Marketing

The first time Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel coined the term “connected trip” as a formal corporate strategy in public was during the company's second-quarter earnings call in 2019 . Fogel laid out the vision as follows: “Our long-term vision is what we call the connected trip ... It is about building a seamless, holistic system that gives and does everything for the traveler, makes their lives easier and gives value to them.” Seven years in, the “connected trip” has outlasted even generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a quarterly earnings buzzword. A beautiful corporate vision in investor decks and completely nonexistent in reality. Booking.com has in the meantime successfully diversified from its core accommodation; their standalone flight volumes now compete head-to-head against the leading flight online travel agencies (OTAs) in scale, and their cross-selling engine from accommodation bookings to transfers, rental cars and activities is firing on all cylinders. But behind the scenes, these services still live in completely separate universes. The moment your journey hits a snag, you realize there is no omniscient customer support team ready to patch your itinerary back together. The industry's most popular travel combo, flight + hotel, which was pioneered by Expedia back in internet prehistory in 2001, remains in Booking.com a basic Lastminute.com white label that lives outside the travel giant's massive account and loyalty ecosystem. Why has the grand vision of seamless travel been indefinitely delayed? It comes mostly down to three major technical and legal roadblocks. The outsources flight ‘glue’ For a platform built on accommodations, flights are the natural “glue” that starts a travel itinerary and dictates the timing of hotels, cars and activities. However, Booking.com historically outsourced the majority of its flight fulfillment to Etraveli under its Gotogate brand. Booking Holdings attempted to acquire Etraveli to gain full operational control, but that plan collapsed in 2023 due to intense European Union antitrust concerns , leaving the critical flight layer disconnected from the accommodation and rest of travel services. The outcome? If you look closely today at the fine print of a flight booked through Booking.com , you usually land in Gotogate’s cobranded terms and conditions , where chapter seven, “Special Provisions for the Mediation of Bookings of Multiple Services” describes in typical legal jargon the very opposite of what the connected trip vision should stand for, essentially stating, “We will happily let you mix and match your own connected trip, but the second a flight gets canceled, we legally transform into an innocent bystander.” The merchant payment quest To actually pull off the connected trip, Booking had to rebuild its financial plumbing. Under its successful agency model, the travel giant just passed your card details to the hotel to handle; but to connect multiple travel services into one single journey, it had to pivot to a “merchant” model where it takes the cash directly for the full transaction. According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, this payment infrastructure overhaul successfully flipped the Booking Holdings' business from a 27%

🛫 On September 23, 2025, Sabre enabled AI-ready connections for hotel bookings on its platform, which includes 2 million hotels. This platform handles sorting through over fifty petabytes of data from airlines, hotels, and agencies. Current hotel file descriptions might date back to 2018 or 2019, remaining unchanged. The shift emphasizes the importance of keeping hotel records updated, as agents read only structured files, not websites.

📊 Jul 27, 2026, by Markus Busch. Wholesale room-nights appear as occupancy wins, but discerning between unreachable guests and those who would book directly is crucial. Effective use of wholesale channels means targeting markets and dates you can't reach independently, ensuring bookings are truly incremental. Ring-fencing, opaque pricing, and dynamic channel management are key strategies. Identifying if a booking is genuinely incremental or substitutive is essential to avoid subsidizing unnecessary discounts. Evaluate data quarterly to refine strategies.

📈 Jul 27, 2026: Google announced the launch of AI Max, now supporting over 500,000 advertisers. IHG is the first hotel to secure a "Direct Offers" spot, invited by Google outside the open auction. This AI system claims a 15% increase in conversions and a 20% boost in ad relevance. Highlighted Answers, featuring sponsored links, are being tested. The paid AI answer slots, initiated with IHG, could later expand from invitation-only to self-serve.

🏠 Airbnb's new French campaign highlights the country's rich social history and rural tourism, leveraging the nostalgia of the 1936 paid vacation days. France, Airbnb’s second-largest market, reached 1 million active listings in May 2026, a 27% increase over three years. The 2025 Tour de France boosted Airbnb bookings by 155% in host cities, drawing 45 million French viewers. Airbnb partners with local mayors and heritage charities, focusing its marketing on rural and small-town rentals.

This post was originally published on this site. Tune in to the latest Social Success Series Podcast episode featuring special guest and Social Media Manager at Remington Hospitality, Anneleise McEvoy! …

This article was written by Travolution. Click here to read the original article As free cancellation and ‘pay at the hotel’ options increase in popularity, Agoda highlights how accommodation partners…

Hospitality distribution is complex, and for many professionals, especially those growing into leadership roles, finding the confidence to speak up can take time. Knowing what to say and how much to explain is not always straightforward. Lauren Cannon, Senior Director of Product Management at Expedia, speaks about building clarity, confidence, and influence in hospitality distribution, and why this starts with focusing on the problem rather than trying to have every answer. Please note: This written interview is based on episode 5 of the Hospitality Distribution Chats podcast. The content has been edited for readability. Watch the full episode here. Finding a path into distribution Natalie Kimball: How did you get started in hospitality distribution? Lauren Cannon: I didn’t plan to work in distribution or technology. Early in my career, I joined an ownership group building a hotel from the ground up, literally, starting with a hole in the ground and a very small team. With no dedicated technology team, someone had to figure out systems and connectivity. Despite having no technical background, I decided to step in and learn. Through a lot of trial and error, we implemented the systems that supported the hotel, spa, and restaurant. This was around 2006–2007, when connectivity was still evolving. The experience gave me a unique perspective, combining hands-on technology learning with a deep understanding of hotel operations—two perspectives I still rely on today. Creating your own opportunities NK: Many people want to move into more technical or product roles. How should they think about that transition? Lauren Cannon: There isn’t a single path into these roles. It often comes down to timing, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait for opportunities to appear. You can create them by being curious and stepping into areas that aren’t clearly defined. That’s where most of the learning happens. Mentorship is also important, but I don’t think of it as one person. I’ve learned from many people along the way, picking up different perspectives and approaches. Over time, that helps you build your own way of thinking and communicating. Communicating with confidence in complex environments NK: In this industry, we often walk into rooms with senior leaders or stakeholders, and someone may put you on the spot and ask, “Can we do this?” or “Can we actually solve this?” How do you navigate that moment? Lauren Cannon: The first thing I try to understand is what problem is actually being asked. If someone is asking, “Can we deliver on X?” or “Can we make the traveler experience better?” or “Can we make a hotelier’s life easier?” then the answer is not always to start with the technical explanation. The answer starts with understanding the problem, the options on the table, and what we would recommend. If I know the answer, I will try to make it crisp, especially for a senior leadership audience. If I do not know, I will say something like, “Here is what we are trying to solve. Here is how I understand

🌍 Gen Z travelers shun package holidays, favoring curated, exclusive experiences over predictable trips. They seek unique destinations, often requiring visas and precise planning. Gen Z expects instant responses and Instagrammable offerings, leveraging mobile apps and social media trends. Personalization is crucial, with boutique properties and authentic experiences catching their interest. As older Gen Zs approach 30, opportunities for travel agents to plan significant events like honeymoons arise, making it essential to engage this demographic now.