Skift Take
Today’s podcast looks at hotels’ new business travel workaround, Viking’s strong path to 2025, and industry accommodations for a boom in smaller-scale meetings and events.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, August 23, 2024, and now, here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
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Episode Notes
Hotels are devising plans to bypass traditional booking intermediaries to help boost direct bookings from corporations and businesses. Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill explains why the shift could disrupt how business travel is sold.
Some hotel executives believe they can attract business travelers to book directly if they provide more enticing offers that can’t be found via third parties. Several large hotels are testing a new pricing and booking process called attribute-based booking. Hotel executives have argued the new process will help corporations better understand their spending.
Attracting more direct bookings could help hotels save money. However, O’Neill notes a transition to attribute-based booking faces several hurdles, including a lack of industry-wide standards.
Next, Viking CEO Torstein Hagen said the luxury cruise line doesn’t see any sign of a slowdown in travel, writes Global Tourism Reporter Dawit Habtemariam.
Hagen said during its second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday that Viking doesn’t see any reason for concern going into 2025. He added the company recently had one of its strongest booking weeks ever. Habtemariam notes roughly 95% of Viking’s passenger cruise days for 2024 were booked as of August 11.
Viking Holdings generated $1.6 billion worth of revenue during the second quarter, a roughly 9% increase from last year.
Finally, a growing number of companies are organizing regular in-person gatherings to bring staff together. That’s driving travel managers and hotels to modify their offerings to cater to the boom in smaller meetings and events, writes Reporter Christiana Sciaudone.
Travel management firm Reed & Mackay recently doubled its meetings and events staff to address growing demand for offsite internal events. DeAnne Dale, an executive at the company, said clients are doubling or tripling their number of yearly gatherings and reorganizing how they operate.
Meanwhile, Hilton has made it easier for companies to book room blocks and meeting spaces online with customized packages. CEO Chris Nassetta said during a recent earnings call that the company is poised to get a boost from meetings and events.
