douglas quinby
Digital Dominates Amid Hostels’ Ascent
Douglas Quinby | May 4, 2018
By Douglas Quinby The broader travel industry may bucket hostels into "alternative accommodations," yet this often-overlooked sector is showing higher online penetration than the hotel or vacation rental categories. Younger travelers (18-34) comprise the largest share of hostel guests, and these digital natives have fueled rapid adoption of online and mobile hostel booking. The US$5.5 billion global hostel market in 2017 will grow to nearly $6.4 billion in 2020. Over the same time period, the online hostel market will grow 7-11% annually, rising from $3.5 billion to $4.6 billion. More than 70% of revenue will be booked online,...
Only One Thing Will Disrupt OTAs (and It Ain’t Blockchain)
Douglas Quinby | January 30, 2018
by Douglas Quinby OTA bashing is about as old as OTAs themselves. It's been bountiful fodder for media hype and conference roundtable hysterics for decades. We've heard it all before, from airlines, hotels and the myriad technology companies, startups and consultants that seek to serve them: OTAs are expensive, innovation-stifling gatekeepers who add far more cost than they deliver in value to travel brands or consumers. So many innovations – from GNEs (anyone remember those?) and NDC to metasearch and loyalty programs – were supposed to spell the death knell for OTAs. Just one thing: it never happened, and all those...
