Skift Take One hotel opening a day keeps the environmentalists away says Sebastien Bazin. Conceding that new hotel developments do no good for the planet, the Accor boss said he will continue to do so to support small, local economies. Josh Corder The development of new hotels goes directly against the global hospitality industry’s rally for sustainability, says the … [Read more...]

Skift Take Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin said opening fewer hotels would lessen the industry's environmental impact, but that hotels also do a lot of good for society. Josh Corder Net room growth is a key metric for any hotel group, but one which Accor assures it is growing with caution. Its CEO Sebastien Bazin said that developing new hotels comes with environmental … [Read more...]

Skift Take As the Chinese travel market embraces personalization, technology integration, and enhanced experiences, the industry needs to adjust to this ever-changing landscape. Peden Doma Bhutia Think China’s travel recovery is “sluggish?” Don’t say that to Calvin Chu, managing director and head of international vacation business at Alibaba’s Fliggy. Outbound … [Read more...]

Skift Take Today's podcast discusses Hilton's strong earnings, Taylor Swift's short-term rental impact, and Verb's host cuts. Rashaad Jorden Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, October 26. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today. Listen Now 🎧 Subscribe Apple … [Read more...]

In episode six of the Skift Ideas Podcast, Colin Nagy is joined by Bill Bensley, Founder of Bensley, a globally renowned designer celebrated for his award-winning contributions to the fields of architecture, landscape, and interior design. Bill, who is affectionately known as the “Willy Wonka of Design”, founded Bensley in 1990, which today is today a small atelier of youthful, energetic … [Read more...]

Skift Take Saudi's Prince Al Waleed has invested in - or bought - some of the world's most famous hotels, including The Plaza in New York and Four Seasons in Paris. Now, he's adding hotels in his own country. Josh Corder Saudi billionaire and royal family member Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud has snapped up a 50% stake in the upcoming Four Seasons resort in the … [Read more...]

Skift Take As the U.S. sees a return to pre-pandemic patterns of hotel demand, Asia Pacific appears to be roaring back. Sean O'Neill Hilton reported results on Wednesday that suggested a boom in U.S. hotel bookings after the pandemic has begun to run its course while surging reservations at Hilton’s international hotels appear to be compensating. During the third … [Read more...]

Skift Take Today's podcast discusses Beyonce's hotel bounce, Airbnb's New York City issues, and five airline themes for next week. Rashaad Jorden Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, October 25. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today. Listen Now 🎧 Subscribe Apple … [Read more...]

Skift Take The online travel scene in Asia characterized by fierce competition and high stakes. Booking.com knows that it needs to sort the payment issue and make sure any lingering concerns are put to rest if it wants to stay ahead in the game in the region. Peden Doma Bhutia Booking.com says its problem getting payments to European and Asian hotel partners is … [Read more...]

Skift Take "You won’t break my soul," Beyoncé sings. But her concert series might break some hotel booking records. Sean O'Neill We know out-of-town fans of Taylor Swift have boosted tourism in major cities in 2023. Beyoncé has her own power to lift hotel bookings, too. Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour dates in Europe and the U.S. overlapped with better-than-usual … [Read more...]

Skift Take Airbnb hosts in South Africa have surpassed their pre-pandemic revenue levels, and the online travel agency sees several reasons why growth should rise significantly in the next couple of years. Selene Brophy Airbnb has said that growing international revenue is a key plank in its plan to sustain its double-digit annual revenue growth. One of its target … [Read more...]

Skift Take If an alternative asset investor like Blackstone gets interested, things could get even more interesting. Same if European hotel giant IHG made a bid of its own. Sean O'Neill The talk of last week in Hotel World was Choice Hotels‘ hostile buyout offer for Wyndham, an offer Wyndham quickly rejected. So what comes next? “We’re pretty determined to … [Read more...]

Skift Take The market is skeptical that Choice's hostile takeover bid for Wyndham will be successful. The Skift Travel 200 sheds light on the hotel sector and the thinking behind this offer. Seth Borko Choice Hotels dropped a bombshell earlier this week when it went public with a hostile takeover bid for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Clearly Choice likes the deal … [Read more...]

Skift Take Google has been fined billions of dollars in the European Union for similar practices that are allegedly happening in the U.S. Justin Dawes Expedia increased spending 10 times over five years to advertise vacation home rentals on Google, but the online travel agency saw no increase in traffic because the search giant has been prioritizing its own flight … [Read more...]

Skift Take The IHG third quarter results are here. They don't provide much information on financial performance, but they show promising signs of recovery in China. Josh Corder IHG’s third-quarter results on Friday show the group is starting to benefit from the domestic travel resurgence in China, seeing improvements over 2019 for the first time in four … [Read more...]

Skift Take There's nothing quite as exciting in the corporate world than an unwelcome takeover offer. On this episode of the Skift Travel Podcasts, Skift's hotel experts deal with the drama. Sean O'Neill This week Choice Hotels publicly offered to acquire Wyndham Hotels & Resorts following months of private discussions between the two companies. This was pretty … [Read more...]

Skift Take Today's podcast examines changes to the Google Hotels platform, several travel tech acquisitions, and stronger pricing power for Premier Inn. Justin Dawes Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, October 19. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today. Listen Now 🎧 … [Read more...]

“As a company we are very bullish on the Indian opportunity.” – Santosh Kumar, Booking.com’s country manager for India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia.That’s how Kumar opened Booking’s “How India Travels” report release on Wednesday in Delhi, which cited several reasons for the optimism:  Projections show that travel spending among Indians is expected to go up from $150 billion in 2019 … [Read more...]

Skift Take Premier Inn says it has gained pricing power as 10% of all UK independent hotels have closed in the past few years. More remarkably, it says repeat guests made 86% of its bookings this year. It's a direct booking champ other hoteliers could learn from. Sean O'Neill Premier Inn’s owner Whitbread said on Wednesday that a shrinking supply of … [Read more...]

Skift Take Google is constantly tweaking its hotels platform and we see its latest iteration contributing directly to the democratization of the online travel industry. Pranavi Agarwal Skift Research conducted an extensive data-scraping of the Google Hotels platform to understand Google’s role in the hotel distribution landscape. We wanted to understand the … [Read more...]