Introducing the travel genie - Sunday Times - Times Online: "Let�s say you�re one of the millions who use low-cost airlines. To get the best deals, you need to know when EasyJet, Ryanair or Flybe introduce new routes or special fares. In the past, that meant signing up to each of their e-mail newsletters.
Not any more. Instead, you can go to Cheapflights.co.uk and subscribe to its RSS feed, which has news of the latest deals offered by every low-cost airline in the UK. Sign up at news.cheapflights.co.uk/flights/rss.html and the information will automatically appear on your reader.
Online travel agents and tour operators are also embracing RSS. Lastminute.com has introduced feeds detailing each day�s best hotel discounts, package holidays and theatre deals (to subscribe, visit www.lastminute.com/site/rss).
The giant American travel search engine SideStep.com, which recently launched in the UK, is planning something similar. But RSS needn�t just be about bargains � it can be used to keep you updated about any subject under the sun...
Example: Last week, I subscribed to Lastminute.com’s RSS feeds and several tasty bargains landed straight on my desktop, including a week’s half-board at the five-star Marriott Taba Heights, in Egypt, reduced by 45% to £299."
Monday, March 06, 2006
Friday, March 03, 2006
Most travel sites 'atrocious', says website expert-ry--J.
Poor navigation worst problem for travel sites...Most travel sites 'atrocious', says website expert-ry--J.: "Most travel sites 'atrocious', says website expert...The vast majority of travel websites are "atrocious" and lose business because they are impossible to navigate, a web specialist has claimed.
Craig Hanna, training director at consultancy firm E-Consultancy, accused 95% of websites of "behaving like the world’s worst high streets shops...
He said six out of ten travel sites have "amnesia" and don’t remember repeat visitors, while in a recent test, 52% of users who were told to book a flight and hotel were unable to do so....Hanna added that websites are not just failing to convert sales but driving business directly to competitors.
"Figures show that 67% click off pages because they encounter difficulties and of those, 35% go direct to competitor sites."
He told delegates at BTTF to "do the mum test". "Watch other people use your webite," he said. "What’s an obvious to you, isn’t obvious to other people. "I always see if my mum use it. That’s the test because if she can use, you should be ok.""
Craig Hanna, training director at consultancy firm E-Consultancy, accused 95% of websites of "behaving like the world’s worst high streets shops...
He said six out of ten travel sites have "amnesia" and don’t remember repeat visitors, while in a recent test, 52% of users who were told to book a flight and hotel were unable to do so....Hanna added that websites are not just failing to convert sales but driving business directly to competitors.
"Figures show that 67% click off pages because they encounter difficulties and of those, 35% go direct to competitor sites."
He told delegates at BTTF to "do the mum test". "Watch other people use your webite," he said. "What’s an obvious to you, isn’t obvious to other people. "I always see if my mum use it. That’s the test because if she can use, you should be ok.""
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