Marketing

📅 Spotnana partnered with Booking.com to integrate their global itinerary for partners and customers. This integration allows access to corporate rates and supports the entire travel journey from booking to servicing. Travelers and agents can manage trips through Spotnana's platform. Benefits include flexible payment options, loyalty rates, last-minute deals, and multi-language support. Mark van der Linden of Booking.com and Bill Brindle of Spotnana highlight the partnership's aim to ease travel management and enhance inventory access.

📷 Arlo Hotels' Instagram strategy, led by Dino Jevric, focuses on authentic storytelling over promotion. Over the past year, Arlo gained around 33,000 Instagram followers and increased engagement by 50%. Instead of using polished ads, the brand relies on user and employee-generated content, creating series like "Behind the Apron" to engage audiences. This emotional storytelling approach connects culture with digital media, translating engagement into tangible business outcomes such as increased booking-page traffic and reservations.

📅 Emerging Travel Group (ETG) partners with H10 Hotels Group to offer over 65 H10 properties directly to ETG's 20 million monthly users. H10 Hotels, known for premium seafront and all-inclusive resorts, operate in 25 destinations, including Spain, Italy, and the Caribbean. This integration, facilitated by Connectycs, aims to boost booking management and visibility. Spain leads ETG's platform bookings, with a 25% year-on-year increase. Victoria Shamshurova emphasizes the milestone's significance in expanding quality accommodation options.

???? Emerging Travel Group (ETG), operating brands like RateHawk and ZenHotels, partners with H10 Hotels for direct bookings, reaching 20 million monthly guests worldwide. H10 manages over 65 properties in 25 destinations, including Spain, Italy, and the Caribbean. Spain sees a 25% rise in bookings. Over 2.9 million accommodations and 220,000 direct listings are available through ETG, with a 2024 gross transaction value of $3.7 billion. ETG is based in UAE and employs over 3,900 people globally.

📈 Mehr Consultancy, a Texas-based hotel management firm, expanded its partnership with Inn-Flow in October 2024. Initially piloted in 3 hotels, the collaboration now includes its 37-hotel portfolio across 14 states, encompassing 3,600 rooms under brands like Hilton and Marriott. The partnership enhances real-time financial visibility and operational efficiency using Inn-Flow’s unified accounting and payroll system, enabling Mehr to maintain profitability and transparency as it scales.

🛩 Fliggy, Alibaba Group's travel platform, reported a 30% year-on-year surge in gross merchandise value (GMV) during the Double 11 Global Travel Festival. Over six million promotional products were sold, including nearly one million flight passes. Premium 88VIP memberships rose by 30%, contributing 70% of top merchants’ sales. GMV for promotional items via livestream increased by 70%. Major brands like Marriott and ANA surpassed RMB100 million in GMV, with outbound travel making up nearly half of the orders.

🛫 Global fintech, Revolut, teams up with Booking.com to broaden its travel offerings. With almost 9 million Revolut users already booking via Booking.com, this partnership enhances payment options for millions. Revolut Pay, now with 2 million monthly active users, allows seamless one-click booking with biometric security. From November 17 to January 3, users earn 10x RevPoints. Revolut's Alex Codina highlights faster, secure, rewarding checkouts, while Booking.com's JC Rodriguez emphasizes the value for travelers globally.

🏨 Expedia and Airbnb are closing the gap with Booking.com, with Expedia's room-night growth recently surpassing Booking.com, reshaping the competitive landscape as of November 18, 2025. Hotels need strategic adaptation, focusing on diversifying demand sources and enhancing direct booking funnels. Airbnb expands into hotels, enhancing its discovery platform. Expedia leverages loyalty and AI for growth. Despite Booking.com's strong position, its competitive edge faces challenges. The shift in distribution dynamics requires hotels to rethink strategy.