The online travel industry is thriving. According to eMarketer, in 2016 online sales cumulatively generated $565 billion, and that number is projected to swell to around $820 billion by 2020.

The growth in travel-related businesses over the last few years has created another interesting phenomenon – the domination of two big players. Last year, 80% of all hotel bookings in Europe came through just two websites: Expedia and Booking.com.

Big players often don’t have the time to pay attention to the small customer

At the same time, Airbnb, the short-term lodging broker, has become a force to be reckoned with, and poses a very real threat to hotels and holiday rentals. These companies are doing to travel what Amazon has done to retail – they are shaking up the market and rebuilding it around their service. The result is a market increasingly dominated by a relatively small group of big players, with tons of small players trying to play catch up.

The good news is that the big players often don’t have the time to pay attention to the small customer. From our vantage point, we don’t see the large OTAs doing much in the way of personalisation, and this is where smaller firms can really stand out.
— Leer en www.eyefortravel.com/social-media-and-marketing/7-ways-take-expedia-bookingcom-and-airbnb