HotelTonight scores $23M • 10 worst ancillary fees • Hot travel rewards cards • Save on summer airfares • Google warns against hacks • Windows Phone spring thaw? • Smarterer job seekers ditch resumes & take quizzes • Google for all ad sales • Fred Wilson: Facebook value ok • Netflix CDN • Quadcopter jogging…
Concur contract•Google Hotels•GDS & Delta premium economy•iPads make planes light•GoRecess.com•Xbox winning•Facebook IPO fallout•Groupon down•Google Analytics•Microsoft security•Bye bye Blackberry•3D capture & Print•More Travel Our Redmond WA neighbor Concur just won a big government travel and expense contract—up to $1.4B over 15 years. As Tnooz notes, users will be able to import their reservations into Concur’s…
Travelocity losses•Customer friendly ancillary revenue•Selling ads not flights•AI Travel Agents•Fare Calendar•Kayak IPO Delayed•Travel Photos•Windows 8•Facebook Opera•Nook teardown•SpaceX•User-led innovation•Mirror cube treehouse Travel Travelocity losses dragging down parent company Sabre. Some interesting insights, including several years of Travelocity losses, are revealed in a disclosure the privately-held company recently made to investors. Tnooz This article suggests a…
Superfly•Social overhyped?•Gen Z Computer Literacy•Hotel Revenue Management•Stonehenge•Long Haul Flying•Yahoo Browser•HP Layoffs•Apple eBook Suits•Hovercraft Travel Travel startup Superfly is making bold claims. It says that its Big-Data-driven personalization and targeting approach will leave established search companies behind and create value to attract customers and suppliers alike. It’s worth looking at what they’ve done, and it…
Airbnb damage guarantee•Air seating fees•Viral video•Facebook bad press•Googlerola•Flames & Lasers Travel Airbnb’s new “host guarantee” covers damage to hosts’ property up to $1M at no charge. Airbnb started offering $50,000 of property damage coverage following the well-publicized trashing of a host’s apartment last year. While Airbnb’s initial offering was a reactive response to bad situation,…
Expedia China•Bag Revenue•New Rollercoasters•Longest Flights•Cost2Drive•Swimming High•Pixar Catastrophe•Privacy Malpractice•Banansynth•& More Travel eLong, Expedia’s Chinese subsidiary, had significant year-over-year-gains from the first quarter of 2011 to Q1 of 2012. In Q1/2011 less than half of eLong’s bookings were made online while in Q1/2012 more than two-thirds were made online. Year over year for the same period eLong…
Travel Kayak’s long delayed IPO is likely to move forward quickly if the markets respond favorably to Facebook’s IPO. CNBC The sales channels hotels dislike: Partners large and small sign on as Online Travel Agency affiliates. For example, if I wanted to, I could become an affiliate and sell hotel room bookings from my blog…
Travel This new corporate travel booking app can teach current consumer travel apps a thing or two. Searching, booking and expenses are reduced to three screens. Travel planners can see door-to-door trip details in one view and edit any individual element. Tnooz An introductory how-to on Big Data, with practical applications, from Thematix by way…
Travel My quick analysis finds Expedia to be the strongest U.S. Travel Booking Brand. I used this very cool trick from Avinash Kaushik’s latest blog entry to measure brand strength. Since there’s no way to directly measure brand strength using standard quantitative analytics tools, Avinash shows how to use unaided brand recall as a proxy…
Travel An interesting Tnooz article argues that travel motivation sites will monetize better than inspiration sites because motivation is closer to action than is inspiration. The article goes on to suggest creating bucket lists for prospective travelers and then communicating personalized suggestions to motivate them to act on bucket list goals. Tnooz Roomkey adds white-label…
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