BUSINESS NEWS
Booking Holdings plots path to ‘connected trips’
Ian Taylor
Booking.com highlighted its focus on developing “connected trips” as it reported its latest results, with chief executive Glenn Fogel confirming his aim to grow by replicating what travel agents do. Fogel, head of parent Booking
Holdings, emphasised the strategy in a Travel Technology Initiative (TTI) webinar, noting: “When you’re planning a trip you need a flight, a hotel and ground transport. You don’t want to go back and forth. You want it all connected and when something goes wrong you want one place to call.” He recalled: “My family used to
use a travel agent. She knew all about us. When something went wrong we called her and she fixed it. She kind of knew what we could afford and what we liked, so she didn’t waste our time. I want to do that but make it digital. Digital can do it better.” Fogel insisted: “This is a great
opportunity for suppliers to give us different services at different prices that we put together. That is what we’re working on.”
Lufthansa lauds US revival despite closed borders
Lufthansa reported the North Atlantic is back as “the most important long-haul market” despite the US remaining closed to European travellers. Chief executive Carsten Spohr
travelweekly.co.uk
said the three months to June marked “a major step out of the crisis” as he reported a €756 million loss for the quarter and
Glenn Fogel: ‘Digital can do it better [than human travel agents]’
Booking.com has been talking
about the “connected trip” for some time since acquiring FareHarbor, a tour operator software firm, in 2018. In November 2019, Fogel talked of “creating the connected trip” saying: “As the biggest player, we have the resources, the capital, the engineers, the technologists, the AI specialists.” Yet the extent of progress remains
unclear. The company does not break out any figures for connected trip bookings or revenue in its results. A Booking spokeswoman told
Travel Weekly: “Development of the connected trip this year will focus on
enabling travellers to book the major elements of their trip in one place. “The priority has been to scale
up a robust flight platform which will give us the ability to engage with flight bookers early in their travel journey and allow us to cross-sell accommodation and other services.” Booking Holdings reported a
half-year loss of $222 million to June, roughly 40% of the losses in the same period last year. Second-quarter sales totalled $22 billion, just 12% down on the same quarter in 2019. However, the number of room nights was 26% down on 2019 and revenues down 44%.
Expedia shrinks losses but ‘revival remains bumpy’
The Expedia Group more than halved its losses year on year in the three months to June, reporting a net loss of $301 million compared with a $753 million loss in the same quarter of 2020. Expedia’s half-year operating
loss was $501 million, reduced from $2.1 billion in 2020, but still left a $907 million net loss for the six months to June. However, comparisons with Expedia’s second- quarter results in 2019 give a more accurate sense of the recovery. Gross bookings remained 26%
down on 2019 in the three months to June and revenue 33% down driven by a recovery in the US domestic market. Expedia’s US domestic revenue in the quarter was just 6% down on 2019, compared with 71% down across international markets. Expedia chief executive Peter
Kern reported “strong vacation rental” and “improved conventional lodging [hotels] . . . offset by continued softness in international travel, corporate travel and consumer interest in smaller markets and lower-end accommodation”. He warned: “The road to full
travel recovery remains bumpy until more of the world is vaccinated.”
half-year losses of €1.8 billion. Lufthansa sales in the quarter were up 70% on 2020 amid “a significant market recovery”. Spohr described the US decision
to remain closed to travellers as “disappointing” but said: “We judge it only a matter of time. The North Atlantic is back to our most important long-haul market even though we can only sell on one side. “Hopefully, we are in the
last phase of the pandemic. We
have seen a huge pick-up in Mediterranean destinations.” Lufthansa and sister carriers
Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings aim to operate 50% of 2019 capacity in August and September, rising to 60% in the final quarter of the year “based on assumptions that the US opens by the end of the third quarter, there is a recovery in business travel and Asia-Pacific markets start to recover”.
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