Weekend Review: Airbnb’s IPO Challenges + Norwegian Air’s Growth Problem

The Travel Industry's Daily Agenda-Setting Newsletter

August 5, 2017 View in browser

We celebrated our fifth birthday this week as anyone else would in our situation: dropping some amazing stories on top of you. One of these was 12,000 word examination of where Airbnb is at right now and the big things it must consider (or deal with) before any initial public offering on the stock market, or really just before it moves on to the next stage of the business. We also looked at Norwegian Air's growth problem; namely, it's growing too fast to make investors completely comfortable. In addition to the written stories, we released a 9-minute documentary about the state of overtourism in Barcelona, our first attempt at video. The response by readers/viewers soundly beat our expectations, so we're moving fast to get you something new very soon. — Jason Clampet, Editor-in-Chief Missed Last Month's Research Report? In July, the Skift Research team launched one of its most comprehensive reports. Coming in at 45,000 words, this report takes a deep dive look at Ctrip as well as the Chinese online travel market as whole. Buy Report Now Top Stories This Week Documentary: Barcelona and the Trials of 21st Century Overtourism We're excited to go deep into one of the more pressing issues in travel today in our first ever original short film. Airbnb's Road to an IPO: Everything You Could Possibly Need to Know We all know Airbnb will go public someday — it's just a question of when. When will it finally be ready — and what does the company need to do before it does? AccorHotels Finds Competing With Expedia Is Harder Than Expected The candid comments of the Accor CFO show just how difficult it is for hotel companies to compete with the big online travel agencies. You can't do it half-heartedly and AccorHotels will have to decide how much effort it is willing to put in to the initiative. Travelers Love Spunky Norwegian Air. But What About Investors? Norwegian wins lots of awards, and they're well-deserved. But investors aren't sure the carrier will produce major profits any time soon. The problem? It may be growing too quickly. Ctrip and Skyscanner: A Look at How the Deal Went Down Ctrip's purchase of Skyscanner continued the trend of metasearch consolidation and should provide Ctrip with support for its outbound and inbound businesses. Digital Hyatt Isn't Abandoning Expedia Just Yet as the Two Sides Reach Agreement in Principle The Hyatt-Expedia crisis seems to be averted, for now. Kayak Acquires Assets of Struggling Brazilian Metasearch Company Mundi Skyscanner had been sniffing around Brazil's homegrown metasearch leader Mundi and checking its books. Kayak appears to have swooped in to shore up market share. TripAdvisor's Global Food Delivery Expansion Pressures Hotels to Adapt TripAdvisor has expanded its food delivery service outside the U.S. and Canada, part of its strategy to grow non-hotel revenues. More travelers can chow on crisp-fried shrimp paste chicken comfortably in their rooms. Hotels have no choice but to say bon appetit. Guest Experience Five Takeaways From Choice Hotels' Second Quarter Earnings Call Choice Hotels' message to investors? "Don't worry. We got this." Wyndham Is Spinning Off Its Timeshare Business Like Marriott, Starwood and Hilton Before It We had a hunch this would happen, but who knew it would happen so quickly? And how will Wyndham pursue that "blue thread" of loyalty strategy between its hotel and timeshare businesses? And what will happen to its vacation rental business? Hyatt Is Investing in the Sharing Economy Again, This Time With Oasis We like to think of this as Hyatt's payback for AccorHotels stealing away onefinestay last year. Tourism WTTC Appoints Mexico's Gloria Guevara Manzo as Its First Female CEO WTTC is staying committed to its goal of helping the global travel industry speak with one voice. But with Guevara's appointment, it's signaling the need for more women in leadership roles and the importance of Latin America's tourism growth. A Brief History of Personality-Driven Luxury Travel Companies These four entrepreneurs took the first steps toward what would become modern adventure and luxury travel, and their first-hand accounts hold lessons — and entertainment — for all those who followed in their wake. Royal Caribbean Says Just About Everything Is Going Right Royal Caribbean Cruises has stuck by its plan to avoid lowering fares to fill up ships, and that strategy appears to be working. But the cruise operator is benefitting from a lot of other factors right now too. Business Travel Business of Loyalty: Using Big Data to Measure Sentiment Across Loyalty Programs Until the time comes when airlines need to compete for customers again, passenger sentiment many not matter. Chatbots Are the Future of Meeting and Event Communication and Networking The increased acceptance and use of chatbots and AI is changing the way event and meeting professionals connect with attendees and making events more efficient for the planners and the attendees. Altour Joins Travel Leaders Group in Latest Travel Agency Consolidation Move The big are getting even bigger. The combined entity of Travel Leaders Group and Altour will be a strong competitor in the U.S. and abroad. 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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