The deadpool is full of failed online travel startups – it’s a crazy idea to even think about starting a new business, right? The sector is dominated by the Priceline and Expedia groups which spend north of $3 billion dollars per year each in online advertising Google’s flight and hotel…
JetBlue Vacations has partnered with Utrip, a Seattle-based trip-planning portal that aims to achieve true personalization in designing vacation itineraries. Utrip launched five years ago as a fairly standard booking site, but it has harnessed artificial intelligence and machine learning and added curated local recommendations to take trip planning…
This is a roundup of announcements related to people moves and business expansions in June 2017. Tuesday 13 June 2017: TravelCar expands to US The airport parking and car-share provider will open an office in Los Angeles to concide with launching its first US destination in the city, with 20…
Commissions paid by hotels to intermediaries have risen by more than 7% over the course of the last year. This is according to the 2017 Trends In The Hotel Industry study from CBRE. This is ringing alarm bells across the industry. Not only because it eats further into hotel…
We operate in a multi-device, multi-channel and multi-touchpoint digital world, and the hotel planning and booking customer journey is becoming increasingly complex as a result. NB: This is a viewpoint by Max Starkov, president & CEO at HeBS Digital. In fact, according to Google, the average consumer engages in…
Hoteliers today face a number of problems – coming from within their own sector and from on the peripherary. As well as the perennial issue of competing with rival hotels, the growth of private accommodation bookings through platforms such as Airbnb is also concerning. Now more than ever, hotels…
LiveLocl is a guidebook, messaging and content app which helps hotels to give guests a memorable experience by sharing the best that a destination can offer. Before the Q&A with founder Craig Suyeishi, here’s a 60 second elevator pitch video. 1. What problem does your business solve? Check…
There has been a noticeable drive by some hotels in recent years to position themselves as gateways to the wider destination in which they reside. Chains and independent properties have taken a view that online they should be thinking about replicating, to varying degrees, what they are able to…
Vinci Airports Extends Technology to Passengers’ Front Door and Beyond Vinci Airports plans to deploy single biometric token trials at some of its airports by the end of this year. The airport operator, which manages more than 30 airports, says the move will “help to optimise the time of…
Indian tours and activities app Guiddoo has raised $300,000 in pre-Series A funding. The business was featured as part of Tnooz’s StartUp Pitch series in March 2014, although it has pivoted from its initial role as a freemium service offering audio-visual guides to destinations and attractions via an app….