Weekend Review: Marriott's Loyalty Mashup + Facial Recognition Is Boarding Pass Killer

The Travel Industry's Daily Agenda-Setting Newsletter

April 21, 2018 View in browser

Note From the Editor Even before Marriott acquired Starwood in 2016, Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson knew that getting the loyalty program integration right would be one of his highest — and most complex — priorities. The company announced this week that beginning in August members of its three loyalty programs would be able to book stays and accumulate points across 29 of its 30 brands. Complete integration, including a loyalty rebranding, is slated for 2019. Let's just say that a ton of heavy lifting remains and the whole hospitality industry will be watching. Speaking of watching, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is mulling a broader rollout of facial recognition software at airports so it can monitor travelers' comings and goings without using boarding passes. Will they go the way of paper tickets one day? That's the plan. — Dennis Schaal, Executive Editor Did You Miss the Latest Skift Research? In 2018, hospitality loyalty programs incite conflicting opinions on their overall success and their ability to drive true loyalty. Skift Research analyzed perspectives on hospitality loyalty in our latest Report, complete with consumer sentiment analysis of eight major brands' loyalty programs from 2013-2017. Learn More Top Stories Marriott Finally Reveals How It Will Combine All 3 of Its Loyalty Programs How much do we want to bet that the new loyalty brand that debuts next year turns out to be Marriott Preferred Guest? Or better yet, just Marriott Rewards? Homeland Security Facial Passenger Scans For U.S. Airports May Go Nationwide With the ongoing backlash against companies improperly sharing and using data in recent months, facial scans will be a tough sell to many travelers especially if they're implemented by the government. Booking Holdings CEO: We're on the Road Toward Going Full-Service Evolve or be crushed. That's CEO Glenn Fogel's philosophy about business in general and Booking Holdings in particular. But the move toward becoming more of a full-service online travel agency comes with the risk of losing focus on accommodations. No one ever said all this online travel agency stuff is easy. Booking Holdings Buys Activities Distribution Startup FareHarbor Only a couple of years ago, the CEO of family-owned activities distributor FareHarbor said the company would never sell. But never say never. For Booking Holdings, this is further proof that the giant wants to be full-service. United Moving Ahead With Making Business Class More Sleep-Friendly United's first quarter earnings call was uneventful. For an airline that has had more than its share of drama over the past four years, that's a good thing. Flying How Damaging Will a 60 Minutes Report Be to Allegiant Air? The 60 Minutes report on Sunday about Allegiant Air was solid, serious journalism. But it wasn't much of a surprise to industry insiders, who have known about the carrier's issues for awhile. Will executives have to deal with a wider fallout now? Southwest's Engine Type Considered Among Most Reliable Despite Recent Issues The pictures from Southwest Flight 1380 are scary. But flying remains incredibly safe. Investigators will undoubtedly figure out what happened, and when they do, flying will be even safer. Virgin America as Standalone Brand Disappears Next Week After acquiring Virgin America, Alaska Airlines will switch to a single reservations system next week. The company is confident it will avoid some of the problems other airlines have faced after cutovers. We tend to agree. Let's hope it's a non-event. Digital TripAdvisor Buys Tours and Activities Tech Provider Bokun as Connectivity Race Heats Up We said there would be more consolidation in the tours and activities space, and the ink was hardly dry when TripAdvisor announced the acquisition of Bokun. This enables TripAdvisor to provide an end-to-end solution without having to rely on third party vendors to bring tours and activities suppliers on board. JetBlue's Venture Arm Invests in a Startup That Predicts Flight Delays If venture-backed startup Lumo has its way, more travelers will avoid flight cancellations thanks to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. No wonder that JetBlue, EasyJet, and other companies are interested. TripAdvisor Attractions Unit Will Rebrand as Experiences And the winner is ... "experiences." It's a trendy way these days to refer to what formerly were known as tours and activities or attractions. Following Airbnb and Booking.com, TripAdvisor's new business unit will be called TripAdvisor Experiences. Breathing is an experience and living is an experience. Does the name du jour really reflect tour and activities offerings? Hospitality Airbnb Launching an Effort to Address Overtourism It Helped Create The Airbnb effect has helped transform many neighborhoods around the world, and some before they were fully ready for mass tourism. The company is acknowledging that it knows it has an impact. But let's see if major cities where the real problems exist will get the same treatment as rural villages in Africa. A Veteran Hotel Designer on the Fallacy of Instagrammable Moments Gimmicky, Instagram-driven designs are out. Solid, functional, and inspiring design, however, never goes out of style. Airbnb's Response to Paris Lawsuit Is the Same Old Story Airbnb has crafted an ideal template for telling the same old story when it comes to dealing with short-term rental regulations around the world, and more cities just don't seem to want to hear it anymore. Tourism Pot Tourism Is Growing But Some Destinations Still Take a Sober Approach Pot tourism isn't the first trend to get the cold shoulder from the travel industry. Just ask the LGBTQ and black travel communities, for example. Travelers will likely spend millions of dollars on pot, anyway, and will find out how to do so with or without the travel industry's help. Cuba Is Attracting More Cruise Visits as Traditional Travel Gets Complicated While Americans lost some of the ability to explore Cuba on their own due to restrictions put in place by the Trump administration, cruise ships are offering organized trips approved by the U.S. government. That seems to be working out well for operators, who are eager to increase their presence in the destination. Lindblad CEO Wants Expedition Travel to Stay Niche More people are visiting hard-to-reach destinations, and the travel companies that take them there are reckoning with the impact of the higher volume of tourists. How much growth is too much? We'll probably find out in the coming years. Corporate Travel Risking Jail Time for a Better Business Travel Experience Employees game business travel rules all the time. Now that Scott Pruitt has been outed for trying to take advantage of U.S. taxpayers, it's worth considering the fact that nobody really wants to fly in economy class or stay in a crappy hotel. New Wyndham Branding Should Enhance Its Loyalty Proposition While a new branding campaign by Wyndham may foreshadow some turbulence ahead for the hotel group, on the surface it will make it easier to find and book network hotels. Meetings Airbnb's New Events Tool Is a Major Missed Opportunity Airbnb has formally entered the meetings and events sector with a simple widget and landing page. It will be much more interesting when Airbnb decides to use its platform to sell actual meeting space to organizers, since a global race is on among technology platforms to crack the online booking market for small and simple meetings. Meeting Planners and Travel Agents Prepare for a Reinvention Amid Hotel Commission Cuts Travel agents and meeting planners feel betrayed by Marriott's – and now Hilton's – move to cut commissions on group bookings. They're grappling with ways to deal with the cuts, even as they fear more hotel companies may follow suit. It's not personal, though; it's strictly business. 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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