Hotelmarketing'com

Daily must-reads for hotel marketers.

How travelers will be planning their trips in 2023. Plan for a mix of early and last-minute bookings. Booking.com reveals when, where and how tomorrow’s travelers will be planning travel in the new year – and the practical steps hotels can take to respond.

Tripadvisor's year in review. As travelers got back in the air and on the road, Tripadvisor looks back on the epic milestones and memories made this year.

How Hopper is tapping into social commerce. You don’t spend money on Google, Facebook or TikTok - you literally give it to your customers. Hopper is confident that giving cash to customers instead of spending it on advertising will make it a profitable rival to the big two global OTAs.

Hilton goes GDS-direct with Amadeus. The new integration allows Hilton to scale up its Amadeus distribution more effectively and roll out new features at a much faster pace.

Airbnb launches new listing service for rental apartments. The company is partnering with large landlords across the country in its bid to increase listings. Airbnb is working with some of the multifamily industry's largest landlords in a bid to boost listings and increase its stake in the apartment business.

More on Expedia's B2B strategy. The Phocuswright Conference gave CEO Peter Kern the opportunity to provide more detail on its new Open World technology platform.

Metaverse to blur boundaries between retail and hotels. E-commerce will drive hospitality industry's evolution in the metaverse. The editor of Hotel Design is heading into the metaverse to explore how virtual spaces, in theory as well as reality, could work in harmony with physical hospitality and hotel design.

Black Friday travel deals. While countless travel companies offer sales throughout the year, Black Friday stands as one of the best opportunities to save on all sorts of trips.

How technology will transform travel agent jobs. Expedia and Booking.com are implementing useful solutions for travel agents. Once tech companies help automate searching, offering and post-booking support, travel agents will be left with gathering personal travel experience and sharing this knowledge with clients.

Expedia partners with Afterpay. Travelers can now book up to $2,000 worth of flights and hotels on Expedia using Afterpay, as buy now, pay later service.

Expedia expects continued B2B growth. Company makes its technology available to a wider travel ecosystem. Growth in Expedia’s B2B business is expected to outpace B2C as the global OTA extends its Open World technology platform to third-party partners.

Airbnb on the tech downturn. The company is not undergoing layoffs at this time, due in large part to the it cutting 25% of its staff at the start of the pandemic.

Airbnb is improving safety features. The company announced a number of upgrades as the home-sharing giant looks to attract even more hosts to the platform and sign up more guests.

How Tripadvisor reimagines its future. Travelers turn to Tripadvisor to verify the choices they’re making. In the travel space, Tripadvisor is more trusted than many of its competitors, including Google. The company plans to reinforce that in the future even stronger.

OTAs look to longer-term value for marketing dollars. Booking.com and Expedia continue on strategies to encourage direct bookings and increase loyalty to their brands. In their Q3 earnings, both online travel agencies increased marketing spend, with direct relationships, beefing up loyalty programs and driving app usage being the ways forward.

New EU rules for short-term accommodation. OTAs required to automatically share data with authorities. New rules will help improve transparency in the identification and activity of short-term accommodation hosts and the rules they must comply with, and will facilitate the registration of hosts.

Expedia doubles down on London. The OTA is planning to expand its UK operations by recruiting candidates for around 120 predominantly tech-focused roles at its London base.

Amadeus rides travel recovery. Though third-quarter adjusted profit registered a nine-fold increase year on year, it was still 32% below the same period in 2019.

Expedia reports record revenue and lodging bookings for Q3. Revenue rose 22% to a record $3.62 billion for the quarter. Strong demand for the rest of the year and into 2023 will counter a hit to bookings from an industry-wide slowdown in July that was exacerbated by hurricanes late in the season.

Booking Holdings reports highest quarterly revenue ever. Q3 profit more than doubles, exceeding analysts’ expectations. Despite macroeconomic concerns and uncertainty, the OTA is encouraged by the slight improvement in room night growth in October and by the level of bookings for travel in early 2023.

Airbnb posts best quarter yet. Company expects holiday-quarter bookings to moderate. Airbnb recorded its highest ever third-quarter bookings, with nearly 100 million nights and experiences booked. Average daily rates climbed 5% year-over-year to $156.

Korea fines Booking Holdings. The penalty on Booking.com and Agoda came as both arranged search results based on advertisement without properly notifying customers of the deal.

'Flexibility' key for today's travelers. Half of consumers will never book non-refundable lodging, even if it was discounted. According to new research debuting in November from Expedia Group, travelers revealed strong preferences toward flexible rates and fares that can be changed without a fee.

The golden age of travel retailing. Airlines, hotels, and car rental companies are all going to look more like OTAs. NDC will make the distinction between direct and indirect more “fuzzy” in travel as barriers to entry reduce and as suppliers take more “control of the conversation” with the end consumer.

Airbnb is losing its appeal. Unpredictable guest experiences and excessive fees has soured opinions on Airbnb. As unique mom-and-pop vacation rentals have given way to corporate property management behemoths, the charm of Airbnb has slowly eroded until all that’s left are unpredictable lodging experiences at high prices.

Booking.com faces antitrust probe in Spain. Company has long been a cause of concern for European Union lawmakers. Spain’s competition watchdog has opened an investigation into potential anti-competitive behavior by the online travel giant regarding abuse of its dominant position in the provision of intermediation services to hotels.

Travelport adds Booking.com content. The partnership unlocks 140,000 hotel properties accessible through the Travelport+ platform, and will grow to over one million properties in early 2023.

RoomIt selected by Amazon. The new partnership includes sourcing, booking and rate re-shopping, whilst helping to increase compliance to hotel policy and optimize Amazon traveler satisfaction.

TripActions raised at a $9.2B valuation. The deal comes weeks after the company was said to have filed confidentially to go public in the second quarter of next year at a $12 billion valuation.

Amazon shutters travel venture. The company is shuttering more projects amid push to control costs, including Explore, its virtual travel experience with tour guides in countries around the world.

GDS is an extremely sticky product. Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport all have a sizable network effect, making them hard to replace. As it takes a lot of work and money to get thousands of airlines, hotels, and demand channels to use a new GDS, it is very hard for a new player to come in and replace any GDS.

BCD Travel ditching Travelport. The company is moving to two global distribution system partners from three, focusing on Amadeus and Sabre while leaving out Travelport.

Expedia launches startup program. The initiative builds on its Open World vision to power partners of all sizes with the technology and supply needed to thrive in the travel market.

Travel agencies are crushing it in 2022. For some, sales have surpassed 2019 totals already, with a full quarter remaining in the year. For many travel agencies, 2022 is shaping up to be their best year of sales, with forecasted numbers eclipsing pre-pandemic years.

Expedia’s ‘buildup of high-value members’ to drive growth. No more chasing customers that shop price all the time. Expedia CEO Peter Kern sits down with Yahoo Finance to discuss fall and winter travel expectations, the company's second-quarter performance, expanding the loyalty program, and more.

Location and value remain key drivers for hotel booking decisions. Importance of quality of accommodation has fallen. Hotel guests and their motivations are different than they were three years ago, but some things never change - notably the importance of location in a hotel search and the value of stays.

A European framework for short-term rentals. European tourism destinations have taken different regulatory approaches to the sector. OTAs are calling on the European Commission to consider registration schemes, data sharing and a clear definition for short-term rentals.

Defining a new pricing strategy with OTAs. Inventory and rate parity no longer a valid strategy?. Parity sounds like a 90’s concept. It is the time to redefine a new relationship with the OTAs. A new strategy that allows you to grow your direct channel.

Expedia introduces global social impact and sustainability strategy. Wants to make travel more inclusive and accessible for travelers and communities. Expedia Group is announcing the second iteration of Open World, extending the platform to encompass the traveler experience, community engagement and environmental impact.

Hotel, OTA relationship has improved. New technology enhances guest booking experience. The relationship between hoteliers and online travel agencies had been fraught for many years, but that has changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

OTAs improve marketing efficiency in Q2. Competition has been very promotional and highly geared to performance marketing. While overall marketing spending is up for Expedia, Booking.com and Airbnb, they all saw a decrease in the expense as a percentage of revenue – a key indicator they tout to analysts.

OTAs signal cautious optimism despite economic instability. More nights on the books in Q4 this year than a year ago. Many consumers will have invested savings they made during the pandemic in travel over the spring and summer and now face mounting bills, which could put them off from making forward bookings.

European Commission publishes market study on hotels' distribution practices. OTAs account for 44% of independent hotels’ room sales, a slight increase relative to 2016. The results of the market study do not indicate any significant change in the competitive situation in the hotel accommodation distribution sector in the EU compared to 2016.

Five trends hotels can leverage for a successful end of 2022. Hotel demand strong, despite rising costs. Expedia data suggests many positive trends for the travel industry, including an increase in long-haul travel, higher hotel average daily rates, and lower cancellation rates.

The 5 best hotel apps. ZDNet researched and compared availability, as well as pricing, accessibility, and real guest reviews to determine its No. 1 pick and several other honorable mentions.

8 Google travel tips. If you're in the process of planning your next trip, you'll want to take advantage of Google Maps and Google Flights, which can help make your trip a little less complicated.

Booking.com is not a monopoly. The company's CEO talks recovery and why it is not the Google of hotel searches. With the number of overnight stays booked in the second quarter of this year compared to 2019 growing by 16% - even without the Asian market reopening to tourism- the company's position is only getting stronger.

A microcosm of industry activity. When 4,300 travel professionals descend on Las Vegas for a week, the details they share reflect the myriad ways in which the pandemic reshaped the industry.

Trip.com on its European ambitions. The Chinese online travel giant considers itself more of a startup in Europe - but it has lofty ambitions to be the leader in the market.

Are we in a travel bubble or a new normal?. Is the industry in the midst of a busier-than-ever normal of travel or a bubble that will pop?. Bookings continue to look strong going into the fall with hotel booking windows again lengthening to pre-pandemic levels, and average daily rates up considerably from 2021 and 2019, according to Virtuoso.

Expedia to focus on longer-term sustainable growth. Two-thirds of bookings in Q2 generated from traffic that came directly to Expedia. Travel remains a top spending area for consumers even as other parts of the economy are slowing, giving executives at Expedia Group confidence in the future of travel.

Expedia Group sees travel rebound, accelerates shift to unified tech platform. Hotels.com front-end migration nearly completed. The travel giant posted better-than-expected results for Q2, saying demand for travel was strong despite the uncertain economy and the lingering effects of COVID-19 around the world.

Booking.com bets on payments. 38% of gross bookings were processed through its payment platform in the second quarter, the highest since launching its platform payments capability.

Booking forecasts record sales, confirming strength in travel. Growth rates in July moderated in all regions with North America showing the smallest change. Booking reported total sales that nearly doubled to $4.29 billion in the second quarter, casting away doubts about weak consumer sentiment impeding travel plans.

A quick guide to Expedia’s Search and Sort Factors update. New factors look at the strength of the listing itself as well as reviews and ratings. Starting this August, Expedia Group is releasing new Search and Sort Factors in their marketplace that will affect how hotels appear in Expedia’s search results.

Hotels roll out late-summer deals. Savvy hoteliers are using value-adds to seal the deal. A combination of inflation, economic uncertainty and fluctuating gas prices could be prompting hesitancy in late-summer leisure travelers.

Triptease: The future of Google Travel. From speculation on Google’s future roadmap to how to get a solid metasearch strategy in place, the hospitality industry remains highly invested in understanding what's coming next from Google.

Travel agents 'overwhelmed' by massive surge in new clients. The issue is exacerbated by the recent uptick in airline mayhem. Some travel agents say they now spend more time on hold with airlines than ever, given recent cancelations, delays, and lost luggage.

Accessibility and diversity in travel. Expedia commissioned custom research to understand how consumers feel about inclusive travel, and how they believe the current travel landscape stacks up.

Hotel distribution strategies that optimize profit. Hoteliers urged to prioritize profits in distribution strategy. You can have the best marketing in the world, you can have the best brand, you can have the best of everything, but if it’s $30 cheaper somewhere, consumers are going to book it.

Expedia: A marketplace reimagined. How the company's new technology platform allows partners to pick and choose products and services to form a solution tailored to their specific needs.

U.S. traveler sentiments on attribute-based hotel shopping. 46% willing to pay more to select their preferred room attributes, according to a new NYU report. Moving from traditional “standard,” “deluxe,” and “premium” hotel shopping to attribute based shopping is likely to increase traveler value, price transparency, and satisfaction.

Room night distribution trends. The increased percentage of leisure travelers led to growth in reservations made through OTAs and property direct bookings.

Airbnb partners with destinations for new "live and work anywhere" initiative. Online content hubs with information for people looking for long-term stays where they can work remotely. The company has selected 20 destinations that will receive landing pages on the platform that are intended to serve as a “one-stop shop” for remote workers.

OTAs focus on value proposition as recession threat looms. Focus on helping consumers find the right deals. Travel intermediaries are confident that their models will hold up if the world plunges into a recessionary period following the COVID crisis.

Hoteliers set new strategies for walk-ins, cancellations. Successful strategies to capture demand. Guests increasingly are booking hotel rooms closer to the date of their stays, forcing hoteliers to be more flexible and plan ahead to manage last-minute demand.

Switzerland restricts OTAs. The Swiss Senate approved proposals to allow hotel websites to undercut prices and other conditions offered by booking platforms.

GDS hotel bookings surpass 2019 levels in May. International and corporate bookings continue to strengthen, according to the latest Sabre data. The company reported gross hotel central reservation system transactions in May recovered to 110% of the levels seen in 2019, whereas air bookings currently stand at about 56%.

Booking.com's shift to the merchant model. Why the agency model is Booking.com’s biggest bottleneck today. Four out of ten Booking.com reservations in Q1/2022 were processed through the OTA’s “Payments by Booking.com” platform, an 48 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Think bigger. Think booking.com. Over 2 billion vacation rental nights have been reserved on the platform, resulting in a lot of “happy hosts” that the brand is bringing to light in a new ad campaign.

Why young people are using old school travel agents to plan their vacations. Demand for travel advisors soars as transit troubles mount. The post-pandemic web of flight cancelations, bureaucratic COVID testing requirements and a jaw-dropping surge in hotel rates and airline tickets has renewed the need for an in-the-know agent.

Expedia's new Seattle campus. The company has officially opened its headquarters and started bringing back employees into its new Seattle campus.

How to get your hotel off of OTAs. Many hotels are declaring their independence from the OTA industry and taking more direct control of their marketing and guest booking initiatives.

Key takeaways from Expedia’s EXPLORE 22 conference. A reimagined marketplace centered around the traveler experience. A few highlights of the Expedia Group transformations with a focus on the traveler, platform strategy, powering the industry, and more that were previewed at EXPLORE 22.

Travel fintech momentum builds. Travel companies are looking to invest in fintech products and services to boost revenue streams and improve the customer experience.

Uber is now also a travel itinerary aggregator. The company wants to own the beginning and the last mile of your travel. Uber is offering customers even more travel options for their next vacation with new services that allow them to store trip itineraries in the app as well as book limos and even party buses.

OTAs flex marketing muscle to lure travelers. U.S. travel industry expected to spend 14.2% of their marketing budget for digital advertising. Travel firms are going all out to woo vacationers and are taking all possible measures from sprucing up their websites to offering innovative services.

A new kind of tourism: Virtual travel in the metaverse. Virtual tourism may serve as a springboard to in-person tourism. In the metaverse, virtual tourism means a potential significant increase in access to almost any location, personalized guest experiences and enhanced entertainment.

Airbnb redesigned the way users search for listings. Category search allows users to explore travel without having a specific destination in mind. In addition, the company introduced the ability to book two listings in one flow for stays over a week, and AirCover for guests, which is basically Airbnb-provided travel insurance.

US travel advisors optimistic on the future of their agencies. Clients most interested in international trips. Travel agencies are bustling with business - some even to the point of being overwhelmed - as clients new and old alike return to the roads and skies.

Expedia: Travel searches surge as restrictions ease. Q1 2022 search volume up 25% globally. Global lodging bookings for hotels and vacation rentals combined were up 35% quarter-over-quarter, with vacation rental night counts globally growing substantially.

Explore before you book. Digital twins deliver virtual immersive experiences that boost booking confidence in guests and grow business and streamline operations.

Booking.com gets in Expedia’s face. Attendees of Expedia's partner conference were confronted with huge digital signage at McCarren Airport, touting the wonders of rival Booking.com.

Booking Holdings beats estimates, sees ‘busy summer travel season ahead’. Gross bookings were the highest quarterly amount ever. The U.S.’s biggest online travel company reported revenue rose 136% to $2.7 billion in the three months ended March 31, while analysts projected $2.54 billion.

Tripadvisor picks new CEO. The company named an advertising tech executive as its new chief executive officer, replacing company cofounder Steve Kaufer.

Expedia: We finally got it right after 25 years. Most travelers are not always looking for the lowest price. Expedia on how “something went wrong” in the past 25 years and how OTAs and meta-searches allowed the market to become commoditized by price.

Airbnb’s next big change: Search. A complete redesign of how people search on its service. Searching for travel online has worked the same way for the past 25 years: you enter a location and dates into a search box. But the world has changed.

Airbnb sees ‘substantial demand’ for travel. Consumer confidence to travel remains strong beyond the summer months. U.S. domestic demand this year has so far outpaced Airbnb's internal expectations and the company is encouraged by U.S. international bookings exceeding 2019 levels.

Expedia results in line as omicron weighs on pent-up demand. Pent-up demand outweighing anything the market can throw at it. Expedia reported revenue in the first quarter that jumped 80%, in line with analysts’ estimates, and signaled a strong summer travel season after two years of pent-up demand.

Google updates travel planning tools. Search interest in “luxury hotels near me” doubles compared to 2019 level. Beginning today, you can enter that location in the hotel or vacation rental search bar and you’ll see a toggle to show properties within a 15 or 30 minute trip by foot or car.

Travel agent business is booming. And both leisure and business bookings are becoming more complex. The complexity around travel has presented an opportunity for agents across business and leisure travel that has led to a “phenomenal increase in new to agent business”.

Stop wasting money on OTAs. Put focus on profits, not revenue. A big part of protecting profit margins is spending wisely, and hoteliers who pay OTAs for bookings and invest in search-engine marketing are not necessarily doing that, according to MC Development's Tyler Morse.

Design Hotels taps Marriott engines. The company is launching a new Affiliation Model this summer, which will fully connect member hotels to its parent company’s distribution and loyalty programs.

Why HotelTonight could be key to Airbnb’s post-pandemic playbook. So far, the company operated pretty quietly within Airbnb. Coming out of the pandemic there will be a larger desire for “spontaneous travel,” which was an initial guiding principle of HotelTonight.

OTAs seeing sharp rise in traffic and engagement. Visits to airline and hotel websites up as consumers are ready to travel post-pandemic. According to Similarweb’s 2022 Travel Industry Insights Report, since January, traffic to top domains in the car rental, hotel and vacation rental sectors has been at or above levels seen in those months during 2019.

US: OTA vs. supplier-direct. In 2021, OTAs regained share of the total online market, rising from 35% to 37%. However, supplier websites maintained their majority stake in the U.S. online travel market, with a 63% share of online gross bookings.

Best apps for travelers. Find a flight fast, grab some food, wait out that layover, and more with these specialized apps and sites.

We're booking with agents. Confidence in booking direct has plummeted among older travelers, new research by Silver Travel Advisor suggests.

Rob Torres leaves Google for Expedia. Torres joins Expedia Group from Google, where he spent the last 15 years as managing director of advertising and marketing for its travel division.

Booking.com's Genius loyalty program gets a third level of benefits. Larger discounts and more travel rewards that never expire. In addition to the free breakfasts and free room upgrades, the newest tier promises members priority customer support with a live agent for those times when things don’t go to plan.

The travel business is like the soda business. The industry is jumping on the subscription bandwagon to lock in customers and increases profits. Hotels and resorts are introducing subscription plans to attract the work-from-anywhere workforce and the growing number of leisure travelers who want to go to more places and stay longer.

OTAs tried and trusted methods back en vogue. Marketing spend by the leading online travel companies rocketed in 2021. In the final quarter of 2021, Booking Holdings spent some $974 million on marketing, a considerable jump from the $386 million in the corresponding quarter in 2020.

Three key developments in the U.S. OTA market. Supplier websites maintained majority stake in the U.S. online travel market with a 63% share of online gross bookings. According to Phocuswright’s U.S. Online Travel Agency Market Report 2021-2025, OTAs delivered $65.2 billion in gross bookings in 2021, reaching 82% of pre-pandemic levels.

Airlines pull back capacity. Major U.S. airlines announced that they are reining in capacity due to high fuel prices. The moves, coupled with what airlines say is surging demand, could send ticket prices soaring.

Accommodation for Ukraine. Google has added a new attribute for some hotel listings to specify if they offer free or discounted accommodations for people displaced from Ukraine.

Expedia on a more collaborative path with hotels. The two sides have a clearer path to a more holistic partnership than ever before. Expedia sees the Marriott and IHG wholesale distribution deals as proof of the power it can have to benefit hotel companies, rather than just being a basic booking platform.

Travelzoo creates Metaverse division. The company will not produce Metaverse destinations and experiences itself, but will work with creators to make experiences exclusively available to Travelzoo META members.

The Airbnb effect. More and more people are now choosing to rent out their homes through Airbnb to fight the costs of rising inflation and make some extra money.

Hotel distribution in China today. Understanding the unconventional world of hotel distribution in China. Chinese hotels, in particular chains, have become obsessed with the concept of converting public traffic to private traffic and growing their membership database.

Expedia ceases sales to and from Russia. Online travel world split over how to approach the moment. Unlike Booking Holdings, Google Travel, Airbnb, and Tripadvisor, Expedia stepped out of the pack and ceased offering travel to and from Russia because of Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Book on Google for Hotels to end. The company will shut down its “Book on Google” option for hotels as of May 25 due to low usage from both partners and consumers.

Tripadvisor Plus on life support. The company admits it hasn’t yet found a viable formula for subscriptions. Despite the company expressing confidence in Plus when it scrapped its business model in September, Tripadvisor admitted last week "we haven't found the product-market fit that we're looking for."

Travelport considering IPO. An IPO would be the second for Travelport, as Blackstone took it public in 2014 in a $480 million listing at a market value of almost $2 billion.

Expedia: Workcation isn't a cure for vacation deprivation. Report sheds light on uncomfortable reality of pandemic-era flexible work arrangements. While many Americans made the best of this new-found flexibility by taking a "workcation" (traveling to a new destination and working remotely), most don't consider these to be "true" vacations.

Tripbam updates its RFP tool. The company revised its Smart Sourcing for hotels tool with input from major hotel chains including Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels and Accor.

How Hopper works for hotels. The app analyzes how people book hotels and then creates a web of statistical data to foretell the best time to book a deal.

Booking.com to slash three thousand jobs globally. Plans to outsource nearly all of its customer service operations. The OTA has 14 customer service centers worldwide, and in the coming months will transfer 12 of them to Majorel, a Luxembourg-based customer service outsource firm.

Expedia sees ‘solid return to travel’ as profits top expectations. The world has essentially gotten accustomed to the pandemic. Consumer travel in the age of COVID-19 is moving into a new phase of manageable risk and minor inconvenience as the Omicron variant starts to decline.

Trivago eyes growth through tech. The company says innovation, marketing to raise brand awareness and broadening products and services are key levers for its future growth.

Booking.yeah. Looking to tap into the ‘tremendous’ desire to travel, Booking.com is reviving its “Booking.yeah” campaign in its first-ever Super Bowl commercial.

The Peloton hotel finder. If you want the ability to join in on your favorite live and on-demand classes on your next trip, consult the Peloton hotel finder - yes, that's a thing.

Developing the optimal hotel commercial mix in 2022. Managing the right channel mix more difficult than ever. While hotel demand came back in a big way, that doesn't mean the job of finding the right demand for the right hotel has gotten any easier.

SiteMinder partners with Hopper. SiteMinder customers can now directly accessing Hopper’s 70 million users, 70 percent of whom classify as Generation Z and millennials.

Booking.com to pay $17M fine. A Moscow court rejected the company's appeal against a fine in relation with alleged violation of the antimonopoly legislation.

Hopper upgrades its valuation to $5B. The mobile travel booking startup has been on a fast pace of growth in the wake of Covid-19 travel restrictions loosening up in the last year.

2022: New challenges for Airbnb. The company survived Covid, but crisis mode in “sharing” economy stays. Airbnb's next act will largely depend on the same level of devotion to its customers that was required early on, in order to win using a gig economy business model that many investors remain skeptical on.

Can Expedia become the Nike of travel?. Super Bowl ads may be big steps toward building travel's iconic brand. At more than 25 years old, the company knows that it has to adapt if it wants to remain relevant. The pandemic has only increased that urgency.

Google tutorial on getting free hotel booking links. Step-by-step instructions for setting up free hotel booking links. Introduced in March 2021, free booking links provide free traffic directly to your website and can be used in conjunction with Google Hotel Ads to maximize exposure.

OTAs will need to adapt to traveler needs moment to moment. New technologies play a critical role in delivering proactive and personalized services. As travelers look for more guidance booking their trip, travel apps will make the move from transactional interactions to a trusted travel companion.

Indirect distribution particularly important in the European travel marketplace. Travel intermediaries will play a significant role in the recovery of the industry. Travel intermediaries such as OTAs, tour operators and TMCs – supported by enabling technologies like GDSs – deliver over 63% of gross revenue to European travel suppliers in 2020.

TikTok’s travel guides. The pandemic gave rise to a host of new virtual tour guides, eager to share their hometowns and unusual expertise.

Google represents ongoing threat to OTAs. OTA market value decreased 60.4% YoY in 2020. Struggling OTAs will rely more and more heavily on Google Search traffic as they look to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

MEWS: On winning the booking. An expert panel considers important questions about driving direct bookings, the roles of OTAs, and the importance of leveraging Google.

STAAH: Top online channels for 2021. The lists, which vary across 10 of the world’s popular travel destinations, reveal a broader range of consumer choices, although common preferences stand-out.

Tripadvisor's year in review. More than 44 million new travelers joined the Tripadvisor community in 2021 and 2.5 million travelers posted a review for the first time in a year.

How Airbnb built software to become friends with local governments. Today more than 100 municipalities are using the system. The company's latest project, City Portal, is a collection of tools and data dashboards meant to mend Airbnb's often fraught relationships with local government leaders.