving the consumer as a best practice for its business. But, Skift Travel Tech Editor Sean O'Neill has unearthed a new Google tendency in hotel search to bury the lowest room rates from smaller advertisers unless they are willing to pay considerably more in Google's auctions than they previously had to pay. The result is that sometimes-higher rates from the usual suspects — Booking.com, Expedia and their subsidiaries — get favorable treatment compared with lower rates from smaller companies.

Is it a matter of Google favoring more reliable advertisers or just biasing the way it displays hotel rates for selfish business reasons? Then on the other hand, many big hotel chains horde the lowest rates on their own websites anyway.

— Dennis Schaal, Executive Editor

Skift Call March 13: The Airbnb Threat

Airbnb aims to become a household name beyond hospitality for all of travelers' needs, including flights, tours and activities, and restaurant reservations. Join us on a Skift Call March 13 to assess the Airbnb threat to hotels and online travel agencies.

It has become harder to find the online travel agencies with best prices in Google's metasearch. The apparent change this week implicitly favors travel giants, which can afford to dominate ad auctions for online search.

Virgin Voyages Is Counting on Its Brand to Win Over Cruise Skeptics

Virgin Voyages is emphatic about being a different kind of cruise player while planning to sail from the world's busiest cruise port to the most popular destination. The difference will be in the details, and we're still waiting for most of those.

Radisson Hotel Group Now Makes It Easier to Get Elite Loyalty Status

It's now easier and simpler to join Radisson Rewards and qualify for elite status, though it's slightly harder to earn points for free rooms.

River Cruise Line Uniworld Gives Up on Millennial-Only Rule for New Brand

One thing we know about millennials is they don't like to be pigeonholed. Was a millennial-focused cruise line something they really wanted? It looks like the answer is no. Joon, of Air France notoriety, take note.

TripActions and Lola Get Creative to Fix the Business Travel Experience

Every travel management company offers an online booking tool, but some are offering the tools travelers want to use instead of confusing or restricted user experiences.

Skift Table: Coffee by Day, Cocktails by Night

Business in the front, party in the back isn't just relegated to a certain polarizing hairstyle. At New York's Patent Pending, the coffee shop-by-day, speakeasy-by-night concept works double duty in its design.

eDreams Odigeo Gives Up on Its Sales Process

It sounds like the potential buyers didn't accept the company's new strategy — or the buyers weren't willing to pay enough. Regardless, while it's certainly a risk, eDreams Odigeo is doing the right thing in diversifying its business and improving price transparency.

Budget Hotel Brand RedDoorz Raises $11 Million: Travel Startup Funding This Week

The concept of a budget brand hotel network that promises consistent amenities has been popularized by India's OYO Rooms. RedDoorz has traction with a similar model in Indonesia, which suggests the model may have legs worldwide.

Qantas Takes Steps to Overcome Pilot Shortage

Qantas' new pilot academy may address the airline's needs, but won't solve an imbalance which has already seen regional Australian airlines cancel and reschedule services. Meanwhile, the government has bowed to pressure and will again grant temporary visas to pilots after scrapping them last year.

If you're a high-value American Airlines customer, the carrier knows a lot about you. Now it wants to leverage that data in a more sophisticated way.

TripActions Raises $51 Million Series B for Its Business Travel Service

Talk about using incentives to change behavior. Is the threat of obsolescence due to new technology and startup business models enough to prompt incumbent travel management companies such as Egencia and Carlson Wagonlit to adapt?

InterContinental Hotels Is Closing In on a Luxury Acquisition

Asset light, something with history and heritage, fewer than 200 hotels ... IHG CEO Keith Barr has quite a specific wish list. It doesn't sound like we'll have to wait too long until we find out the identity of the luxury hotel brand in question.

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