Duff on Hospitality Law

This week’s Update leads with an important Data Privacy Update from Eva Novick, the newest member of our firm’s privacy and data security team. If you currently operate a loyalty program (or plan to introduce one soon), I encourage you to read her important update. Enjoy.

The Travel Industry’s Push on Climate May Have Legs
(“Hotelbeds lays out eco and social initiatives, joins Amazon Climate Pledge,” February 11, 2022 via Phocus Wire)
For some time now, we’ve all seen the many surveys of would be travelers (particularly, younger travelers) detailing the importance of the environment and climate change in today’s travel decisions. Our weekly Update has recently featured a number of stories about this trend, including the recent launch of online platforms offering travelers carbon neutral travel. Last week, Spain-based bedbank, Hotelbeds, released its annual Environmental, Social and Government Report in which Hotelbeds claims it has again (for the fourth year running) attained carbon neutral status  through a combination of carbon reductions and offsets. At the same time, Hotelbeds also announced that it has joined Amazon’s Climate Pledge, which features companies committed to eliminating their carbon emissions to zero by 2040. So what does this really mean? Will efforts like these mean enough to travelers to actually drive bookings or market share? With Hotelbeds feeling the heat from increased competition in its wholesale space (think Expedia EPS and soon, Priceline’s equivalent offering), Hotelbeds is “banking” on it.

This week’s Update features stories on Kayak, Hopper (again) and Shiji, and includes an important privacy update from California on loyalty programs.

Kayak and Cruise Critic Partner on Cruises
(“In new partnership, Kayak cruise searches will feed Cruise Critic,” February 4, 2022 via Travel Weekly)
Last week, Kayak (Booking Holdings) announced that it was expanding its cruise offering by partnering with Cruise Critic (TripAdvisor). Once implemented, the partnership will redirect users searching for cruises on Kayak to Cruise Critic where they can then review and book cruises through travel agencies or cruise suppliers.

To celebrate Data Privacy Day, on January 28, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an investigative sweep of businesses offering loyalty programs in California. This should come as no surprise, as Attorney General Bonta highlighted loyalty programs as one of the areas of non-compliance his office addressed during the first year of California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) enforcement. In this sweep, the Attorney General’s office sent letters of non-compliance to businesses across different industries, including in the travel and food services industries. Those companies have 30 days to cure their non-compliance or will be subject to further enforcement action and penalties.

This week’s Update features a number of stories on short-term rentals, as one established vacation rental platform continues to gain relevance in traditional hotel room distribution while an established travel application looks to diversify into short term rentals. Enjoy.

New Platform Seeks to Capitalize on Travelers’ Growing Environmental Concerns
(“New online travel agency, Copolo, awarded the 2021 Travel & Hospitality Corporate Innovation Award by Plug and Play,” January 27, 2022 via PRWeb)
H.I.S. Group has been awarded Plug and Play’s 2021 Travel & Hospitality Corporate Innovation Award for its recently launched sustainability focused online booking platform, Copolo.com. Through its partnership with CHOOSE, Copolo allows travelers booking on its site to offset the carbon emissions produced by their travels. Given travelers’ growing concerns regarding the environmental impact of travel (as documented by nearly all recent traveler surveys and annual travel industry predictions), it cannot be long before platforms like Copolo (or at least the benefits that Copolo offers) become more mainstream. 

This week’s Update begins with an interesting story detailing how evolving consumer trends of the past few years (e.g., sustainability) are making their way into travel and online travel in particular. Enjoy.

Travelport Continues Improvements to Travelport Plus
(“Travelport Launches Update to Unified Travelport Plus Platform,” January 19, 2022 via Business Travel News)
Launched last year by Travelport as the ultimate successor to its other global distributions system (GDS) platforms (Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan), Travelport Plus continues to improve. Last week, Travelport launched its latest iteration of the platform, an iteration that leverages the platform’s growing access to NDC (New Distribution Capability) content from many of the major airlines and improved connectivity with Hilton as well as adding its new traveler facing portal, Trip Manager.

Our first Update of 2022 includes a number of stories on the evolving marketing tactics of both hotels and their distribution partners. Enjoy.

Better Days Ahead? Expedia Certainly Thinks So
(“Online travel giants' marketing spend continues to head north,” January 10, 2022 via Phocus Wire)
(“VIDEO: How hotel marketing tactics are shifting,” January 12, 2022 via Phocus Wire)
Last week, two stories detail the major OTAs’ apparent spending spree on sales and marketing. What’s driving this growth? General optimism over the anticipated return of the travel industry? Renewed efforts to defend or capture critical market share in an increasingly competitive online market? Dogged determination to quash hoteliers’ seemingly successful direct booking efforts – particularly over the past 18 months? Maybe a little of all three? According to a report issued last week by PhocusWire, most of the major online booking channels reported huge year-over-year increases in their third quarter sales and marketing spend. Airbnb increased its third quarter year-over-year spend by 156 percent to a measly $291 million. Expedia Group increased its third quarter spend year-over-year by 150 percent to a whopping $1.3 billion and confirmed plans late last week to run Superbowl ads for both Expedia.com and Vrbo (the first such ads by Expedia in years). Booking Holdings increased its year-over-year spend by nearly 100 percent to a total of $1.38 billion. Bucking this trend was China’s Trip.com, whose year-over-year increase of 12 percent was reported to be in response to continued uncertainty over the pandemic.

Happy New Year...Enjoy. (insert intro)

Apple Seeks to Move Forward with Controversial Privacy Requirements | January 2021 
(“Apple to start policing privacy update for app developers' ad tracking,” January 18, 2021 via MLEX Insight) (subscription may be required)
Last fall, we featured a story detailing Apple’s plans to update many of its privacy requirements as part of its release of its newest operating system (iOS 14). Among other things, the new requirements would require applications to obtain users’ express consent (via pop-up messaging) to applications tracking their online activities. Responding to industry concerns over the new requirements and their likely effect on personalized online advertising, Apple agreed to delay rollout of the new privacy requirements until early 2021. Early 2021 is here, and Apple has announced plans to proceed with the rollout this spring. The approaching requirement has now prompted online advertiser industry groups in France to file claims with the French antitrust authority to enjoin the rollout alleging that Apple’s changes are not motivated by a desire to better protect its users’ privacy (as claimed by Apple), but instead a desire to assert even more control over access and use of its platform. More information is sure to come.     

Happy holidays from snowy Seattle... As you can see from the stories we’ve included below, it was a very quiet week in online travel. Enjoy.

Is Google a Bigger Threat Than Ever? 
(“Rise of Google Represents Ongoing Threat to OTAs,” December 23, 2021 via Hotel Management Network - Top Stories)
With Google’s 2020 revenues 15 times the combined 2020 revenues of Booking and Expedia and Google’s 2021 launch of free hotel booking links, some think a shift in the balance of power between online travel agencies (OTAs) and the search engine is inevitable.

With the holidays rapidly approaching and the yearend only one week away, it is no surprise that the last week was fairly quiet. The one notable exception, however, was Trip.com, which released its financials on Thursday, December 16.   

Trip.com Grows European Market Share with Superior Technology
(“Trip.com Bolsters Flight Search Engine to Boost European Bookings,” December 17, 2021 via Skift) (subscription may be required)
Leveraging its increasingly superior technology platform (particularly around flight search), Chinese platform Trip.com is making huge strides in growing its European market share. Not only is Trip.com’s internally developed flight search engine better at delivering users appropriate fares and itineraries, but the systems’ ability to offer ancillary products and services is attracting the attention of European airlines. (Trip.com owns Travelfusion, one of a handful of technology vendors that aggregate airline NDC content for onward distribution.) Trip.com also plans to be one of the first online booking platforms to roll out Hopper’s price freeze tool (allowing users to pay to freeze fares up to 14 days) to users in North American and Europe as part of a previously announced deal.

Despite what the calendar might say, winter has definitely arrived in the Pacific Northwest. This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including a story or two on online travel agencies (OTAs), and stories on Vacasa’s public debut and Amex GBT’s planned public debut. Tis’ the SPAC season. I hope you enjoy.

Agoda Debuts Additional New Offerings
(“Agoda launches Beds Network to help hotels distribute wholesale rates,” December 9, 2021 via Phocus Wire)
Last week, we included a story detailing the launch of several new Agoda products. Last week, Agoda launched yet another new product, Beds Network, which represents Agoda’s formal entry into wholesale distribution. The Network will leverage Booking Holdings’ existing affiliate network to allow participating suppliers to distribute rates and inventory on a wholesale or B2B basis. According to the announcement, suppliers who participate in the program will have complete control (fully yieldable) over the rate and inventory offered through the solution (which if true, would be quite a departure from competitors’ similar wholesale distribution offerings). Existing Agoda suppliers won’t need to enter into new, or amend existing, contracts to participate. Agoda’s plans call for the Network to be rolled out initially in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, with other markets added throughout 2022.