Many travel companies that survived the pandemic have used the hiatus as an opportunity to reinvent themselves, or at least launch new lines of products that they may or may not have considered before masks and hand sanitizer became the required accessory.

This was one of the four takeaways at Skift’s online travel and sales summit that rolled into one virtual event on February 17th.

Product innovation from the time of the pandemic

saying in a Competition Founder and Senior Managing Director Greg O’Hara has raised more money for investments in the past year than in the past eight years announced The The private equity firm with huge investments in travel is considering more real estate investments.

Speaking of an upcoming hotel deal, O’Hara said to Skift founder Rafat Ali, “We’ll close our first deal in the next few weeks.”

O’Hara argued that, given Certares’ investments in companies like American Express Global Business Travel, Tripadvisor, Internova, and AMA Waterway, the company is one of the largest travel sellers in the world and uses the sometimes conflicting data it collects to make great impact.

to compete recently LED a $ 42 million Series C investment round for cabin rental startup Getaway and provided growth capital to small group tour operator G Adventures.

O’Hara said investing during the pandemic was “the easiest job I’ve ever had” but pushed back against the notion that valuations were low. “Things aren’t cheap, that’s a misnomer,” said O’Hara.

kayak Steve Hafner, co-founder and CEO, said the company was Start A business travel solution for small and medium businesses. A property management system for small and independent hotels will also be introduced. The sister company Booking.com tried to get into the B2B side of the hotel business a few years ago, but has largely withdrawn.

Hafner was not ready to provide many details about the property management system under development.

He argued that online travel agents will recover faster than metasearch or comparison shopping engines emerging from the pandemic, but that people will need to keep comparing prices in order for metasearch to stay relevant.

Eric Bergaglia, Booking.com According to the global head of housing and housing, the company is developing new features and products to adapt to the changing nature of work, travel and life. For example, the company has introduced weekly and monthly plans and is testing stays of a month or more in 14 cities.

However, Bergaglia said he doesn’t expect longer stays to exceed the volume of shorter reservations.

Lindsay Nelson, Chief Experience and Brand Officer Tripadvisortalked about the company new membership program, Tripadvisor Plus with subscriptions now available to a limited number of beta users, given the lack of innovation in the travel industry over the years.

On the business side, Tripadvisor Plus grants commission breaks to participating hotels that may offer discounts and offers members discounts and various benefits for hotel rooms and experiences.

Discounts won’t “get your emotional hearts racing,” said Nelson, so Tripadvisor wants to find a way to keep members occupied.

Nelson said that merchandising magic makes the retail experience more fun, and it contrasted the immersive brand experience of walking through an IKEA with shopping in a Bed, Bath & Beyond.

According to Nelson, Tripadvisor Plus hopes to serve the segment of highly engaged Tripadvisor users who the company hasn’t adequately monetized, as well as visitors looking for a deal.

Alfan Hendro, Traveloka According to the chief operating officer, the Indonesia-based online travel agency took advantage of the Covid crisis when travel stalled to invest heavily in financial services.

“Financial services are making very good progress,” he said told Change Editor-At-Large Raini Hamdi.

Christian Suwarna, CEO of Traveloka Experience and the company’s chief marketing officer, said the company will evolve from a traditional online travel agency into new areas of business focused on consumer interests, including more local and lifestyle services.

Short-term rental strength, but the hotels were strong

Short term rental companies from Expedia Group to Booking.com have recognized the strength of the sector over the past year, advocating the idea that much of it will remain.

But shift Referred to by Senior Research Analyst Wouter Geerts Skifts US Travel Tracker January 2021The growth in hotel stays exceeded that of private homes from August to January.

Several speakers at the summit admitted that the recovery of travel will be uneven and fraught with problems.

Play the long game

The pandemic gave companies sufficient resources to get away from the pressures of quarterly earnings a bit and build their businesses for the long term.

For example, Expedia Group’s Kern said the company won’t like a strategic asset Vrbo “Just to get a moment’s rating up.” He added that there “doesn’t make any sense for us to do this and then screw up the group’s overall strategy”.

Decius Valmorbida, President of Amadeus IT Group The travel department said the company hopes to become more of an integrator over time, helping distributors and vendors, including airports, work together instead of staying in separate silos.

And Traveloka officials said they could invest in the growth of financial and lifestyle services and turn to profitability when needed. Traveloka is considering going public.

Impressed but not distracted by Airbnb

It is clear that the travel industry is fixated and impressed by the trajectory of Airbnb, and be historic IPO.

Expedia Group’s Kern claimed Vrbo has gained some share of Airbnb’s share of markets where Vrbo is already strong and will devote resources to marketing other short-term rental brands in its portfolio, including Stayz in Australia.

He said Expedia Group will also “hardwire” short-term rental inventory into its online travel agency brands, including Expedia.com and Hotels.com, to better compete.

Kayak’s Hafner would not comment on whether Airbnb is overvalued at its $ 118 billion market cap – compared to $ 92 billion at its Booking Holdings – but added that the stock market appears to have different criteria for rating Airbnb used than others.

However, the travel industry will clearly have to take Airbnb action in the years to come.

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Photo Credit: Many online tour operators are looking at changing work as part of their offering. In an increasingly digital world, travel brands are required to offer buyers a variety of payment options in order to maximize their revenue. shift