Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week is below. And for those mothers out there, we hope you had a great Mother’s Day! This week's highlights: Las Vegas Hotels Earn Dismissal of Algorithmic Price-Fixing Case. One of the first of now several algorithmic pricing-fixing class action suits brought against members of the lodging industry was dismissed last week by a Nevada federal district court. Defendants in the case included Cendyn (relating to the co-defendants’ use of Cendyn’s revenue management tools GuestRev and GroupRev), Blackstone, Treasure Island, Caesars and Wynn. In dismissing ..read more

This week’s Update again features a wide variety of stories, including an important update on the much beleaguered spokesman for metasearch site, Trivago.  Enjoy. Google Again Delays Demise of Third-Party Cookies.  Good news for online marketers using third party cookies via Google Chrome.  Google has again delayed its planned elimination of third-party cookies – this time until early 2025.  Google’s recent announcement is the third such delay since announcing in 2020 that it would be eliminating third party cookies within two years.  Google attributes its latest dela ..read more

As you can see from our short list of stories below, it was a relatively quiet week in the online travel world.  I hope you enjoy: DerbySoft Moves Into Airline Industry.  Hotel distribution connectivity provider, DerbySoft, announced plans last week to acquire China-based Pkfare.  Pkfare provides connectivity services for hotels similar to DerbySoft, but also provides those services to approximately 600 airlines (an industry that DerbySoft has not yet penetrated).  Terms of the deal were not disclosed.  The companies plan to maintain their independent businesses, with ..read more

This week’s Update features two stories from local (Seattle) publications.  The first, from Seattle’s most well-known technology newsletter, Geekwire, provides a local perspective on Steve Singh’s ongoing efforts to create the corporate traveler’s  “perfect trip.”  The second, from our local Business Journal, provides additional details on the management shakeup at Expedia Group.  Enjoy. EU Launches Investigations of DMA Gatekeepers.  This past month, the EU Commission has launched five investigations into gatekeepers’ (Alphabet, Apple and Meta) alleged non-compliance ..read more

This week’s Update features multiple stories and perspectives on AmexGBT’s newly announced acquisition of CWT and Booking.com’s decision to drop its own sustainability ratings.  I hope you enjoy. AmexGBT Set to Acquire Rival Travel Management Company CWT.  First the details . . .  According to AmexGBT CEO, Paul Abbott, the $570 million acquisition will allow AmexGBT to grow its corporate customer base by 4000 customers and will increase AmexGBT’s transaction volumes and revenues by 45% and 33%, respectively.  Other announced benefits include growth in certain key customer ..read more

This week’s Update features a variety of topics, including Italy’s newly announced investigation of Booking.com, American’s ongoing battle with ASTA and Qantas’ new TMC portal: Italy Launches Investigation of Booking.com.  Just weeks ago, Booking Holdings announced as part of its fourth quarterly earnings release that Spanish competition authorities were considering levying an unprecedented $530 million fine against its Booking.com platform.  Now, Italy is joining the fray.  On Friday, the Italian Competition Authority announced that it had opened an investigation into Booking ..read more

This week’s Update features a variety of topics including the latest on Indonesia’s efforts to regulate OTAs, Spotnana’s new “event” travel booking tool and new record marketing spending by the largest OTAs (no surprise). Booking.com and Expedia May Face Indonesian Bans.  As of this past week, several large OTAs (including Booking.com and Expedia) had still not complied with Indonesia’s requirement to register as Private Scope Electronic Systems Operators (PSE).  The requirement is part of a regulation passed in November 2020 that requires digital platforms to obtain licenses to ope ..read more

This week’s Update offers two differing industry perspectives on Google’s DMA compliance efforts.  We also update the status (demise) of TripAdvisor’s much criticized subscription program, TripAdvisor Plus.  Enjoy. Perspectives on Google’s Gatekeeper Efforts.  This past week (March 7) saw D-Day arrive for those platforms designated as “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).  On the day before, EU Travel Tech, whose members include most major leisure and managed travel platforms, issued a letter to the European Commission criticizing Google’s changes and complain ..read more

This week’s Update features a wide variety of topics – Hopper, Capital One vacation rentals, Expedia layoffs and Hilton campgrounds. AirAsia Adds Cancel for Any Reason.  AirAsia announced this past week that users of its platform (both website and application) can now cancel bookings of non-refundable fares through an integration with Hopper’s B2B Division – HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions).  HTS offers a wide variety of ancillary products and services (e.g., travel portals, fintech products) to its corporate users.  AirAsia currently offers flights from over 700 airlines.&nbs ..read more

Booking Holdings’ recent earnings release garnered much of the industry’s attention this past week for a variety of reasons, including legal. It will be interesting to watch how important changes to the legal landscape affect the company’s primary booking platform and its many supplier partners. Trip.com Enjoys Strong Fourth Quarter and Year. Trip.com reported stellar fourth quarter and full year (2023) results this past week.  Highlights include (i) full year net revenue of $6 billion (122% growth YOY), (ii) full year accommodation booking revenue of $2.4 billion (133% growth YOY) and ..read more