This is a roundup of product news and announcements related to travel distribution in July 2017. Tuesday 4 July 2017: HotelREZ adds Coast & Country Coast & Country Hotels, a 15-strong chain of hotels in the UK, will now sell via the GDSs for the first time after joining…
The next big thing in artificial intelligence will be “AI as a service,” according to a soon-to-be-released “Radar Report” from Sabre Labs. The opening up and growth of AI platforms will allow everyone to tap into existing AIs, building new functionality on existing services. That could be a real…
Any airline folk that haven’t heard of Fliggy, formerly Alitrip, might want to take note sooner rather than later. There are already impressive numbers coming out of the online travel platform, which acts as an online mall for brands and is part of China’s Alibaba ecosystem. The travel brand began life about…
HEDNA‘s mobile working group has identified and quantified “customer friction” in the context of booking hotel rooms on mobile. The trade body for hotel distribution knows better than most that mobile bookings for hotels, via brand dotcoms or third parties, are now mainstream. The research accepts this as fact,…
This is a roundup of announcements related to people moves and business expansions in July 2017. Monday 3 July 2017: HotelsPro turns to Turner The reservations technology specialist has appointed Robert Turner as managing director. Turner, who has previously held roles at Travco and onhotels.com, will be responsible for…
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) has launched a new Search Smarter consumer awareness campaign aimed to put a halt to what it describes as misleading marketing strategies by online travel agencies and travel search sites, as well as to fight rampant bookings fraud. The group particularly focuses on…
The narration is familiar – a new shiny breakthrough in tech is announced, inks spill in its honour, and criticism and opinion pieces fly around. Early adopters rush in to lay their hands on it, and in a few months, the circus is dead; inks are scribbling new praises,…
I am a recreational cyclist. I am sure many other people are too. It’s fun to find a nice place to ride, without the preparation required of the serious hardcore bikers. I also spend a lot of time in Beijing. The phenomenon of the bike sharing scheme there is…
A report prepared by benchmark analytics technology company STR and Google shows that tracking hotel search results can be a reliable gauge of hotel bookings. The report compares Google search, STR demand and bookings trends for hotels in New York and London from 2014 through 2016, and evaluates weekly…
When hotel brands respond to reviews on sites such as TripAdvisor and Booking.com it’s often a reactive endeavour. NB This is a viewpoint by Geoffrey Ryskamp, principal of hospitality, travel, and leisure at Medallia. When a customer publicizes a problem, the immediate priority is to address that concern and…