Cuba Hotel Winners/Losers + Sabre-British Airways Deal + Skyscanner's New Acquisition

New regulations have gone into effect this morning further limiting the ability of U.S. travelers to visit Cuba.

The Travel Industry's Daily Agenda-Setting Newsletter

November 9, 2017 View in browser

Note From the Editor New regulations have gone into effect this morning further limiting the ability of U.S. travelers to visit Cuba. Unfortunately, it appears that the U.S. travel industry's hopes for developing Cuba into a robust and sustainable market have been dashed for the time being. We also received a tip that Sabre has reached an agreement with British Airways and Iberia Airlines following parent IAG's new surcharge on global distribution system bookings. Sabre agents will receive inferior content and fares, unless they strike a deal with the airlines themselves. This latest effort to claw back power from distribution companies appears to have been effective, but don't count the distribution giants out yet. — Andrew Sheivachman, Senior Writer What Can Airlines Learn From Amazon, Google and Uber About Dynamic Pricing? [SPONSORED] Sponsored by Sabre Airline Solutions While the industries may be vastly different, the airline industry can learn a lot from the leading digital innovators out there when it comes to dynamic pricing strategies. Read More Top Stories Marriott-Starwood Is a Winner and European Hotels Are Losers Under New U.S. Cuba Travel Rules Officials have let U.S. hotel companies off the hook when making changes to U.S. Cuba travel policy. European and Caribbean companies, however, will likely feel the effect of new restrictions. British Airways Surcharge Means Inferior Content for Travel Agents Through Sabre Airlines have learned that standing up to the global distribution system giants can actually yield benefits. It has been a hard-earned victory. Skyscanner Buys Social-Review Site Twizoo in Escalating Content Drive Two deals in the space of a week show how serious Skyscanner is about improving the content it offers to customers. The days of it being a pure price-comparison site are definitely over. Royal Caribbean Bookings Bounced Back After Costliest Hurricane Season After the costliest hurricane season in its history, Royal Caribbean Cruises still saw profits increase and exceeded its own expectations for the quarter. The business appeared to recover quickly, but we are curious to find out if travelers will be willing to book Caribbean cruises during the peak time for storms next year. Marriott CEO: Don't Expect Us to Play in the Midscale Space Are 30 brands enough for one hotel company to have? It might be, for now, but we wouldn't rule out the possibility of wanting to add more in a year or two, especially in that red-hot midscale space. UberEats Bets on Personalization for a Delivery Edge The best food delivery app is the one that gets you the food you want exactly when you want it — especially when you want it now. With over 80,000 restaurants on its platform, UberEats has done well to inject personalized suggestions into its ordering and delivery experience. Standard Hotels Has a New Major Investor from Thailand Foreign investment in U.S.-based hotel companies is a trend that continues. Even more interesting here is that Sansiri is also choosing to invest in so many other diverse businesses. How they plan to bring all those investments together eventually should be interesting to watch. Lastminute.com Group Buys Hotelscan to Diversify Metasearch Offering Lastminute.com Group's traditional business of flight sales isn't as profitable as it once was so growing metasearch makes sense. And while this deal isn't a gamechanger it does represent an expansion into accommodation. Popular Now British Airways CEO Plots Return to a 'Golden Era' Alex Cruz is walking a fine line. On the one hand he wants British Airways to become a more cost-effective operation, but on the other he still wants to retain its reputation as a premium carrier. Booking.com Rethinks Digital Advertising in Favor of TV Did we just see an elephant fly? The Priceline Group, which is the largest spender on digital advertising in travel, just said TV commercials may be a better way to attract loyal customers. That's even more surprising than TV-happy Trivago's recent announcement that it would start devoting more resources to digital advertising. Don't you love this industry? Czech Website Creates Itineraries From Low-Cost and Legacy Carriers The conventional wisdom is that major online travel agencies make it impossible for their smaller counterparts to break through. Kiwi.com is challenging that thesis, though it is very much early days. For Gmail users: If you are using the tabbed inbox, Skift emails may be pushed to the 'Promotions' tab. To get updates from Skift direct to your primary inbox, drag and drop this email to that tab. You received this email because you are subscribed to Skift Daily Newsletter from Skift.

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