Watch out for our 2016 predictions in the coming weeks but in the meantime here are some of the most read, tweeted and shared stories of 2015

In December 2015 in ‘Why booking.com versus TripTease puts truth and transparency on trial’ we saw the world’s biggest OTA flex its muscles. It told the start up off for what booking.com saw as innappropriate use of its data. Initially booking.com refused to comment, but a spokesperson later told EyeforTravel that they had reason to believe that TripTease was illegally using their data. Booking.com was clear that they would go to any lengths necessary to ensure that their customer integrity wasn’t compromised as a result.

TripTease remained upbeat through the whole affair saying that hotel support had been ‘overwhelming’. So confident were they that they have hotels on their side, that as the year drew to  a close TripTease came out openly in support of a decision by the German Bundeskartellamt which has prohibited Booking.com from continuing to apply its 'best price' clauses.

Charlie Osmond, Triptease's 'Chief Tease' had this to say on the German cartel office announcement: “We believe that Booking.com wants to restrict competition in the market. They’ve tried to prevent hotels from offering better deals direct and attempted to restrict price transparency.”

We’ll be finding out more in the New Year.

Who said November was a cold month?

Not so and in November last year, the hot topic of how APIs can help integrate the customer experience but still lack a standard took the stage.

See what Liad Bokovsky, Director of Strategic Partnerships & Innovations, Tibco Mashery, an EyeforTravel sponsor, had to say about the advantages of using APIs in travel in this video.

Also in November, guest writer, analyst and economist, Sally White, took a look at China’s complex online travel industry in a story aptly titled Will this merger of Chinese rivals go quietly?When that’s just within reach, she wrote, “a new permutation appears!” This is a story of consolidation and competition in the Chinese space and looked at the joint venture moves of some of the main players, something we will be talking about more in Hong Kong later this month.

Another most popular November piece saw us take a look at ‘the trouble with tours, activities and ticketing’. More on this here in a video from EyeforTravel’s Connected Traveller Event in London, and something that is not going away this New Year.

A year earlier, in October 2014, we were already talking about tours and activities and we heard how one Indian OTA – Cleartrip - is clearing the unbeaten path for tours & activities.

Meanwhile, in an RM note, in October, Tom Bacon looked at six ways airlines were hiding price increases which included fewer discounts, fewer sales, decreased availability of lower fares, unbundling/ancillary fees , packing in the seats, new restrictions, deterioration in service quality. This story followed on from his piece titled: Reducing friction is the cornerstone of any modern pricing strategy. Also on the subject of RM we heard How Disney Pixar 'Inside Out' thinking can be applied to revenue management.

August, a busy month for travel, but quiet in the office, led us to try to understand why Heathrow Express is building a home for the connected traveller, the theme for an event that took place in September.

Distribution dilemmas and what Amadeus did next, a popular story from the month of July,took a look at the impact of Lufthansa’s decision to add a 16% surcharge to any booking made through the GDS. It also considered what the world’s largest transaction processor was doing in response. One ‘significant move’  was Amadeus’ decision to grow its hotel business by signing up with InterContinental Hotels to build its Guest Reservation System.

Also popular in July was how Singapore airlines is using artificial intellience to build its brand.

June saw marketing and communications expert Frederic Gonzalo, an attendee of our Miami show, sing a marketing tune. The top two from his story titled 15 stand out marketing stats from the world of online travel were:

• 39 - the number of reviews written every minute on TripAdvisor, the most downloaded mobile app (42%) followed by Priceline (15%), Expedia (14%) and Orbitz (13%)

• 25-60% - the number of visitors lost with each click in the path to purchase on mobile

May brought a bit of sunshine with a story on four winning ways forward for hotels. This was sponsored content in the form of a guest post from Dori Stein, chief executive of ForNova, a provider of online market intelligence, which goes to show that sponsored stuff doesn’t have to be marketing puff.

Digital lessons from May also came from thetrainline.com and no the tunnel doesn’t have to be dark.

March wasn’t as mad as expected and in 2015, we heard four lessons from two hotels – the Dorchester Collect and CitizenM – which were on a mission to perfect the guest experience.

And it certainly wasn’t the February blues for Secret Escapes which told EyeforTravel about how this closed user group for luxury travel was carving a niche in the noisy travel space.

Later in the year at our Connected Traveller Event in London we heard more from clues Secret Escapes CEO Tom Valentine on how to achieve digital success.

However, some women in travel were feeling the blues in February and in one of the most read stories of the year we heard why online travel needs more women. We will be catching up with those women and more in the New Year to hear what has changed and what still needs work.

A great start to 2015 came from a small but nimble UK chain – Shire Hotels - which started to play the OTAs at their own game by showing comparative rates on their website. And to bring this story full circle, in December we heard how this strategy has paid off and how they will continue in 2016 to innovate to drive direct bookings.

So 2015 was a busy year and no doubt 2016 will bring us more exciting  stories from our online travel community. So here is thanking you for your continued support and wishing you a happy, prosperous and profitable New Year!