There are many facilitated or instant booking products available to hotels who want to work more closely with their metasearch partners, but what, if any, are the differences between trivago Express Booking, Instant Booking on TripAdvisor and Book on Google. NB This is a viewpoint by Pablo Delgado, CEO…

Qantas has launched its Concierge bot service in North America, UK and Hong Kong, after successful trials in Australia. The new Facebook Messenger bot gives customers personalized travel inspiration. The carrier plans to extend the Concierge bot to customer service as an extension of the service it currently offers…

Comtravo, a startup for booking and managing business travel, has closed Series A funding to the tune of €8.5 million. The round has the participation of Sweden-based venture capital fund Creandum and Berlin-based venture capital firm Project A. The startup is targeting small to medium sized businesses with its technology…

This is a roundup of product news and announcements related to travel devices in July 2017. Thursday 6 July 2017: Billund Airport adds Blip The airport joins Amsterdam, Auckland and Bristol airports with its implementation technology which measures passenger flow. Initially, the platform covered the security process but it…

Tnooz welcomes Nick Vivion, where he will oversee daily content operations, guide editorial strategy across products, and represent Tnooz worldwide. Tnooz is pleased to announce the appointment of Nick Vivion as Editor-in-Chief of Tnooz and Editorial Director of the Tnooz media and events platform. As Tnooz enters its ninth year…

According to web research company, Baymard Institute, two out of three (67.45%) online shopping carts are abandoned before purchase. Every travel retailer knows tools such as discount codes and flash sales can help convince customers to purchase trips or add-ons, but what other methods can push customers over the…

Adding more steps to the booking flow tends to increase complexity and leads to abandoned purchases so is generally considered a no go area. Or is it? While that’s the “conventional wisdom” there are cases when more steps can be a good thing because it helps consumers understand what they’re…

Voyages SNCF has bought UK-based pan-European rail booking service Loco2 for an undisclosed sum. Loco2 will continue to operate as a standalone brand with its co-founders, Kate and Jamie Andrews, staying with the business. Compared with its peers in the rail booking space, Loco2 has received only modest levels…

Sabre Corp. is planning to test a white-label chatbot with two travel agencies. Sabre is developing a “virtual travel agent” powered by Microsoft Bot Framework and Microsoft Cognitive Services, a set of tools organizations can use to add intelligent and conversational features to their applications. It includes Language Understanding…

It is common in the consumer marketing world to engage with customers where they pass their time, spend their money and focus their attention. NB This is a viewpoint by Mike Slone, chief experience officer for Travelaer. This often involves employing a team of fairly articulate field marketing representatives…