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clarabosswald · 10 months ago

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thinking about how utterly and completely and uniformly ashkenazi worldwide judaism really seems to be, and especially how current antisemitism focuses a lot on ashkenazi judaism and its stereotypes -

and the stark contrast with judaism inside israel... mizrahi judaism (which is on itself extremely generalizing - yemeni judaism and iraqi judaism and persian judaism and turkish judaism and libyan judaism and syrian judaism and the 100 other shades of mizrahi jewish cultures, each standing on its own, rich and unique), then ethiopian judaism, kurdish jews, sephardi jews, indian jews, old yishuv jews - it is so colorful, and it's everywhere. and each community stands on its own but they mix together with each other and compliment each other because they're all different flavors of the same people. so everywhere you see people put hummus and amba on their schnitzel and listen to shlomo artzi while going out for sabich/listen to zohar argov while going out for friday schnitzel challa (you wouldn't believe all the ways you can eat schnitzel) and put matza ball soup in bowls decorated with khamsas and evil eyes and everyone craves piping hot jachnun on saturday morning (gosh, jewish culture has really got a lot to do with food, doesn't it? or maybe i'm just hungry).

literally the majority of jews in israel are mizrahi. and the percentage of mixed mizrahi-ashkenazi families is massive too.

and no, it's not all butterflies and sunshine, inter-jewish racism exists and it's ugly and prevalent and a central topic in israeli socio-political discussions and activism. but still, israeli jewish culture is still SO global... sometimes i look at the way people (especially antisemites but not only them) present judaism - all ashkenazi and pale and solemn - and it just seems so damn... stale. (the fact that i'm ashkenazi myself makes it even more bizarre, and obviously ironic, but i'm very secular from a very secular household so we never really cared much about our own ashkenazism).

jewish culture really deserves better than any of that.

#jumblr #ישראבלר #i guess i'd mainly be really interested to hear thoughts from diaspora jews on this?#i don't even know if i've managed to form any coherent points in this post #i've got a lot of thoughts and some of them are. Charged. and it's mainly just venting and putting It out There

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carlajuanascribbles · 4 years ago

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WHY MEN LOVE BITCHES by Sherry Argov

CHAPTER 5: JUMPING THROUGH Hoops LIKE A CIRCUS POODLE (When Women Give Themselves Away and Become Needy)

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #43

If you allow your rhythm to be interrupted, you’ll create a void. Then, to replace what you give up, you’ll start to expect and need more from your partner.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #44

Most women are starving to receive something from a man that they needto give to themselves.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #45

A woman looks more secure in a man’s eyes when he can’t pull her away from her life, because she is content with her life.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #46

The second a woman works overtime to make herself fit his criteria, she has lowered the standard of that relationship.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #47

You jump through hoops any time you repeatedly make it very obvious you’re giving your “all.”

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #48

You have to keep from being sucked down into quicksand. Unless you maintain control over yourself, the relationship is doomed.

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #49

Jumping through hoops often has a negative outcome: He sees it as an opportunity to have his cake and eat it, too. But when you stay just outside his reach, he’ll stay on his best behavior

ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #50

The nice girl gives away too much of herself when pleasing him regularly becomes more important than pleasing herself.

SUMMARY

The 5th Chapter in Why Men Love Bitches' Jumping Through Hoops Like a Circus Poodle by Sherry Argov discusses about how a nice girl becomes needy as well as the differences between a nice girl and a bitch; she also included how a bitch becomes the boss herself. Argov elaborated the topics by giving accurate examples and situations to every principle she tackled about.

When A Nice Girl Becomes Needy

The chapter largely focused when a woman gives herself away becomes needy. She emphasizes when a woman (nice girl) becomes being wanted un the relrionship, it could be a problem to the man. It started when a woman gives her "all." It means when she surrenders herself from the stuffs she likes and she normally do just to give some time for her man. She cancels her appointment just allocate time for date or she ends her career just support his. A nice girl thinks that pleasing him will sustain her the fanstasies and expectation she build. And in the end, when he fails to set those expectations into reality, she demands more of him. Most females are starving to receive from a man that they need to give themselves. When gives up everything and expect for a return.

"The Nice Girl" VS. "The Bitch"

• The nice girl dismisses what she used to value and what used to be important in her life. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch values her priorities, her values, and her preferences. Always. - (Bitch)

• The nice girl searches for a sign from him to see when the closeness is “too much." - (Nice girl)

• The bitch acts as her own guide. She doesn’t allow him an opportunity to be bored. - (Bitch)

• The nice girl senses how happy he is, paying close attention to his approval of her. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch doesn’t obsess over his opinion or need his approval. - (Bitch)

• When he’s “into it” with the nice girl, she feels good; when he snubs her, she feels bad. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch has more confidence, so someone else’s mood doesn’t have much impact. Instead she plays tennis. - (Bitch)

• The nice girl treats her interests as “little things” or secondary. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch doesn’t treat her interests as minor little things. They are her things. - (Bitch)

• The nice girl gives too much first, and then negotiates reciprocity later. - (Nice girl)

• The bitch gives only when it is reciprocal. - (Bitch)

• He is the boss … of her. - (Nice girl)

• She stays the boss … of herself. - (Bitch)

The Bitch Rules Her Life

She also states that when a bitch enters a relationship, she does not stop doing her things just to please her man unlike a nice girl does. A bitch runs her life without interrupting her routines like seeing her friends, goes to gym and gives a me-time. She prioritizes herself more than anything else. She does not abandon her usual routines and that's what makes the bitch remains the boss of herself.

Sherry Argov's gave us, women, the idea more of how to handle ourselves. This last principle in the Chapter 5 strucked me the most, "ATTRACTION PRINCIPLE #51: A woman looks more secure in a man's eyes when can't pull her away from her life, because she is content with her life." Restrain from being a needy nice girl, be the boss bitch yourself.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE FOUND IN THE BOOK

Why Men Love Bitches presents some characteristics of the contemporary literature. The most visible is that it was published in 2002 (written after the World War II). It has a theme which is based in reality of the women. The literature has well-defined reality-based stories of the characters which it tackled some social matters and personal issues. The topic is very realistic and it clearly reflects to the author's perspective and the lesson she wanted to convey to the readers. It properly laid present issues which is generally relatable in today's society.

APPEAL OF THE STORY

There is much the literary piece of Sherry Argov appeals to its audiences. First, the title of the literature itself is uncommonly intriguing. It activates the curiosity of the reader's mind not to mention that the whole topic pulls attractions on its own. Why Men Love Bitches gathered such recognition especially to the female audiences who wants to know how men think of women. The idea of on how men prefer bitches than a nice girl eyed the literary work to the public.

One vital reason why the book is appealing is that each chapters have an engaging title with corresponding significant matters to point out. To mention the chapter I have chosen to read and the entire book, its content is very entertaining and humorous that I did not think much of time reading it. The topic is generally practical and very relatable at the same time. The relevance of this work is that it sets as a guide to every women out there. Not just on how it gives idea the way men treat and perceive us but also on how should women see and motivate her own self to stayed dignified in life.

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beautyruthy · 4 years ago

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Why Men Prefer Bitches

Do you feel like you are too nice as a woman? Well this blog will make you realize what men think about women who were too nice for them. Sherry Argov's "Why Men Love Bitches" delivers a unique perspective as to why men are attracted to a strong woman who stands up for herself. Now, let's begin in exploring the second chapter of Argov's " Why Men Love Bitches".

The Summary of the chapter : Why Men Prefer Bitches

This chapter had gone deeper to what a nice girl needs to know about what a man wants. Men and women differ from their perspective about relationships. For a woman, the object is often committed relationship, also known as the destination while for men, the road trip on the way to the destination is more fun. Women need to understand that men love the “thrill of the chase” and are highly competitive. Like a blackjack, if he wins big right up front, he’s done for the night. But with the slow win, things develop differently. He wins a few hands and then loses a couple. At this point, wild horses couldn’t pull him away, because he feels so close to winning again. He can almost taste it. His inborn, competitive male kick in and makes him stay there and fight. And if he’s losing, he’ll fight even harder. They easily lose interest to those whom they find "easy to get".

This chapter also clears the difference between a nice woman from a bitch who is defined as the strong one. The nice girl continually pries and asks, “What are you thinking about?” She worries that he is pulling away. The bitch is in her own thoughts. She doesn’t panic which makes him come her way.The bitch understands that when a man wants something he’ll go after it, and going after it makes him want it even more. If he doesn’t succeed right away, he starts to crave it. It captures his interest and excites his imagination.

One thing also, do not appear to check up on your man or ask him to check in with you. Whenever a woman requires too many things from a man, he’ll resent it. Let him give what he wants to give freely; then observe who he is. As a woman, to feel you are complete with or without him is the most important thing you can convey. Independence rather than dependence.

Reality-based stories

Argov's "Why Men Love Bitches" was published on October 1, 2002 . Aside from falling under the contemporary literature, it also shows contemporary literature's characteristic showing some realistic events which people could relate with specifically on its second chapter: The chapter gives The author provides compelling answers to the tough questions women often ask like "Why are men so romantic in the beginning and why do they change?" "Why do men take nice girls for granted?"

"Why does a man respect a woman when she stands up for herself?"

Full of advice, hilarious real-life relationship scenarios, “she says/he thinks” tables, and the author’s unique “Attraction Principles,” Why Men Love Bitches gives you bottom-line answers. It helps you know who you are, stand your ground, and relate to men on a whole new level.

Appealing Features

Sherry Argov's "Why Men Love Bitches" gives much entertainment to the readers especially those women who want to know men's perspective about them and what's in them that makes them attractive to men. The chapter two of the book is relatable to women nowadays specially those who are in a relationship. Some scenarios given in the said chapter gives a humorous effect to the reader and it gives so much realization which is really one of its important appeal.

In this chapter, once you’ve discovered the feisty attitude men find so magnetic, you’ll not only increase the romantic chemistry but you’ll gain your man’s love and respect with far less effort.

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caltropspress · 4 years ago

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Notes on AKAI SOLO’s Eleventh Wind

Rhythm in poetry need not be “smooth” or “musical” (since that word has a questionable meaning). Be cautious of these descriptions as a so-called “good ear.”

—“Manifesto” from Russell Atkins’ Juxtapositions

I try to become really liquid with the shit—not even liquid. I try to become formless.

—AKAI SOLO

Always the same thing. A drop of hope glimmers, then a sea of despair begins to rage, and always the pain, always the pain, always the anguish, always one and the same thing.

—Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich

I've been robbing motherfuckers since the slave ships.

—The Notorious B.I.G., “Gimme the Loot”

There’s an “unfinished” aesthetic (I mean it gently, fondly) to AKAI SOLO’s work. His rhymes often start in medias res. The listener needs to become oriented to what he’s spewing, but he barely allows you to catch your breath. For anyone who’s ever been thrown [au]topsy-turvy by an ocean’s wave, you can respect the power of the primordial soup flow. Each verse is a wipeout. It’s Ron Wilson’s relentless drums on the Surfaris’ 1963 “Wipe Out” and the Fat Boys’ rollicking 1987 version all at once—joy pulled from despair.

2. “…a sunken system”

What is flow? In AKAI’s case, it’s something abrupt—both a step-up and a step-to. Is it free-form? Is it automatic writing gone horribly wrong? Is it asemic writing? Is it a Ouija-like push of the pen across the page? A flower doodled on scrap paper? Is it AKAI’s language acquisition happening in real time—a babbling? It’s not an infantile flow, though. Mannish boy? Man-child? It sometimes sounds like lips smacking of Mississippi mud. Think of AKAI on Shrine’s “Parables” (which begins with the lapping of waves—not the babbling brook): he takes “a deep sea soak in plasma.” The structure and borders of AKAI’s bars are liquid (formless); his words wash over.

3. “Pondering of the painter in between strokes.” (An Unknown Infinite, “Concrete Slides”)

Who’s out of pocket? Geochemistry tells us small pockets of water pulsate deep below the Earth’s surface. I find AKAI to be offbeat in both senses of the word. He’s both outré and outer space. Antediluvian and FEMA flood recovery plan. His bars rupture the very notion of time, of meter. To rap along with AKAI is to have an out-of-body experience—our neuroscience skitters and we gain an astral perspective on what the physical mouth is doing. Sheldon Pearce has called AKAI’s verses “impressionistic.” Plugging into AKAI’s music is to induce the Stendhal syndrome—beholding the sublimity of Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise, but—more accurately—Calida Garcia Rawles’ Singularity, seeing as how AKAI keeps it hyper-real. He “signs” nearly all his songs—another painterly touch.

4. The Earth is a great place to visit, but I ain't stayin’. (J-Ro, The Alkaholiks)

AKAI SOLO is for the antisocial kid who quotes Bruce Lee under their yearbook photo: Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless—like water. Water is everywhere on Eleventh Wind, even if the album title suggests other elemental forces. AKAI sometimes slurs, but not drunkenly—this isn’t some stumbling and staggering likwidation: it’s a reflection of your own grogginess, your own inertia from sleeping on his flow. There are oceans between J.M.W. Turner’s The Slave Ship and the “Big Pimpin’” of Jay-Z, but AKAI’s poetics bridge the two. He comes at us, off-kilter, aslant, like the uneasy and queasy cover art for O.G.C.’s Da Storm.

5. “…a ship came, seeking harbour, fleeing from torture & swords” (from Kamau Brathwaite’s “Noom”)

The content often defies logical reasoning. He spits non-sequiturs in a literal sense, in that he does not follow. He machetes his own path (cutlass, more likely). AKAI is Cappadonna with his words—his slang is editorial, and it floods similarly. Zilla Rocca has called Cappadonna’s work “a waterfall of energy and creativity.” The same, seriously, could be applied to AKAI SOLO. I’ll call it logorrhea—and I don’t mean that pejoratively. It’s the seasickness you stomach so you can see the sunset from hundreds of miles off land.

The songs on Eleventh Wind are essentially single verses. There’s no middle eight, only an interminable Middle Passage. And water is everywhere.

AKAI’s lineage traces to the same cove you’d find Mr. Complex and Saafir washed ashore. Like those predecessors, his un-rhymes and rhythm-driven bars beat against the rocks, ebbing just when you think he’s flowing. He’s an H2O proof MC. He’s Black hydropower, and, like the ancestors, AKAI continues to speak of rivers, of swerve of shore to bend of bay.

On “An Ode to the Isolated,” argov’s production sounds submerged, certifiably Cousteau. We’re immediately in the deep, and the beat platforms AKAI’s aqua-lung breath control. He’s “in a den of dissonance dissolving,” which puts language to what’s happening sonically here better than a critic ever could. AKAI is “overwhelmed by your deep blueness”—the vast blue sea. These are pandemic blues. The Covid-minded lyric, “Masks donned as requested,” doubles as the masculine trap to swallow pain, smothering emotion in gritty sand, while still forward-facing a street persona. AKAI has acknowledged Eleventh Wind was, in part, generated from a depressive state.

[Testimony of John Cranston, a sailor upon the Polly, describing a slave woman hoisted down to sea from the mainmast in a chair after being isolated for small pox, June 15, 1791]

Q: Did you not hear her speak or make any Noises when she was thrown over—or see her struggle? A: No—a Mask was ty’d round her mouth & Eyes that she could not, & it was done to prevent her making any Noise that the other Slaves might not hear, least they should rise. Q: Do you recollect to hear the Capt. say any thing after the scene was ended? A: All he said was he was sorry he had lost so good a Chair. Q: Did any person endeavour to prevent him throwing her [over]board? A: No.

“Tetsuo” draws on Tsukamoto’s trilogy of cyberpunk perversity. How AKAI could feel “washed before the water touch the skin” is beyond me, as the skin crawls with maggots. The penetration of metal rods, but no tetanus—no lockjaw. Only body horror flow. He’s sketching futures—and all of them are nightmarish: “Surrounded by a blanket of ashes, / We all fall down like that one song said we would.” AKAI vaguely alludes to a plague rhyme of yore. And the uncertainties we’re living with come through even in his drafts, as the liner notes on PTP’s cassette release of the album provide a set of lyric options: “Surrounded by a sea/bed/blanket…” Choose your own misadventure.

9. From at least the sixteenth century onward, a major part of the ocean engineering of ships has been to...minimize the wake. But the effect of trauma is the opposite. It is to make maximal the wake. (Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being)

On “Tainted,” AKAI—young as he may be—identifies the foolishness of some of his peers: “N----s wanna toast on a slave ship / …sinking with the drink.” AKAI suggests they’re still on the slave ship, ignorant of the fact. When he goes off on a paranoid tangent full of what seem to be elementary internal rhymes, it’s anything but: “hitting a lark / in the dark / in the park / skill a shark / or a narc / ill a mark on his job every time.” This litany of monosyllabic rhymes sounds an alarm.

10. “Even though the vessels differ, we’re all still sailing. / …navigation through suffering.”

“Still Sailing” acts as a centerpiece for the water imagery on Eleventh Wind. It’s also a self-assessment of his style. The “wavelength irregular” puns on wave and owns the irregular flow; “my groove goofy,” he admits. His vulnerability is stunning, refreshing: “I was ensuring my work was worth something.” Such vulnerability is liquid, is flux, reflects reality:

In a dirt sea, all I am is a seed Reaching for what I mean to Rooted in what it is, galvanized by what can be.

Even AKAI’s other nature metaphors—like earth (be it rare-earth or “Real Earth,” no matter), seeds, and roots—are built on water ones (“dirt sea”). This is Wallace Stevens-level abstraction. “Flowing like katanas of grass / Landscaping through with blazing sound waves” does it again (“flowing”/“grass”). And, of course, the mention of flowing katanas invites a Liquid Swords comparison. With the even cuts of AKAI’s sharp lyrics, it’s warranted.

I want to feel like Vast Aire, “like Moses with a staff that parts the Red Sea,” but it’s not so simple. Meaning is slippery on the album—hard to get your footing, your sea legs. Listeners are pulled into rip-tides and torn asunder, repeatedly. AKAI’s songs are raw—not in a hardcore way—in a work-in-progress sense, the way some of the most sincere songs humans have recorded are at times unfinished ones. Like Dylan’s “Santa Fe,” for instance, where the words converge into a slurry.

11. “Your water heavier than it’s supposed to be and they know that.”

On “Candor,” AKAI speaks on the burden of family discord, a “dilemma with me and mines.” In venting, he channels and subverts LL Cool J: “Don’t call it a comeback / These are just preliminary steps / On your back like structural racism is.” Where LL foregrounded his pugnacious masculinity, masking his insecurities (all the while calling for his “Mama”), AKAI is more likely to allow his tears to rain down like a monsoon. Candor has its origins in kand, meaning “to shine.” AKAI’s words offer glimmers of clarity, of openness.

12. “Depression stirs me before the morning chirps.”

Eleventh Wind closes with “Nebula”—gases flow, dust is bathed in glowing starlight. Again, we’re persevering: “Sound like nil singing / Feeling like nebula unraveling / Feeling like infinity expanding.” The consecutive gerunds emphasize AKAI’s desperation. He’s nihilistic here, nonexistent (“nil”) and grasping for meaning. In that way, he’s not so different from us approaching his music. Whether people are hot or cold, irate or aloof, he turns to water for comfort: “When I want to feel the heat I don’t get from people, I resort to water. / When I want to feel the cold I know people for, I resort to water.” AKAI SOLO doesn’t just bless us, he christens us.

Images:

The Fat Boys & The Beach Boys, “Wipeout” music video (screen shot) | The Surfaris, “Wipe Out” 12” (Decca, 1963) | Fat Boys, “Wipeout!” 12” (Tin Pan Apple, 1987) | Jay-Z, “Big Pimpin’” music video (screen shot) | J.M.W. Turner, The Slave Ship (1840) | Originoo Gunn Clappaz, Da Storm cassette cover (Duck Down/Priority Records, 1996) | Claudia Garcia Rawles, Singularity (2018) | The Alkaholiks, Likwidation album cover (Loud, 1997) | James Neagle, Frontispiece for the Dying Negro (1793) | Screen shot from Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1992) | Hokusai, Feminine Wave (1845) | Carina Nebula, NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team | Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise (1872)

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jazzworldquest-blog · 6 years ago

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USA/ISRAEL: Rising Israeli Jazz Pianist/Composer Guy Mintus To Release Ambitious New Album on 2/15

New York-based, Israeli jazz pianist-composer Guy Mintus is set to issue a new trio album, Connecting the Dots, scheduled for worldwide release on February 15, 2019 on France's Jazz Family label. Mintus is a learned, well-traveled and much honored musician. His awards include the Prix du Public at the Montreux Jazz Festival's solo piano competition, two ASCAP Foundation/ Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards and, in 2018, the ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein Award. In addition, the Mintus Trio's debut album, A Home In Between, was selected as a DownBeat "editor's pick." DownBeat's Brian Zimmerman called Mintus "an artist of prodigious talent and boundless ambition. In reviewing A Home in Between, All About Jazz said it is an "outstanding piano trio disc that heralds the arrival of a significant talent and a superb band." And New York Music Daily raved, "best trio album of 2017 by a mile, so far."A descendant of Polish, Iraqi and Moroccan Jews, Mintus has made New York his home for the past six years and has taken his music to locales as varied as India, Turkey, Brazil, Canada and many European cities. He has collaborated and/ or shared the stage with such artists as Jon Hendricks, Trilok Gurtu, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and ska-punk band Streetlight Manifesto.The ambitious new Connecting the Dots collection touches on a broad variety of musical worlds and is a musical summation of Mintus's ethnic and musical heritage and his experiences and interests. It wanders easily from the hard bop of Horace Silver's "Yeah!" to the floridity of "Little Italy," a Mintus original, to the carefree strut of another Mintus original, "Nothing New Under the Sun." Most striking, perhaps, are the performances that evoke the exoticism and spirituality of Mintus's native Middle East. A poem, "Hunt Music," by the mystical 13th Century Persian poet, Rumi, is given an inspired musical setting by Mintus, with an English translation of Rumi's words sung by Israeli vocalist Sivan Arbel. An arrangement of the traditional Jewish High Holy Day prayer, "Avinu Malkeinu" features a haunting sax solo by jazz veteran Dave Liebman. And, to celebrate his own Mizrahi Jewish heritage, Mintus performs (and sings) a Hebrew language hit associated with the late Israeli Yemenite singer, Zohar Argov. The other members of the Mintus Trio are bassist Dan Pappalardo and drummer Phillipe Lemm.Aside from his work with the Trio, Mintus has been busy with an array of other projects. He recently performed Gershwin's" Rhapsody in Blue" with the Bayerische Philharmonic and premiered his own full-length work, a piano concerto inspired by the journey of the Jews of Arab origins immigrating to Israel in its early days, for the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. He has been commissioned to compose works by the American Composers Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and the Jerusalem East & West Orchestra, In addition, he has contributed original music and piano interpretations to Fiddler, a forthcoming documentary about Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Emmy-nominee Max Lewkovicz. In the spring of 2019, Mintus will make his theater debut, starring as an aspiring young pianist in a new musical at Tel Aviv's Carmeri Theater.Audio Preview

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years ago

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Hotelbeds Eyes a Viable Wholesaler Path in the Shadows of Priceline and Expedia

Hotelbeds filled about 25 million room nights last year by suppling hotels to travel agencies, tour operators, and airlines. Joan Vilà (right) , executive chairman of Hotelbeds Group, is shown with Tourico Holidays CEO Uri Argov when announcing their merger on February 7, 2017. Hotelbeds Group

Skift Take: Since 2016, the quiet wholesaler marketplaces for hotel supply have become noisy as private equity firms invested $2.9 billion to make Hotelbeds Group a market leader. Expect more consolidation.

— Sean O'Neill

Everyone knows that hotels increasingly rely on two conglomerates — Expedia Inc. and Priceline Group — to distribute their inventory globally to a large chunk of leisure travelers. Some hotels rely on the giants to fill as many as half of their rooms on any given night.

Yet an alternative distribution path may be gaining small but noticeable momentum — namely, business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces.

The largest of these is Hotelbeds, which distributes rooms at wholesale rates to about 35,000 retail travel agencies, small online travel agencies (such as Getaroom and Travel Republic), tour operators who build vacation packages (such as TUI Deutschland), and airlines who upsell passengers with accommodation offers (such as EasyJet).

In spring 2016, the B2B accommodation sector heated up when private equity firm Cinven and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board led a consortium that bought parent company Hotelbeds Group from tour operator TUI for $1.32 billion (€1.165 billion).

Since then, the owners of the Palma de Mallorca, Spain-based Hotelbeds Group have been investing for growth.

This year, they funded its acquisitions of its smaller peers GTA and Tourico Holidays for a combined cost of $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion), according to sources familiar with the companies’ finances.

The deals make Hotelbeds Group the market leader in the B2B hotel sector, holding around 15 percent of the global market — roughly double what it had before the two acquisitions.

When Hotelbeds Group made the acquisitions, it did so with the backing of the Cinven-led consortium. That means, in effect, that private equity has placed a $2.93 billion bet on this sector in the past couple of years.

The second-largest wholesaler platform is Australia-based travel booker Webjet, with about 3 percent of the global accommodation market — assuming its $265 million offer to acquire JacTravel that was announced this summer is approved.

After that, there’s long-tail of players — led by MTS Globe and World2Meet. The wide field leaves opportunity for further consolidation.

On Wednesday, Hotelbeds’ acquisition of GTA officially closed. In the next 12 months, the companies expect to fill about 55 million room nights together. Hotelbeds Group now has 8,300 employees after the acquisitions, making its workforce about as large as better-known travel players like EasyJet and Sabre.

Geographic Targeting

The larger of Hotelbeds’ two acquired companies, GTA, is particularly strong in its coverage of Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Like Hotelbeds, GTA provides hotels and other products to travel intermediaries, smaller online travel agencies, and traditional travel agencies via an online booking platform or an integration with its API (application programming interface, or a method used for retrieving data).

The leader in the Americas is Tourico Holidays. Hotelbeds’s acquisition of it closed this summer.

In spring 2016, Hotelbeds said it had a database of 72,000 rooms. This week it said it has about 120,000 — not counting the ones it will inherit from its new acquisitions — including inventory from global chains Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group, and AccorHotels.

Upon Wednesday’s transaction close, the group began the process of discovering how much overlap there is between its listings and those of its newly acquired companies, with GTA claiming about 100,000 and Tourico Holidays., claiming about 50,000. Hotelbeds will move all of the brands onto its revamped technology platform — an open-source, cloud-based IT structure — to try and generate efficiencies.

One path Hotelbeds uses to distribute rooms is to make them available via the reservation system run by Amadeus, a Madrid-based global travel marketplace, but not Amadeus’ rivals Sabre and Travelport. Use of this channel may grow, the company said.

Joan Vilà, executive chairman of Hotelbeds Group, also wants to grow business lines in airport transfers, activities like big bus tours and Broadway show tickets, cruises, and — eventually — corporate hotel booking.

The conventional wisdom is that most of those products do not have margins as high as hotels do, on average. If so, that calls into question whether Hotelbeds can maintain its double-digit growth rates by moving into other products.

Hotelbeds disagreed with this line of thinking, saying that some types of product have a higher margin than others — such as excursions instead of walking tours. It added that, cross-selling and a more sophisticated use of technology than its competitors will give it gains in efficiency and drive higher average revenue for agencies, vacation packagers, and airlines. That would encourage those suppliers to use it more frequently for distribution, the company said.

Overpromising or Holding Its Own?

Conventional wisdom is that — while not as bad as for airplane tickets — the wholesale market for hotel rooms is under margin pressure. These critics doubt that so-called bed banks have a future.

While a few B2B marketplace businesses like Hotelbeds have high margins, partly by essentially buying blocks of rooms with commissions estimated at effectively about 25 percent, many smaller players appear to be competing by charging lower commissions of around 15 percent.

The cuts in commissions may deepen: Many small players tell hotels that they’re selling rooms to tour operators and offline agencies but, in reality, are selling to smaller online travel sites, such as Amoma, which rely heavily on wholesaler inventory.

The bottom line: Online competitive pressures are driving down commissions.

In other words, hotels may not realize how much of their inventory is ending up on sites like Amoma. If they do, they might discover that they’re accidentally competing against the rates they offer on their direct brand sites, according to Guilain Denisselle, a Paris-based industry consultant and the editor of trade publication Tendance Hotellerie.

Hotelbeds isn’t to blame for this phenomenon.

Yet among smaller players, low-margin tactics are becoming common, experts said. This phenomenon may reduce the pool of high-margin wholesalers that Hotelbeds could snap up to maintain its pace of growth.

Chairman Interview

Hotelbeds said it is not noticing margin pressure in its own business. While it did not say this, experts believe it may have avoided margin pressure by emphasizing sales to tour operators, who do not compete as directly with online travel agencies, and by relying on high-quality, upscale properties, which have more demand from upscale consumers who don’t balk at high prices.

Despite its acquistions, Hotelbeds said it drives a lot growth organically to meet its objectives. It does not need additional acquisitions to drive growth, it claims.

Vilà, Hotelbeds Group’s executive chairman, told Skift he thought the portfolio of brands and their geographic coverage is adequate now. But he added that the company would remain opportunistic.

“We are pretty well-represented in all of the key destinations worldwide now,” Vilà said. “Additional acquisitions are not something we’re thinking about for the next several months at least, though I can’t say we would rule it out entirely.”

Vilà said the company is more interested in high-quality properties that will lead to repeat bookings rather than simply having the largest possible inventory.

The company also stands out from other wholesalers by its technology investment, he said. Unlike most others, it can handle dynamically changing rates.

A case in point: One of its partners, AccorHotels, can adjust the rates it allows Hotelbeds to sell its properties for based marketplace conditions rather than the old model of setting rates months in advance.

Some experts believe Hotelbeds sees itself as primarily competing with the global conglomerates for premier inventory in popular destinations.

By that measure, a wholesaler’s average 25 percent is higher than a typical 15 percent Booking.com commission. It would be on par with Booking.com, though, when a traveler books through the Booking Genius program — a service used disproportionately by business travelers. Under that program, Booking.com charges a commission of 15 percent plus a 10 percent additional fee when a traveler makes a booking at a rate provided by the hotel that is a 10 percent discount off published rates.

Booking.com and Expedia often add fees for premium placement in their search results which, in effect, brings them closer to 20 to 25 percent commission levels.

If the rates are roughly comparable, why would hoteliers use the business-to-business channel?

One answer: by participating in and expanding the wholesale channel as a competitive model, hoteliers can put pressure on the duopoly to reign in their commissions — if the volumes are significant. Hotelbeds is nowhere near producing a volume that would impact companies like the Priceline Group. But its goal is to build a viable distribution business in the shadows of the Big Two.

Another answer: Wholesalers take net rates, a different model than is used by online travel giants like Booking.com, which have an agency, model. As part of a distribution mix, some hotels like a mix of models.

Wholesalers like Hotelbeds also don’t have consumer-facing brands, so aren’t spending marketing dollars competing for user acquisition against the hotels the way other companies do.

That said, one competes with a superstar company like the Priceline Group at one’s own peril, as summarized by Skift Research’s new report on the colossus. Priceline and its rival Expedia already are involved in the business-to-business segment via their affiliate businesses that provide inventory to tour operators and other players.

Vilà, who has led Hotelbeds since its creation in 2001, said his ultimate goal is to position Hotelbeds Group in “the champions league of the big travel companies.”

“We transcend our business-to-business segment,” Vilà said. “Our value proposition to our hotel partners is to enable them to diversify their distribution strategies and undermine the perhaps oligopolistic position of certain travel players.”

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rollinbrigittenv8 · 7 years ago