One of the most glaring omissions from thecoverage of the hotel partnership between eBay and Octopus Travel in recent weeks is how far the auction giant is willing to go in travel.
In the UK at least eBay is ramping up its efforts following the deal with the Travelport-owned Octopus Travel to provide a stream of 50,000 hotel properties into a co-branded store.
Officials admit that the partnerships is actually the start of something much bigger.
eBay says the Octopus deal marks an eagerness from its end to bring in other travel sectors and their respective product providers in "flights, cruises, trains, package holidays".
The company has an ongoing partnership with German travel technology firm Cultuzz - a partnership which has been in place for a few years to provide a media-based site under the CultBay brand for travel sellers to stream products into a search and mapping system.
It currently plugs into ten eBay sites around the world and automatically includes products in the CultBay system.
Travel companies in the US, such as Expedia, also use eBay as a traditional media partnership to include search and booking modules as part of display advertising on the site.
The Octopus deal is something different entirely, officials say. Octopus has a co-branded site within eBay to distribute its inventory and is not part of the auction system.
What eBay didn't mention at the time of the Octopus deal included its pervious forays into the travel sector with dedicated co-branded partnerships.
A list of old partnerships - mostly in the US - reads like a mini-who's who of the travel sector. In 2001 eBay had an ill-fated partnership with Priceline. It also worked with Expedia.
Both deals have since fallen by the wayside with no explanation.
In Australia it worked with Webjet for the LotsofHotels brand. This has since been axed and users are now directed to WebJet's StayThenPay site.
Some might argue that the odds are stacked against Octopus if history is not to be repeated.
However, doubters might be proven wrong now that eBay appears to have a dedicated strategy to reach into travel much further than it ever has before.