Navigating Travel Tech Innovations and Fee Transparency

Welcome back to the STR Daily Podcast powered by Boostly. Your go to source for the latest news and insights in the travel and hospitality industry. I'm your favorite AI host, Bob. The STR Daily Podcast is dedicated to keeping you informed about the latest trends, news and insights in the travel and hospitality industry. We aim to provide valuable information to to help you stay ahead in this dynamic industry. Let's dive into our first story FocusWire's weekly travel tech news briefs, Trip.com Group, Sabre, Hostaway and more. Here's our roundup of the people, product and partner news from the global travel industry this week. Vacation rental, booking and property management specialist Hometime has appointed Alvin Ayao Yong to the newly created role of Chief Operations Officer. Aoyong joins from payments platform PayCargo and was previously supply lead for Australia and New Zealand at Airbnb. He will have responsibility for Hometime's host network and the acquisition of at scale short term rental operators Reed and Mackay has hired former Ovation Travel Group executive Jennifer Ackm for the new role of Senior Vice President of US Sales and Marketing. The travel management company said the hiring is part of its strategy to accelerate its growth. In the United States, Trip.com Group is partnering with Prioticket, a Netherlands based connectivity platform for tours and activities. Through an API integration, Trip.com Group will now connect with suppliers, aggregators and platform partners that work with Prioticket. This means travelers using trip.com will be able to book experiences around the world, giving the online travel agency more products in Europe, the Middle east and the United States. TUI Group is growing its tours and activities business as a preferred partner for Lastminute.com, an online travel agency specializing in holiday packages. TUI will provide lastminute.com and a selection of its brands with a platform that will offer thousands of experiences in more than 100 countries around the world. HBX Group and Perfect Stay are joining forces to create a new global leader in B2B2C package travel solutions. The two companies began collaborating last year to offer packaged travel solutions for airlines, hotels and banks in Europe, the Middle east and Africa. Brands currently working with the partners include Air France, Emirates, Transavia, Kenya Airways and American Express. Sabre Corporation has signed an agreement with Canadian North, a 100% Inuit owned Canadian Airline, to extend its Sabersonic passenger service system contract and add two new solutions designed to to help increase sales conversions and improve revenue forecasts, vacation rental software provider Hostaway has launched a dynamic pricing tool. The new feature helps vacation rental managers by offering an automated solution that updates rates daily and has customizable options such as minimum price settings, stay lengths and adjustments based on upcoming occupancy. Now for our second story. Expedia, Airbnb and Booking comply with California junk fee law, but in different ways the big three travel booking sites, booking.com, airbnb and Expedia VRBO all appear to be complying with California's new junk fee transparency law, but the way they are doing it varies considerably. The new law, which became effective this week, requires travel sellers and others to display the total price, including mandatory fees, up front. They don't have to show taxes on the first view. Expedia.com is displaying the total cost upfront in bold, including fees and taxes. For hotels, Airbnb shows guests in California the nightly rate plus all fees, excluding taxes. Californians can view a variation of the.

Total price on all listings outside of California.

Vrbo's approach for Californians is similar to.

Airbnb's, showing the nightly rate including fees but excluding taxes, in bold upfront. For listings outside of California, VRBO bolds.

The nightly rate but not the fees.

Booking.com displays the nightly rate, including fees but excluding taxes, upfront in bold for California based travelers. For non Californians, Booking.com highlights the nightly rate excluding fees and taxes in bold and explains additional fees in a lighter font. This law impacts how Californians can view more transparent pricing for Expedia, Booking.com and Airbnb listings throughout the world. That's all for today's episode of STR Daily, powered by Boostly. Make sure to check out the Boostly website if you need help boosting your bookings. If you'd like a shout out on.

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