This article was written by Max Starkov, founder and director at HEBS Digital, a NextGuest Technologies Company. Price comparison engines, better known as metasearch engines or simply metasearch, have been around since 1995. Remember websites like BargainFinder, NetBot and Nextag? In travel, price comparison sites have been in existence…

Expedia Group is extending its Guest Insights technology to all hotels following a pilot in several markets. The system looks at data on a property, its competitors and other market intelligence to help hotels learn more about guests’ travel motivations and booking behavior. The company says the technology enables…

Booking Holdings is investing $200 million in and creating a strategic partnership with Grab Holdings, a Singapore-based on-demand transportation platform that operates in 235 cities in eight countries across Southeast Asia. Grab has raised more than $2 billion for its current round of financing – including $1 billion from…

Properly has raised $8.5 million to expand its cleaning and operations management platform for vacation rental managers. The Series A round was led by Asset Management Ventures, with participation from AccorHotels and travel investors including Ev Williams, Simon Lehmann, Fabio Cannavale and Tom Hale. Founded in 2014, San Francisco-based…

Why isn’t the travel startup survival rate higher than it is? Of the many challenges that consumer-focused travel startups may face, I assume that gaining mindshare and stickiness with customers is one of the biggest. For industry-enabling startups, two big challenges are in finding the right person in the…

MakeMyTrip Group has reported an increase of 27% to gross bookings of more than $1.2 billion for the second quarter of 2019 fiscal year. Adjusted revenue for the India-based online travel agency was up 25% for the period at $160 million. The company says it recorded its “highest ever”…

Phocuswright lives at the sweet spot where travel and technology converge. As a member of the travel tech community, it wants to explore the current state of gender parity in the space, and take the pulse of the community to see how it compares to the rest of the…

Travelers are increasingly relying on technology to assist with their travel experiences, however, some of their travel preferences and choices may deviate from common thinking. For example, only 15% of consumers turn to social media to help make travel-related decisions, and just 8% take into consideration political ethics, human…

Metasearch dates back to 1999, when both SideStep and FareChase launched as search engines that aggregated prices from other online sites. The following years saw many additional entrants into the metasearch arena – some created with that specific purpose, such as Skyscanner (2001), Kayak (2004) and Wego and Trivago…

Compared to other marketing channels such as social media, direct mail or paid search, email delivers the highest returns on investment for hoteliers. But the contents – and timing – of emails sent by hotels often determine how well any given campaign will perform. According to Revinate, a software…