A Billion Dollar Bet On Making Homesharing More Like Hotels [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • 30% bonus transferring hotel points to United potentially useful with Marriott transfers.

  • Sounds like timeshare properties for homes rather than condos. (Timeshares are rented to transient business, not just timeshare owners.)

  • It was a serious storm, but the Newark jokes write themselves.

  • New United food for sale in coach

  • People anchor to their gates at airports. They show up long before they need to. And that limits how much they spend on food and retail. Concessionaire OTG addresses this by putting iPads at the gate to order from. There’s also new mobile ordering, too.

    It’s a convenience to passengers, and a way to drive up retail revenue – good for the vendor, as well as the airport and airlines which share revenue. And this works as long as merchants can staff…

  • A three year plan to reduce Oahu tourism limiting flights, capping hotels (boon for existing hotel owners) and reducing use of cars.

  • Odd class action lawsuit against Southwest claiming the airline knew 737 MAXs were unsafe and hid details of the MCAS system from pilots so they wouldn’t have to train them. Seems like a stretch.

  • The Priority Pass Business Lounge in Kiev has a pianist. The last time I was in a lounge that had someone playing the piano was the Seoul Incheon Asiana first class lounge. (HT: Jeff W.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. If someone is offering an “institutional-class” investment, why do they need my money?

    Or, any individual’s money for that matter?

  2. By mentioning “institutional class”, they are speaking to taking an approach to the business that they hope enables them to to get more institutional investors’ money to use in the business while making a portfolio of the acquired homes into an investable security of sort aimed at institutional investors.

  3. She’s playing “Stardust” with embellishments by Hoagy Carmichael from Wabash, Indiana. But you knew that. Go Hoosiers!!!!

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