Big consolidation in the travel management space this morning as Amex Global Business Travel has agreed to buy rival Hogg Robinson Group for around £400 million. The deal, which is subject to antitrust and other regulatory approval, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018. Interesting to…

Avvio has launched a conversational and transactional social media chatbot which integrates with its AI-driven booking engine, Allora. The bot has been developed in partnership with Dublin-based Webio and the first hotel to go live is The Kingsley in Cork, Ireland. The property is part of the Fota Collection….

Despite the name, ride share company Tesloop is not part of Elon Musk’s Tesla empire. Instead, the startup was the brainchild of a 16-year-old who wanted a Tesla. Fresh from his road test, Haydn Sonnad tried to convince his father Rahul Sonnad that he could offset the costs of…

Earnings calls generally get interesting towards the end. While it’s useful to hear how a business is doing, it’s equally revealing to hear how executives respond to analyst questions. Outside of the practiced company line, these questions often highlight some compelling questions. From the questions to the prepared remarks,…

Airbnb signed its first global hotel technology deal with SiteMinder, a provider of one of the top channel managers in the industry. The partnership will give traditional hospitality businesses – specifically small, boutique hotels and B&Bs — access to SiteMinder’s cloud platform to connect more easily with Airbnb’s customer…

Last month I spent a couple of days in Naples to meet a client. To keep the Italian-living-abroad-stereotype alive, every time I go back to the “BelPaese” I try to get as much good food as I can. I’ve been in Naples several times before, but I’ve never been…

Self-service hotel platform Xbed has announced RMB 100 million (approximately USD 16 million) as well as credit financing to the tune of hundreds of millions of Yuan in Series A funding. The investment was led by a government-backed industry fund. Founded in 2015, Xbed claims to be China’s first Internet…

Hotel meta Trivago has filed its first full-year accounts as a Nasdaq-listed company, revealing a billion-dollars-plus of revenues and a narrowing of net losses, while reminding the market of its exposure to the decisions of Priceline and Expedia. Revenues for the year of €1,035.4 million were 37% up compared…

Travel Ledger is a new initiative which is aiming to oversee a new B2B industry standard for settling non-air financial payments, in the same way that IATA’s BSP has become the global standard for the airline industry. It will be based on blockchain technology. Travel Ledger founder Roberto Da…

This is a viewpoint from Mitul Makadia, founder of Maruti Techlabs. In the 21st century, industries that resist integrating new technologies often lose their competitive edge. Businesses across the globe have realized how important it is to include contemporary digital technology to drive constant growth and revenue. The last decade has…