Duff on Hospitality Law

Good Saturday evening from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, June 27, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features news of yet another claim being brought against Booking.com over its commercial practices and updates on Alibaba’s planned restructuring of its travel platform, Fliggy. Going forward, expect to see more stories on social media and its use as legitimate distribution channel. While the industry (and world) is focused on AI and its influence, don’t overlook the power and influence of social media. I know I have. Enjoy.

• • Dutch Consumer Groups Announce Plans to Bring Claims Against Booking.com. The news of competition authority claims and fines and potential private class actions never seems to end. Buoyed by the EU court’s recent determination that Booking.com’s parity provisions could be anti-competitive (which is the same decision allegedly serving as EU hoteliers’ new claims against Booking.com), two Dutch consumer groups announced this past week that they were seeking affected Dutch travelers to serve as claimants in a claim against Booking.com over its (allegedly) over-inflated hotel prices.
  • Cloudbeds Offers Insight into Hotel AI Visibility. Ever wonder what hotels can do to improve the likelihood of being featured in the recommendations provided by the leading AI platforms – ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity? In a post search / keyword world, I field this question often (or conversely, how do I stop OTAs from being featured). Cloudbeds recently released a report titled, “The Signals Behind Hotel AI Recommendations,” which tries to address that question. A few key takeaways for me . . .
    
    • Branded hotels have far greater visibility than independent hotels.
    • OTAs (Expedia, Booking.com and TripAdvisor) are dominant in AI generated recommendations. Shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone given the number of recently announced partnerships between the leading AI platforms on these three OTAs.
    • Reputation is critical. Recommended hotels all maintained “excellent guest ratings” and a large number of online reviews on the major platforms.
    • Broad online visibility is a quality indicator to the AI platforms. Recommended properties were on You Tube (98%), travel blogs (97%) and Reddit (95%).

As you think about third parties’ competing AI initiatives, keep in mind that OTAs, metasearch sites and tour operators are likely seeking to leverage these same points and may be far better equipped to succeed.

• • Google to Introduce AI Overviews to YouTube. By now, everyone should be familiar with AI Overviews and their widespread use in Google’s traditional search engine results. Google is now testing similar overviews on YouTube (at least for a select group of premium users). According to Google, the new feature will produce a video carousel and short narrative description for premium users searching in the areas of shopping, places or things to do in specific location. A short video demonstrating the new feature is available here.

Finally, for anyone interested in reading a copy of the Booking.com book, The Machine (which I wrote about briefly in a prior Update), our amazing firm marketing coordinator found me a copy of the book available online in English. Let me know if you want the details. I cannot wait to read it. Yes, I’m officially a distribution geek.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday evening from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, June 20, 2023, is below. Given summer’s official arrival this past Friday, it should be no surprise that the past week was a relatively quiet week for online travel. Enjoy.

• • Google Hotels Feeling the Pressure. One of the most interesting stories this past week came from Skift. Facing the effects of recent DMA mandated changes and its own AI initiatives, Google’s metasearch engine, Google Hotels, may be struggling – at least a little. And while Google may be struggling to find its footing, other industry players - Expedia, Trivago and TripAdvisor (and newcomer, Super.com) - are taking advantage. With so many changes afoot in the industry, I question how anyone is able to do a long-term distribution deal these days (let alone decide on a long-term distribution strategy). Definitely an interesting time to be part of the industry.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday evening from Seattle and for those of you celebrating, Happy Father’s Day. Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, June 13, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features an update on the DMA and the negative effects that Google’s ongoing compliance efforts are having on travel suppliers. We also include further information on European hoteliers’ plans for a class action against Booking.com over its parity practices. Enjoy.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday evening from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, June 6, 2025, is below. Like last week’s Update, which featured a number of stories on Booking.com, this week’s Update also includes several Booking.com stories and updates to stories we featured last week. I hope you enjoy.

• • UPDATE: European Hoteliers to Pursue Claims Against Booking.com. Last week’s Update included two stories detailing European hoteliers’ planned class action litigation against Booking.com over its parity provisions. For those of you interested in learning more about the class action and the circumstances that led to hoteliers’ decision to move forward against Booking.com, I’d encourage you to review the helpful Skift story below. For anyone considering joining the class action (or fielding hotel owner questions regarding joining the class action), a little context is important. The hoteliers complaining the loudest in these situations are typically independent hoteliers, most of whom because of the lack of leverage or resources are forced to operate under Booking.com’s standard terms and conditions (including its many varieties of parity). Hoteliers benefiting from global, corporate-wide agreements with Booking.com (or any other large distributor, for that matter), in contrast, operate in a much different environment – an environment that may not be as compelling (and in fact, could be seen as detrimental) in the eyes of competition authorities or European judges. Something to think about . . .
  • Booking Holdings Stays Close to Potential AI Disruptors. Still wondering how the major OTAs view generative AI? Recent comments by Booking Holdings’ CFO, Ewout Steenbergen, provide further evidence of at least one OTA’s perspective (and confirms what we’ve been seeing over the past several months). In an interview at last week’s Bank of America Global Technology Conference, Steenbergen made clear Booking Holdings’ ongoing efforts to remain close to the popular generative AI platforms. According to Steenbergen, “ultimately, those [generative AI platforms] might become more leads-generating platforms, replacing traditional search. And we want to be their really close partners in that.”
  • Hilton’s Contrarian View of AI in Hospitality. Unlike many (dare I say, most) in the industry who are focused on AI and its effects on travel marketing and distribution (I include myself in this group), Hilton is taking a slightly different view and approach to AI. According to Chris Silcock, Hilton’s President of Global Brands and Commercial Services, Hilton would rather focus on how AI can improve guests’ on-property experiences – real time guest feedback, guest messaging and personalized messages and advance room assignments for the most loyal of loyalty program members. If the guest has a better on-property experience at a Hilton-branded property because of these new tools, so the argument goes, the guest will seek out future stays at one of Hilton’s 26 brands.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, May 30, 2025, is below. Booking.com features prominently (again) in our Update this week as investigations into, and claims against, the major online travel agent increase (these things seem to come in waves). I hope you enjoy.

• • European Hoteliers Unite in Claims Against Booking.com. The national hotel associations of 25 European countries announced this past week plans to bring a class action against Booking.com. Seeking to leverage the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) September 2024 ruling that Booking.com’s parity provisions violated EU competition law, the hoteliers seek the recovery of portions of commissions paid during 2004 – 2024. The claims will be led by Stichting Hotel Claims Alliance and are expected to be filed in a Netherlands court. In response, Booking.com has stated that it is unaware of the announced claims and disputed the precedential value of the ECJ’s decision.
  • Greek Authorities Investigating Unnamed Online Hotel Accommodations Booking Service. On Friday, Greek competition authorities announced that it was “prioritizing” an investigation into an “undertaking” operating in the market of online accommodations booking services. The investigation was triggered by a complaint and is reported to be at an “advanced” stage.
  • Hopper Ads UK Bank to HTS Powered Channels. UK bank, Lloyds, announced a new partnership with HTS (Hopper’s B2B division) to power Lloyd’s new travel booking portal, Lloyd’s Travel Booking. The portal, the first by a UK bank, offers cardholders access to flights and accommodations as well as HTS’ other fintech offerings – price protection, price prediction, etc.
  • Generative AI’s Impact on Hospitality. If you’ve not joined one of Phocuswright’s recent webinars (The New Age(nts) Trend Series) on generative AI, I encourage you to do so. This past week’s episode focused specifically on AI and distribution. The recent episode is available here.
  • “The Machine” – Booking.com. Like many of you, I’ve heard many stories of the tell all book about Booking.com’s rise to prominence in the online travel world. Although Skift was kind enough to recently share some of the book’s many highlights, I’m still searching for an English translation of the book. If anyone ever finds an English translation, please let me know.

Have a great week.