Sarah · Sep 21, 2026 · 2 min read
Airbnb opens a free community-powered football exhibition in Mexico City and launches a fan day with Hugo Sánchez — the latest activation in what the company calls its biggest-ever event.
Airbnb led a $58M Series C in adventure travel platform WeRoad, backing its US launch while its outgoing CEO joins Airbnb as VP of hotels.
Airbnb has named Andrea D'Amico — former Booking.com VP and WeRoad CEO — as its new VP of hotels, tasked with scaling hotel supply to 30 cities and competing head-on with the established OTAs.
Booking.com uses a merchant model to hold $8.2 billion in traveler funds, driving growth and profit via currency conversion fees.
Booking Holdings is launching BKNG Ads, a unified advertising platform spanning Booking.com, Priceline, and Agoda — the first time partners can buy across all three brands through a single buy.
Airbnb's 2026 Summer Release adds car rentals, airport pickups, grocery delivery, boutique hotels, and FIFA World Cup Experiences — marking the company's most ambitious expansion beyond home-sharing to date.
Booking.com has added car rental search to its ChatGPT app and launched three AI tools covering post-booking support, review summaries, and smarter search filters.
At Explore 26, Expedia Group B2B unveiled its Intelligent Experience Platform — a composable AI toolkit letting partners build branded travel experiences on Expedia's supply infrastructure, signaling a major bet on agentic travel distribution.
Google's I/O 2026 announcements confirm the company's move from search intermediary to active travel booking platform — with Booking.com and Expedia among the first named OTA partners for direct hotel and flight booking in AI Mode.
Expedia Group has agreed to acquire CarTrawler, the Dublin B2B platform connecting 550+ car rental suppliers with 300+ travel brands, for approximately $350 million — its second B2B acquisition of 2026.
MakeMyTrip reported record gross bookings of $10.4 billion for FY2026, up 10.4% in constant currency, with operating profit growing 30% despite West Asia headwinds in Q4.
Airbnb data for summer 2026 shows one in four European travelers staying domestic, Sweden's median booking distance down 26% since 2023, and rural properties outperforming urban across Germany and France.