Traveling Blog: Airbnb Stays Grounded + Southwest Tragedy Fallout + Expedia's Spending Spree

April 27, 2018

Editor's Note

At Skift Forum Europe in Berlin, a theme that emerged Thursday was travel companies having backbone and being unafraid to go their own ways. Kenny Jacobs, CMO of Ryanair, said the airline wouldn't spend even one euro with Google while AccorHotels CEO Sebastien Bazin said his company had to expand beyond hotels, and he expects that 20 to 30 percent of the startups AccorHotels has invested in would turn out to be flops.

Sylvain Rabuel, CEO of Club Med for Europe and Africa, meanwhile, was confident with his company's value proposition and sarcastically wished Airbnb good luck when trying to accommodate a dozen family members, from grandparents to grandchildren, on vacation. GetYourGuide co-founder and COO Tao Tao refused to follow the crowd and label its offerings "experiences," saying to lump tours, activities and attractions together would be like labeling flights, car rentals and airport shuttles as "transport."

That should be an alluring guide — travel companies should be unafraid to go their own ways and forge their own fates.

— Dennis Schaal, Executive Editor, in Berlin

New Research Finds Near-Universal Acceptance of Ridesharing Among Business Travelers

Sponsored by Lyft

Ridesharing is now the norm for business travelers. As evidenced by Skift's new survey on corporate travel ground transportation habits, it's now widely embraced by business travelers from organizations across all industries and company sizes.

Airbnb Won't Launch Flights Anytime Soon

Can Airbnb become a superbrand of travel, as it has stated as a goal? Probably not without launching flights. On the other hand, Booking.com has done fairly well for itself without offering flights until now.

Southwest Airlines Says Last Week's Tragedy Will Hurt Revenues

Last week's engine failure was scary, and Southwest is seeing fewer bookings than usual. But you can be sure of one thing: The passengers will return. And probably soon.

Expedia Group Accelerates Its Spending Faster Than It Grows Revenue

If you (re)build it, they will come. That's the motto of Expedia Group CEO Mark Okerstrom for 2018.

Royal Caribbean Ups Forecast But Wall Street Worries About Too Many Ships

Royal Caribbean Cruises has a lot of new ships coming, which will let the cruise operator charge higher prices and attract fresh interest. But as the global cruise industry continues to add capacity, analysts wonder if demand can keep up with the building boom.

Hilton Issues Debt to Buy Out Part of Stake Held by China's HNA

The move resolves uncertainty about the HNA investment as Hilton positions itself to take advantage of strong economic trends.

American Airlines Lowers Profit Projections as Fuel Prices Rise

Look for airline ticket prices to increase if fuel prices don't fall soon. Passengers may not like it, but what other business doesn't try to recoup increased production costs from consumers?

AccorHotels Reportedly Wants to Buy Mövenpick Hotels

AccorHotels is definitely in the mood to buy. But the bigger question is, now that it has all of these things, how will the company actually integrate them all so that they're successful?

Southwest and Marriott Dominate Annual Loyalty Program Awards

In a nearly repeat performance from 2017, Marriott and Starwood once more emerged on top of the heap this year when it comes to loyalty programs and consumer sentiment.

Guesty Raises $19 Million for Vacation Rental Sales: Travel Startup Funding This Week

Travel startups raised more than $128 million this week. Tel Aviv-based Guesty, which is like a Salesforce for vacation rental property managers, was one of the fortunate companies.

Who Is Pushing Business Travel Forward?

For an industry to evolve, that change has to be led by passionate people who work to shift the status quo. This week we picked out some leaders who are helping to push corporate travel forward.

Everyone blames Booking.com for Trivago's woes. But we're reserving judgment on the hotel search company's worse-than-expected second-quarter forecasts until we can hear from its other largest advertiser, Expedia Group, which holds its own first-quarter earnings call soon.

Allegiant Air Expects No Long-Term Hit to Earnings After 60 Minutes Report

What? You thought investment analysts would grill Allegiant Air executives on safety lapses detailed last week on U.S. television news? Clearly you don't know analysts well. Allegiant is solidly profitable, and given its unique model, it should stay that way. That's important to investors.

Marriott Experiments With Homesharing

Leave it to Marriott to figure out a way to make homesharing work for the hotel industry. But as we've noted before, this space has its challenges, and figuring out the logistics and differences between managing homes and hotels will be crucial.

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