Booking.com says Europe's hotels don't depend on it
Booking.com's head of public affairs calls Europe's hotel distribution balanced, two weeks after an EU court upheld that Booking dominates online hotel sales
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These Hospitality Execs Know Who Belongs at the Table
Inside is a new membership app that offers comp meals and discounted hotel stays to a curated crop of "culture shifters."
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Booking Holdings and Expedia Group Control 85% of European OTA Market, Study Finds
HOTREC’s 2026 European Hotel Distribution Study reports that Booking Holdings and Expedia Group now account for over 85% of online travel agency (OTA) bookings in Europe, highlighting increasing market concentration and raising concerns over…
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Are AI-powered RFP Responses Really Good for Hotel Group Sales?
While the new tech might help hotel salespeople respond quicker, their pitches might not stand out.
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Google’s Agentic Hotel Booking Push Raises New Questions for Direct Distribution and Guest Ownership
Google has moved another step closer to turning conversational hotel search into an actual booking channel. The company recently confirmed that it has begun a limited U.S…
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Expedia Boosts Its Full-Year Sales Outlook on Strong Bookings
Expedia Group Inc. raised its annual sales forecast, signaling that consumers aren’t being deterred by higher hotel prices and airfare.
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Travel agencies grew hotel bookings twice as fast as the OTAs
Commissionable room nights rose 11.8% in the first half. The commission per night rose 0.8% — everywhere else in distribution, growth is the thing that gets repriced
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Why Hotel Distribution Is Still Broken, And What Comes Next
A couple of Saturdays back, a supplier asked us to block a user: 3,000-plus searches on one property, one set of dates, in 40 minutes. Normally that's fraud. It wasn't. It was an AI agent, a model wired to a headless browser…
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Trip.com Fined in China Antitrust Case as Price Wars Continue
China’s months-long antitrust probe into Trip.com Group Ltd. ended with a multi-billion-yuan penalty on the nation’s largest online travel agency, but the action does little to ease the fierce price wars gripping the domestic hotel sector…
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The forgotten guest: The middle-market traveller left behind
The hotel industry's focus on luxury has left the middle-market traveller with fewer choices at a time when value has never mattered more.
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Booking is copying Expedia's most durable asset
The company is folding Booking.com, Agoda, and Priceline into one B2B entity run by Agoda's CEO — a bet that the most valuable OTA business is the one hotels never see
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EVT Hotels and Resorts has jumped on the AI bandwagon, becoming the first ANZ hotel group to launch its app in ChatGPT, a step forward in its digital evolution.
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Airbnb vs hotels: the latest industry comparison
Hotels continue to hold the strongest position in global accommodation, with most travellers still preferring traditional hotel stays for their consistency, services and reliability.
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Mass data breach on over 100 Dutch hotels hits guests
People with hotel reservations in the Netherlands are being sent convincing fake payment requests by criminals who have obtained their booking details, after a data breach that has hit at least 100 hotels…
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EU pushes for unified reporting in short-term rental sector
The reforms target a rapidly growing European short-term rental sector where differing national rules have made cross-border data comparison and market assessment difficult.
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Direct Booking Hotels: Why Market Share Battles Mask Economic Wins
After a decade-long campaign for direct bookings, major hotel chains have secured better economics and lower commissions despite OTAs maintaining market dominance in 2026.
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Google just filed lodging under the same commerce rail as sneakers and groceries
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How hotels are adapting to the EU and UK Accessibility Laws
The hotel industry is undergoing a structural shift in its digital operations as two major regulatory frameworks take effect across European markets.
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