Both Priceline and Orbitz reported higher revenue and profits than expected in the third quarter, despite a travel industry-wide lull. So, why are the online travel agencies doing well when other aspects of travel are flailing?
Some say it’s because the leisure travel market is recovering faster than business travel, but I also think that an [...]

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Major hotel companies have been unable to break the habits of consumers from visiting OTAs in favor of looking and booking at the brand’s proprietary sites.
The end result is millions upon millions of dollars being funneled away from individual hotels and into the pockets of the smarter, faster and better marketed OTAs.
Now that hotel rates [...]

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User reviews generated anonymously will become obsolete moving forward as consumers seek professional advice backed up by recommendations from friends and family.
Oyster unveiled its service in June and currently provides hotel reviews for major cities in the US as well as Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Hawaii and the Bahamas.
Elie Seidman, co-founder and chief executive of of [...]

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Simon Cooper, who has led Ritz-Carlton for the past eight years, talks with Forbes magazine about what makes Ritz-Carlton, well, the Ritz.
Ritz-Carlton has become a leading brand in luxury lodging by rigorously adhering to its own standards. It is the only service company in America that has won the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award twice, [...]

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Hotel operators, who recall past cycles when booming growth came after business downturns “have to get over the idea that things are going to get back to the way they were,” said Lalia Rach, the dean of the hospitality program at the Tisch Center.
Every couple of months, I like to take the temperature of the [...]

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The current economy is a bumpy trail for many travel marketers. But Backroads is finding a clear path thanks to postcard mailings using personal URLs and other digital enhancements.
The high-end adventure travel company — which markets trips typically costing between $2,500 and $4,500 — first tried the tactic last winter with a 30,000-piece campaign that [...]

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A report produced quarterly by Deloitte, the business advisory firm, has found that year-to-September hotel performance fell across Europe. Revenue per available room (revPAR) performance in European hotels was down 19.2% to €58. This decline was driven by a 12.3% drop in average room rates to €108, while occupancy levels fell to 61.6%.
Commenting, Alex Kyriakidis, [...]

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Expedia and other OTAs have long touted what has become known in the industry as “the billboard effect” whereby they have claimed that positioning on their sites generates not only bookings through the OTA but also a halo effect on the hotels’ own sites by generating brand awareness.
Non-loyal consumers start many of their searches at [...]

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In Ipsos Travel Barometer polling released this month, the number of respondents saying they’ll do more leisure travel in the next 12 months slightly topped the number saying they’ll do less, 19 percent to 15 percent.
In many cases, this isn’t just wishful thinking by consumers who are sick of being stuck at home. “What we [...]

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