Dennis Schaal Archives

Dennis Schaal is Skift's Founding Editor and Executive Editor. Dennis has been a reporter focusing on online travel and short-term rentals for more than two decades at Skift, Tnooz, USA Today, and Travel Weekly. He is well-known for tough one-on-one interviews on stage at Skift events, including with the CEOs and top execs of Expedia, Uber, Booking Holdings, Priceline, Kayak, Hopper, and more.

Airlines

Southwest enables businesses to buy loyalty points for employees

Loyalty points are increasingly becoming a new and broader currency with businesses rewarding them to employees, and even some travel startups awarding consumers airline points for hotel stays.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Hotels

TripAdvisor gives independent hotels a new way to compete for bookings

There's been so much talk about hotel rate parity, and the sameness when searching for a hotel room. TripAdvisor's invitation to often-overlooked independent hotels and B&Bs may provide some real choice.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Airlines

U.S. airlines lose bag-fee monopoly as extra costs spread to Europe and India

At some juncture, there will be a tipping point when passengers rebel against bag fees. There is no sign that this is imminent, however.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Airlines

The real 15 largest travel companies of 2013

Suppliers, namely airlines, hotels, a cruise line and a car rental company, clearly dominate the top 15. Priceline and Amadeus are the only middlemen represented.

Dennis Schaal | 12 years ago

Online Travel

Can Foursquare, Quora, and LinkedIn make users care about Bing?

Bing has reorganized its search results pages to incorporate the social element, but it really has a long way to go before the service evolves into something really useful for travelers.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Online Travel

Kayak downplays threat from Google Travel in IPO materials

Expect Kayak to increase its leave of absence from the classic metasearch approach and to expand into new travel verticals with its Kayak booking path. Others, including Room 77, already are following Kayak's lead.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Online Travel

Kayak hits the road with $100 million IPO try

Start your engines. Kayak is beginning its road show in a bid to raise more than $100 million in an IPO. The company will face tough questions about Google's acquisition of ITA Software and whether it can paint a big enough growth story to satisfy would-be investors.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Hotels

Wyndham Vacation Rentals launches new site and starts to rebrand

The new Wyndham Vacation Rentals site offers some modern, e-commerce pizazz. The rebranding to a more widely known brand makes sense, too.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Short-Term Rentals

How Flipkey plans to get back in the game

Flipkey will continue to try to differntiate itself through reliable user reviews and inbound traffic from TripAdvisor, but it will need to overcome its parent company's propensity to under-invest in its non-TA properties.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago

Airlines

Virgin America takes hit from its transition to Sabre

Welcome to the big time, Virgin America. All this growth "don't come easy." Meanwhile, it looks like it is straightening things out with its Sabre reservations system and things should be on track before long.

Dennis Schaal | 13 years ago