Skift

Episode Notes Google is constantly tweaking its hotels platform, and the latest iteration contributes directly to the democratization of the online travel industry, writes Skift Research analyst Pranavi Agarwal. Skift Research conducted a study of Google Hotels platform. Here are three insights from the analysis: paid sponsored listings are dominated by the largest online travel agencies; the introduction of organic results is allowing direct sites and smaller online travel agencies to compete head-on with Booking and Expedia; and Google Hotels prioritizes the direct site in its organic results, with the official site most likely to appear on top, even when it is not the cheapest option.  Next, there have been at least four travel tech acquisitions this month, writes travel tech reporter Justin Dawes.  One of them was by property management system startup Mews, which acquired a small hotel AI startup called Nomi, whose tech is meant to help hotels deliver personalized recommendations based on data that guests