Inflation hasn’t made a dent in travel demand: Airbnb, Marriott, and United all reported strong Q4 earnings despite higher prices for airfare and lodging.

On today's episode, we discuss Spotify's impressive Q3, podcast listenership in the US, and how traditional radio is able to be so resilient. "In Other News," we talk about why sports betting will never be free of controversy and why Airbnb says its search-averse marketing strategy is working. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Daniel Konstantinovic.

Insider Intelligence spoke with Hiroki Asai, global head of marketing at Airbnb, about recent marketing campaigns addressing inflation’s impact on the travel industry and the brand’s shift away from search and performance-based marketing.

Airbnb doesn’t need performance marketing: The company’s shift away from search in 2019 has helped, but not everyone can replicate it.

Watch this video, featuring Meta’s John Cantarella, vice president, community and scaled partnerships, as he explains how fostering a community can give brands of any size a competitive edge because of how the relationships built over time can be leveraged for engagement and growth. In his role at Meta, Cantarella leads a team that helps leaders, creators, and brands—including Airbnb and Tonal—with their community strategy across Instagram and Facebook.

On today's episode, we discuss teens' social media behavior, how brands are pivoting their messaging to reflect consumer concerns, how best to reduce returns, whether Airbnb is in full recovery, how department stores are going local, an unpopular opinion about paid time off, what the least affordable housing markets in the world are, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our vice president of Briefings Stephanie Taglianetti and analysts Suzy Davidkhanian and Evelyn Mitchell.

Consumer spending on travel soars in Q2: That’s why companies like Airbnb and American Airlines are far more bullish than retailers about their outlooks for the rest of the year.

For global brands like Airbnb and Volkswagen, building online communities offers a way to strengthen relationships with customers, advance product development, and drive business value.

A company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) has the potential to impact businesses positively in sales, cost efficiencies, and profits. But why are so many brands misusing it?

Big Cloud’s billing problem: Amid market uncertainty, companies aren’t keen on getting cloud bills for tens of thousands more than expected. AWS and others could adopt a winning billing strategy.

Future of work, focus on CX trends are powering Airbnb success: The travel platform’s growth come as the rest of the travel industry sees mixed results.

On today's episode, we discuss the actual viability of the sharing economy: What should we make of Uber's diversification efforts and are Airbnb's latest changes enough to power the company up and to the right? "In Other News," we talk about the travel industry's optimism in the face of inflation and ad spending's positive outlook in the face of recessionary fears. Tune in to the discussion with our Briefings director Jeremy Goldman.

Storm clouds for Big Tech: Following record-high cloud spending, the top cloud providers saw declines in April. Economic upheaval means a rocky road ahead, but cloud demand will endure.

Major brands weigh the benefits of staying in the Russian market: Airbnb wins the brand reputation game, while Uniqlo and Shell may have misjudged the situation.

Big Tech faces dilemma in Russia-Ukraine conflict: While rushing to get refugees to safety, companies debate remaining neutral, which would seem like compliance with Russia, or leveling sanctions and risking retribution from the Kremlin.

How badly industry players were hurt by Apple’s privacy changes in Q3: Peloton was hit hard, while Criteo and Airbnb went unscathed.

The COVID-19 outbreak undermined many of our pre-pandemic US forecasts. Insight can now be gleaned by examining the difference between what we thought would happen as of February 2020 vs. what our forecasts now show.

eMarketer principal analysts Mark Dolliver and Yory Wurmser and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom discuss whether Uber, Lyft and Airbnb can make a comeback. They then talk about what kids are doing with their increased screen time, location data consent and how comfortable Americans are with normal, everyday activities.

In our previous forecast, we anticipated high revenue and user growth for Airbnb. However, the pandemic has severely affected the company along with the overall digital travel industry.

The coronavirus has upended the US travel industry. Fears of infection, governmental measures restricting travel and access to public places, and the economic downturn will depress bookings, sales and ad spending in 2020 and beyond.