Main Earnings, Regulatory Pressure and a Shock Acquisition Form a Full Week in Online Travel | Foster Garvey PC

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle and comfortable Mother’s Day to all our moms . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, May 8, 2026, is under. It was one other busy week in on-line journey as each Expedia and Airbnb launched their quarterly earnings (transcripts from each earnings launch calls are linked under). I’ve additionally included a couple of authorized updates that includes everybody’s favourite – influencers –, Trivago’s anti-trust claims towards Google and Google’s newest try at DMA compliance. Enjoy.

• UK Authority Raises Concerns Over Influencer Posts. As influencers’ affect over vital social media channels continues to develop, the UK’s promoting authority, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has issued a report detailing influencers’ failure to correctly disclose their posts as journey advertisements. In its evaluation of over 500 social media posts (Instagram and Tik Tok), the ASA discovered that solely 20% of the posts have been correctly disclosed, 11% have been disclosed, however inadequately, and 69% contained no disclosures. According to the report, ASA plans to contact each journey suppliers and influencers over the problematic posts. An vital reminder for our US and UK readers, journey suppliers within the US and UK may be held accountable for influencers’ failure to correctly disclose, so due diligence and oversight is crucial.
• Expedia Posts Strong 1Q26 Financial Results. Again, we’re not going to dive into the monetary outcomes of Expedia’s first quarter – there are a lot of (much more certified) sources to offer these particulars. Highlights for me from this previous quarter’s earnings launch embrace the next:
  • According to Expedia CEO, Ariane Gorin, using AI is benefiting Expedia some ways together with larger conversions on VRBO through servicing brokers and AI filters, sooner onboarding of latest properties, growing numbers (30%) of service interactions powered by AI, improved advertising worth and elevated site visitors volumes and acquisition. Answer engine optimization (e.g., ChatGPT advertisements) is now Expedia’s “fastest growing channel.”
  • B2B continues to be a main development engine (see current Uber announcement). Revenue within the first quarter grew 25% (to $1.2 billion). Ariane now views Expedia’s B2B enterprise as a wholly separate line of enterprise.
• Meet Lola, Booking Holdings’ “East Coast” Startup. Skift this previous week revealed additional particulars on one in all Booking Holdings’ startups (the “East Coast” startup), Lola. The “stealth” undertaking options two on-line journey business veterans, Kayak’s Steve Hafner and Paul English. A brand new splash page for the startup appeared this previous week that includes model banners for Booking.com, Kayak, OpenTable, FareHarbor and SeatGeek. Our readers may keep in mind an earlier model of “Lola,” which was launched in 2015 and featured a mixture of digital on-line journey providers and human brokers. That effort was in the end bought by Capital One in 2021.
• William Shatner is Back. Sorry, I can’t move up a narrative that includes the unique on-line value negotiator. He’s now 95.
• Trivago Brings Anti-Trust Claims Against Google. Trivago this previous week filed swimsuit towards Google in a German Court alleging that the search large favored its personal lodge metasearch merchandise over these of its opponents (which is prohibited below the DMA), like Trivago. The swimsuit covers the interval of January 2024 – December 2025 and seeks damages in addition to the disclosure of site visitors and income information.
• Google Testing New Search Box in Latest Attempt to Comply with DMA. Google’s ongoing efforts to fulfill its DMA obligations and main advertisers continues. Google’s newest effort features a field on the prime of search outcomes that encompasses a single comparability web site (e.g., Booking.com). The featured comparability web site can be decided primarily based on relevance to the particular search question, not an public sale. Suppliers can be given a separate second field below the preliminary comparability web site’s field. With the success of Google AI mode, one has to ask how for much longer the present iteration of the DMA and the EU’s enforcement efforts will even be related.
• Takeaways from Recent AmexGBT Announcement. Much has been written this previous week over Long Lake Management’s introduced personal takeover of the company journey platform, Amex GBT. While the takeover represents the newest chapter within the platform’s lengthy and storied historical past, it additionally sends a powerful message about company journey and the idea, at the very least by sure traders, that company journey is a primary candidate for AI automation. Long Lake Management was shaped in 2023 and is backed by most of the similar traders behind a number of distinguished AI firms, together with ChatGPT. Long Lake Management’s earlier endeavors have centered on conventional service companies that it believed may benefit from the introduction and use of AI. Its newest efforts within the house owner affiliation administration enterprise produced 25-30 p.c productiveness positive factors. Now Long Lake Management is targeted on one other service enterprise, company journey. What this implies for Amex GBT and its 22,000 staff and company/managed journey usually can be watched by many within the months and years to come back. Stay tuned.

Have an incredible week everybody.

Expedia Group, Inc. Q1 2026 Earnings Call
May 7, 2026 through Expedia Group
We had a powerful first quarter, underpinned by strong execution in addition to progress on our strategic priorities and operational leverage that we have been constructing over many quarters.

Airbnb, Inc. Q1 2026 Earnings Call
May 7, 2026 through Seeking Alpha
Airbnb had a powerful begin to 2026. Last quarter, we talked in regards to the path we have been onto rebuild our basis, innovate sooner and speed up development. In Q1, that work continued to repay.

Most Travel Influencers Failing to Disclose Paid-for Posts
May 7, 2026 through Decision Marketing
The overwhelming majority of journey influencers on social media are failing to reveal when their posts are paid for advertisements, in keeping with a brand new investigation, which raises additional issues about how influencers are policed.

Brian Chesky Says Airbnb Won’t Mix Homes and Hotels — That’s ‘Pre-AI’ Design
May 7, 2026 through Skift
Airbnb’s Chesky is nothing if not bold. Given that individuals’s preferences can change at any second, the flexibility to serve clients with solely a lodge or house, relying what they want in that on the spot, appears a good distance off, even with agentic AI.

Expedia Group Hits Record Q1 Profitability Amid AI Overhaul
May 7, 2026 through PhocusWire
On the again of a man-made intelligence (AI)-focused technological overhaul, Expedia Group reported its highest Q1 profitability in firm historical past on Thursday.

Kayak Founders Team Up for Booking Holdings AI Startup
May 6, 2026 through Skift
In addition to different Booking Holdings’ manufacturers, Seat Geek is listed as a companion. Users would presumably have the ability to use conversational AI to get “insider access” and discounted charges from Booking manufacturers and companions.

Wyndham Launches Native ChatGPT App for Hotel Booking
May 6, 2026 through Hotel Management News
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has launched a local app inside OpenAI’s ChatGPT, marking the primary time a serious U.S. economic system and midscale lodge franchisor has launched a devoted lodge discovery and reserving expertise contained in the generative AI platform.

Trivago Files Antitrust Suit Against Google
May 5, 2026 through Market Watch
Trivago N.V. has filed an antitrust swimsuit towards Google in a German court docket, accusing the search engine large of systematically favoring its personal lodge metasearch service to the detriment of competing providers together with Trivago.

William Shatner Is Taking TikTok Applications for New Priceline Negotiator Campaign
May 5, 2026 through Skift
Priceline has been a savvy marketer over time, and this advert marketing campaign tease hits the precise notes at a time when affordability issues are a serious pattern.

New Ways to Buy ChatGPT Ads
May 5, 2026 through OpenAI
We’re taking the following step in our ChatGPT advertisements pilot by making it simpler for companies to take part whereas protecting the expertise helpful, personal, and clearly separate from ChatGPT’s solutions.

Dara Khosrowshahi on Replacing Uber Drivers — and Himself — with AI
May 4, 2026 through The Verge
The large information this 12 months is that Dara is absolutely beginning to consider Uber as a a lot bigger platform for journey — beginning with the flexibility to e-book motels within the Uber app, because of a partnership with Expedia.

Amex GBT’s 12-Year Ownership Saga — Who Won and Lost
May 4, 2026 through Skift
A $6.3 billion take-private closes the books on some of the convoluted cap tables in journey. The scorecard just isn’t what you’d count on.

Google is Testing a New DMA Compliance Solution for Flights, Hotel Search
May 4, 2026 through MLex
Google is revamping the highest of its search leads to response to flight and hotel-booking queries in its newest bid to adjust to an EU legislation regulating digital “gatekeepers,” MLex has realized.

How TikTok and AI Are Rewriting Booking Decisions in Asia
April 29, 2026 through Skift
The buyer is technically in command of reserving selections, however social media and AI techniques are more and more making the choices for them.