Duff on Hospitality Law

As the short list of stories below reveals, last week was another quiet week in the online travel world. Enjoy.

Hopper Is the Fastest Growing Travel App in 2021
(“Hopper outperformed all other OTA apps in 2021,” March 25, 2022 via Phocus Wire)
By now, we probably shouldn’t be surprised. This past year has been quite a year for the online booking platform and fintech purveyor. Powered by the popularity of its fintech products (on average, every user purchases two fintech products with each booking), Hopper was not only the fastest growing travel app in 2021 (growing 494 percent), but in June, it bypassed Airbnb as the market share leader for active users. The other better known booking platforms also enjoyed strong growth this past year with Expedia (coming in second) growing 49 percent, Expedia’s Hotwire (coming in third) growing 33 percent and Booking.com (coming in fourth) growing 23 percent. Expedia’s vacation rental platform, Vrbo, also faired well, growing active sessions on its app by 43 percent (outpacing Airbnb) and in February this year, enjoying 1.5 million new downloads of its app. Overall, apps featuring vacation or home rentals faired better this past year versus those travel apps that did not.

Sustainability in Travel Takes Another Step Forward
(“Booking Holdings Publishes Climate Plan,” March 22, 2022 via MarketWatch)
While politicians may still debate climate change and its effects, it is becoming increasingly clear that major travel companies seeking to appeal to a younger customer base that increasingly takes climate change and sustainability seriously, are not. The latest evidence...Booking Holdings recently published its first ever climate action plan detailing the steps it intends to take to achieve near zero emissions from operations by 2030. As part of its effort, Booking’s brands intend (like so many other platforms recently) to make it easier for users to identify and book sustainable travel options.

Canada Jetlines Chooses Fareportal
(“Fareportal OTA's Chosen as Canada Jetlines First Travel Agency Partner,” March 14, 2022 via Yahoo Finance)
Interesting announcement, particularly given our story from last week.