One-stop shopping for travel? No silver bullet

USATODAY.com David Grossman explores why : "there is no magic Web site that has it all, for a couple of reasons:

1) No source or database has all information for all airlines, car rentals and hotel companies
2) Many travel Web sites negotiate rates with air, car and hotel companies that cannot be found anywhere else, and;
Many discount airlines like Southwest and JetBlue do not participate in the major online consumer travel agencies, like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity. They don't want to pay the fees for a listing in the database behind those online travel agencies. "

He concludes that: "no travel Web site has it all. By choice or chance, some sites always will be excluded. Major players like Southwest, Hilton or Holiday Inn will do their own thing and participate selectively or not at all. Small, lesser-known players may only be listed in one place.
If one magic Web site had it all, it would be used exclusively and the other sites would go out of business. If you decide to shop in one place all the time, you can bet someone else is finding something you've missed on another Web site."

Transport - secret speed camera palns

ThisisLondon: "Transport for London chiefs have put forward controversial plans to increase the number of speed cameras by up to 37 per cent this year"

Active Hotel Reservations Go Mobile

Internet Travel News - Hotel Reservations Go Mobile: " new partnership between Reporo and Active Hotels will soon enable business users and leisure seekers to make instant hotel reservations on their mobile, without internet access.

Reporo enables consumers to search and book hotels through Active Hotels by simply using their mobile phone or other handheld devices such as PDA�s. "

Hotel groups fail to honour web promises - 19-Apr-05.

Hotel groups fail to honour web promises - 19-Apr-05.: "Hotel companies are failing to honour price guarantees on their websites, according to new research...snip

...KPMG surveyed 330 hotels in 16 countries and found that of the 142 which offered price guarantees, only 38 of them delivered on their promise when bookings were made 48 hours before departure.

UK hotels performed worse than properties in any other countries surveyed, with only 19 per cent of an undisclosed number honouring their pledge not to be beaten on price.Of all the 330 hotels surveyed, only 63 of them offered the best deals on their own websites."

- VisitBritain To Launch Major Arabic Initiatives At ATM 2005

Internet Travel News: "Middle East tourism to the UK is outpacing that of the rest of the world with regional visitors spending more per person than tourists from other areas, according to VisitBritain.

�Visitors to the UK from the Middle East contributed an average spend of £1700 per capita per visit in 2004, "

Best Western Unveils Multi-Lingual Website

breakingtravelnews.com: "Best Western has added translated content to its web site. All online hotel and booking information is now available in French, German, Italian and International Spanish. Additionally, all Asian hotel property listings and reservations web pages are available in simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

David Kong, president and CEO of Best Western International commented: 'The ability for our customers to learn about properties or book a reservation in their native language is an absolute necessity for our continued global expansion and growth.'
Currently, Internet bookings comprise 44 percent of all Best Western reservations. 'The Internet is our fastest growing distribution channel,' said Ric Leutwyler, senior vice president of brand management and member service. 'It is critical that we seek continuous improvement in every aspect of the customer's online experience.'"

Expedia.com Launches Online Resource Center for All-Inclusive Vacation Ideas

biz.yahoo.com reports that

Expedia.com®, the world's leading online travel service, recently launched a new online resource center that provides travelers with deals, information, and benefits of all-inclusive resort vacations. According to a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive®, this trip planning resource comes just in time: 70 percent of U.S. adults admit to feeling stressed about vacationing and 33 percent attribute this stress specifically to exceeding their vacation budget. All-inclusive resorts are a great option for these travelers because they typically include meals, beverages, entertainment and sometimes more within the price of the room, helping to alleviate any overspending concerns while on vacation...."

Hotel Report Shows UK Hotel Industry 'buoyant'

Hospitality Net - Industry News - Hotel Report Shows UK Hotel Industry 'buoyant' | PKF Reports: "The UK hotel industry is definitely on the way up, according to PKF hotel consultancy services. Investments are at record levels whilst trading performances of both London and regional UK hotels are approaching levels last seen five years ago, as revealed in PKF�s annual Hotel Britain report, launched today. "

Great Hotels of the World Launches New Website

Internet Travel News - Great Hotels of the World Launches New Website: "Great Hotels of the World has revamped its website http://www.ghotw.com specifically with the consumer in mind.

Users can search for hotels by location, facilities, activities and the consortia�s main niche markets such as the luxury golf collection, luxury spa collection or luxury romantic collection.
On locating a hotel, visitors to the site can immediately view a photo tour of the hotel and its facilities. "

Travelzoo recruiting for London-based U.K. team

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "This spring Travelzoo will launch U.K. editions of its popular publications. Travelzoo is seeking exceptional candidates with strong media and/or travel content backgrounds to join Travelzoo's London-based U.K. team."

Active Hotels Partner With Realrunner

travmedia.com "Active Hotels has teamed up with www.realrunner.com, a dedicated running and fitness site and part of ‘The Naked Group’. The runners however remain fully clothed!

Recently re-designed, realrunner.com has thousands of pages of content covering training, nutrition, injuries and an extensive race diary. Up to 100,000 runners a day use the site which appeals to those using running as part of a general fitness programme as well as those interested in training for races - whether a 10k or a 26.2 mile epic! Realrunner is also the official online partner of the Flora London Marathon.

A clickable Active Hotels logo is now present on realrunner.com, allowing a worldwide audience access to over 10,000 instantly bookable hotels."

- Consumer Reports Review Travel Web Sites

WRAL.com: "Consumer Reports took a look at the big three travel Web sites and compared them to three newcomers.

'Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz only search the travel agency reservation systems and their own databases. The others are search engines and they scour travel sites all over the Web looking for the best deals,' said Sarah Goralski, of Consumer Reports.
The search-engine travel sites are Kayak, Mobissimo and Sidestep. In four trials, Consumer Reports found the search engines located the lowest prices in every case."

New search advertising tool at Kayak.com

Internet News Article | Reuters.com: "Kayak.com, a travel comparison-shopping Web site, on Monday rolled out a new search advertising tool aimed at helping hoteliers, airlines and other travel companies reach customers with better-focused campaigns.

Paid-search advertisers could use the company's new self-service tool to concentrate their spending on dates when they have empty rooms in certain hotel properties, or to promote flights between certain cities on specific dates, said Steve Hafner, Kayak's co-founder and chief executive.
The ads will be shown to consumers whose travel search queries meet the criteria defined by the advertiser -- potentially resulting in better-targeted ads for price-conscious travelers... relevant search ads appear after users enter their trip dates and destinations."

Glasgow ipod Tour

travelmole.com: "Visitors to Glasgow are being offered the chance to take an interactive tour of the citys cultural highlights downloaded on to their iPods. What is being promoted as the worlds first iTour can be downloaded for free and includes a mix of trivia, tourist information and music.

The concept was dreamed up by American /Scottish Samantha Chapnick, who is based in New York. She reportedly told the Sunday Herald: When I was in Scotland as a tourist it took me a long time to see Glasgow as a place that had something amazing to offer. Tourists think Edinburgh: the castle. Glasgow: what is there? and I wanted the iTour to show off what a great place it is.

The MacWorld website quotes Glasgow City Marketing Bureau chief executive Scott Taylor as saying: The music scene in Glasgow is the best in Britain and this iTour describes it by those best placed to know music enthusiasts, music promoters and the bands themselves. It is a vivid portrayal of a stylish, vibrant and creative city and I am sure it will persuade more people to visit.

Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd "

Agents losing out to internet for business travel

travelmole.com: "More than half of business travellers use the internet as their primary means of arranging their business travel, a new poll shows.

The survey by management consulting group Accenture of more than 450 business travellers in the UK found that 53% book their business travel primarily online, up from 47% in 2003."

Bloggers Listed by Answers.com

Bloggers Topics from Answers.com: "Directory > People > Bloggers "

Dot .travel approved by Icann as domain

:: Travel Weekly ::: "Dot-travel became an officially sanctioned top-level domain akin to dot-com and dot-net April 8, when the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) voted to give its approval."

AU Travel providers to feel air wars heat

The Courier-Mail: "AUSTRALIAN travel providers will suffer the same margin erosion as their UK counterparts experience while discount airlines carve up the market, the chief of Flight Centre's British operations says.."

AngloFILE - VisitBritain publication for travel writers and travel broadcasters

travmedia.com: "AngloFILE is a monthly online publication produced by VisitBritain for travel writers and travel broadcasters in the UK and includes short news items on travel and leisure in England, with a press contact given for each item. "

Travelodge’s £20 Million Rebrand Programme

travmedia.com "Travelodge, the UK’s number one budget hotel brand*, launches a £1 million advertising campaign to support its new brand identity. The campaign has been created around the theme - Be Sleepwise, which underlines Travelodge is the smart choice when booking hotel accommodation."

Sabre buys 'travel Google' - IgoUgo

www.travelmole.com: "Sabre has bought the travel-specific search engine and travel community, IgoUgo.com. The ‘travel Google’ allows users to input keywords and will only return travel-related results. The site also encourages users to share their travel experiences so has a database of travel reviews, photos and journals. There are 350,000 members of IgoUgo..."

TUI UK reckon “to double online sales” in four years

travelmole.com "Increased broadband take-up and other home-based technology developments will trigger a “massive upturn” in online travel sales, Thomson parent TUI UK predicts.

The UK’s largest tour operator estimates that more than half of all holidays will be booked online within the next four years.

Releasing its first online booking report, Thomson claims to have out-performed internet rivals such as Expedia, lastminute.com and Cendant in January and widened its online market share.

Hitwise figures released by TUI UK show it achieving a 16% online market share in the month, a 5% rise year-on-year, against Expedia, static at 11%, lastminute.com, down 1% to 10%, Cendant, static at 4%, First Choice at 4% and Thomas Cook at 3%."

Hotel Internet Marketers : Pop-Up And Keyword Advertising Threaten On-Line Brand

breakingtravelnews.com Article by Peter M. Ripin, partner with the law firm Davidoff Malito & Hutcher LLP, New York City, reviews a number of cases concerning legal challenges to both pop-up and keyword advertising.

He concludes:

" First, hotels should prohibit keyword buying and pop-up advertising in their contracts with third party sites and enforce those prohibitions.

Other options to consider include paying the search engines "ransom" by bidding on your own trademark and/or seeking the advice of counsel concerning possible legal action. Although the legal route can be costly, it can also be highly effective and is surely preferable to simply capitulating to the "hijacking" of your hotel's trademark by paying ransom which can also be costly. Since we clearly haven't received our "final answer" from the courts on these issues, it's important that hotels take proactive action now to defend their on-line brands."

Yahoo tests hotel search | Beta

CNET News.com: "Yahoo began testing a hotel search site, as part of a travel service it launched last year. The FareChase travel service, which so far has offered airline searches, will now include a test version of hotel search and the ability to make reservations online, the company said Monday. Consumers can customize their search by price or distance from a specified location and get a list of hotels within that area. User ratings, reviews, interactive maps and other information will also be available, Yahoo said."

Cendant completes Gullivers/OctopusTravel.com deal

travelmole.com: "Cendant has completed the acquisition of Gullivers Travel and online arm Octopustravel.com."

Expedia tops European travel sites

Netimperative: "Expedia is the most visited multi-category travel site in Europe, closely followed by Lastminute.com, according to new research."

Top 10 multi-category travel sites in Europe for February 2005, in terms of unique audience (000s). Active reach shown in brackets.
1. Expedia 4,448 (3.96%)
2. Lastminute.com 3,976 (3.54%)
3. voyages-sncf.com 3,304 (2.94%)
4. Opodo 2,193 (1.95%)
5. Yahoo! Travel 1,748 (1.56%)
6. TUI 1,726 (1.54%)
7. Ebookers 1,276 (1.14%)
8. eDreams 1,217 (1.08%)
9. Virgin Travel 1,190 (1.06%)
10. Hapag-Lloyd 1,096 (0.98%)
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings