We begin this week's Update with the announced acquisition of Getaroom by Booking Holdings. Enjoy.
Booking Holdings to Acquire Getaroom
("Booking Holdings to Acquire Getaroom for $1.2
Billion," November 12, 2021 via Phocus Wire)
On Friday (November 12), Booking Holdings announced one of its
largest acquisitions in some time – the $1.2 billion purchase
of B2B platform, Getaroom. At closing, Getaroom will join
Priceline's strategic partnerships team, Priceline Partner
Network, which, Priceline claims, will result in new and improved
B2B distribution opportunities for its hotel suppliers.
Amadeus Announces Value-Based Agreement With Delta Airlines
("Amadeus Enters Into Value-Based Distribution Deal
With Delta," November 10, 2021 via Travel Weekly)
Seeking to leverage global distribution systems' (GDS) improved
merchandising platforms (through which suppliers like Delta can
display a full range of ancillary and premium products), Delta has
struck its third value-based distribution agreement – this
time with Amadeus. Like Delta's previous agreements with Sabre
(May) and Travelport (August), this latest agreement allows Delta
to move away from flat transaction fees to value-based fees
determined by the value of each booking. As hotels consider
attribute-based pricing (see our prior story) or alternative uses of their services
and amenities (e.g., day use, co-working, etc.), can hotels'
use of these new GDS merchandising platforms be far behind?
Is This the End of the Travel Advisor?
("U.S. Travel Agencies Can't Cope With Demand
Because of Advisor Shortage," November 9, 2021 via Skift)
(subscription may be required)
As the travel industry continues to return to "normalcy,"
one thing has become increasing clear. The industry's labor
shortage is likely to have a profound and potentially long-lasting
effect. This week's example – the endangered travel
advisor. With 62 percent of U.S. travel advisors either laid off or
furloughed in 2020, and travel agency owners either unwilling or
unable to rehire advisors, clients desperate to travel have two
choices – postpone or even cancel their travel plans or find
some other booking alternative. As we noted a few weeks earlier, there is growing evidence that those
travelers who not willing to wait are beginning to use booking
alternatives. Neither choice is good for the industry. Postponing
travel or not traveling at all is obviously not good for anyone
– particularly the millions employed globally in the travel
industry. A wholesale shift in booking behavior (similar to the
dramatic shift that occurred post 9/11) presents its own
challenges. Travel advisors play critical roles in the travel
ecosystem, particularly for those suppliers with a wide variety of
customizable products and services (think cruise, tours and luxury
travel). Not only are many of the these booking alternatives (even
direct channels) poorly suited to promote and "sell" (or
upsell or cross sell) these products and services, but as history
has shown, many of these third-party channels become prohibitively
expensive and difficult to manage as they grow in popularity and
begin to yield considerable market power.
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