Sean O'Neill

Kayak is making a landmark departure from its current strategy. It will add a tool to its mobile app to let users who book select short-term rentals and boutique hotels through it check in and check out via its app. That moves the travel metasearch player beyond merely listing accommodations to actually providing extra services for guests at partner properties.

Mark Okerstrom’s time as CEO of Expedia Group ended abruptly Wednesday after merely two years. Here’s a recap of Okerstrom’s tenure and why controlling investor Barry Diller felt Okerstrom failed to keep an eye on the ball.

This week, travel startups announced more than $101 million in funding for a range of concepts, including cross-border payments technology, short-term property management services, digital marketing help, and hotel tech.

It's rare for airline contract disputes with distribution companies to reach this outcome. Finnair will suffer financially until it cuts a deal. Sabre, for its part, risks embarrassment if it's seen as bullying a midsize carrier. Nobody usually ends up winning in these classic games of chicken.

Oyo has disclosed a surge in losses in documents related to its $1.5 billion in new funding. The hospitality company claims it will turn profitable three years from now, yet Skift Research dug beneath the headlines to deliver analysis substantiated by Oyo's latest income statements.

Is there anything that Trip.com Group (formerly Ctrip) won't do? LvYue Hotel Group is its upscale counterpart to Oyo, a set of hotel brands run in partnership with local operators in 10 Asian countries and run on cloud-based software.

Airlines Reporting Corporation's expansion into providing services around direct bookings is intriguing. We'll be watching how it handles the challenge without vexing the travel agencies that will remain its core customer.

After years of being stuck in the past, new "smart" airports are embracing technology and data to improve the experience for both passengers and vendors. But progress is still slow, widening the gap between cutting-edge and archaic facilities. What's needed? More vision, less bureaucracy.

This week, travel startups Travelio, Refundit, and Nowaday together announced more than $31 million in funding. Of particular note is Amadeus' backing of Refundit. The startup offers visitors to European Union countries a mobile app to speed up their claims for rebates for value-added taxes paid on retail shopping.

Trivago's incoming CEO Axel Hefer signaled Thursday that the company would change its auctions to appeal more to advertisers. Most promising is how it will now let Booking.com and other advertisers bid for different types of customers for essentially the first time.