Weekend Review: Booking.com Goes Beyond the Hotel + Building the Perfect Airline Seat

The Travel Industry's Daily Agenda-Setting Newsletter

July 1, 2017 View in browser

At Skift, we believe in living the brand, even if that means losing a week of productivity to explore a new destination. So while we were eating our way through Montreal, news was still happening. Fortunately, we were still on top of it as you can see from the stories below. Because we are based in New York, we will be taking off Monday and Tuesday as well, to celebrate the national holiday. We will be bringing you new stories again on Wednesday, and we hope those of you who can have a break, take a break. — Jason Clampet, Editor-in-Chief Start Here Booking.com Is Expanding Beyond Hotels and Into Flights, Cars and Restaurants The Priceline Group has been looking at adding flights to its largest site, Booking.com, for years, but has hesitated for fear of detracting from its core hotels product. But in this case, taking a "stronger together" approach and leveraging the group's other in-house brands could ultimately pay off. Designing an Airline Seat From Scratch Is Not as Easy as it Looks Building a coach airline seat is not like creating home furniture. Building stuff for aircraft is remarkably complicated. We got an inside look recently at the production center for an aircraft seat maker. Here's some of what we learned. Don't Expect Hotel Companies to Stop Launching New Soft Brands Anytime Soon Why? They make money. And they're easier to roll out than a "hard brand." (Thus, why those are "hard.") New Research Report: The State of Consumer Payments in Travel 2017 Consumer adoption of new payment methods and devices for settling purchases is the main driver of adoption by companies. Yet travel companies can gain a valuable competitive advantage by predicting trends in payments and making payments as easy as possible for everyone. Lastminute.com Group CEO: We Consider Ourselves a Media Company It's clear from his answers that Fabio Cannavale will keep looking to buy more companies. He thinks there are plenty of companies for sale and he's got some cash on hand. New This Month—Meeting Planners Guide To Best Keynote Speakers 2017 Conferences, events, and meetings are a multibillion-dollar industry in the U.S. Often the success of an event depends on having a great speaker. With that on the line, what tips can meeting planners use to ensure they identify the best talent? Find out now in our new report. Get Your Free Copy Business of Dining Out We've been ramping up for coverage of the restaurant industry, and this week's editions of the Chefs+Tech newsletter brought you both a mix of top headlines from the industry as well as original reporting and an insightful Q&A with an industry CEO. And this was our week off. Chefs+Tech: Resy's CEO Talks the State and Future of In-Restaurant Technology No longer just a reservations startup, Resy has emerged as a thoughtful leader in restaurant tech. Expect much more as they continue to work with top-tier partners like Union Square Cafe to develop hospitality technology that quietly powers guest experiences. Chefs+Tech: Food Leads the Way as Unused Spaces Morph into New Destinations Business Travel Business Travel Startups and Services for Those In-Between Moments A series of innovators are trying to address the moments between arrival and check-in, work and play, and other found moments. Are Travel Managers Missing Out When They Don't Solicit Business Traveler Feedback? A Busy Week for Ban News — Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report Hotels What Next-Level Hotels Have in Common: 5 Podcast Takeaways A hotel that's just a hotel is so passé. Today's successful hospitality brand knows that the hotel is the first chapter of a long story of connected experiences. Hyatt Adds Miraval to Make Its Loyalty Program More Attractive Hotel CEOs Love Direct Booking But They Have Varied Views About Strategy Airlines Many United Airlines Awards Flights Will Soon Cost More Miles Starting July 1, United will begin hawking Chase-branded credit cards on board, with flight attendants earning a $50 commission for each approval. Will the flight attendants remind customers that they'll need a lot more miles for some trips starting later this year? We doubt it. Interview: SAS CEO Explains Why the Airline Embedded a Microchip in Employee's Hand Airline Laptop Ban Will Be Relaxed if Additional Security Measures Are Achieved Tourism International Tourist Spending in U.S. at Record High Heading into Summer We won't call it a Trump bump but we do see some kind of increase occurring in international visitor spending so far this year. But spending seems to be down since February. The Summer travel season should provide more clarity. Trump Travel Ban Partially Upheld by Supreme Court in Temporary Ruling Orlando and Birmingham Leaders Grapple With Tourism Identities They Didn't Want For Gmail users: If you are using the tabbed inbox, Skift emails may be pushed to the 'Promotions' tab. To get updates from Skift direct to your primary inbox, drag and drop this email to that tab. You received this email because you are subscribed to Skift Daily Newsletter from Skift.

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