EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit North America 2010 is scheduled to take place Oct 13-14, 2010 in Chicago. The theme for this year’s TDS is “Essential Growth Strategies for a Changing Travel Market.” EyeforTravel TDS North America The two day event includes four distinct travel conferences, with 70+ expert speakers and over 750 travel professionals on hand to fill up The...
TravelTech has wrapped up for another year. There were highs, lows and even a hashtag battle (!?) A ton of content was covered, so I’ll jump strait in to it. First up was Barney Harford, President and CEO of Orbitz with some discussion around the cost and benefit of consolidating the various booking platforms in the Orbitz group. In advancing booking platform technology as well as customer service...
Sometimes in summer it can be tough to find 10 things, but this week there’s some IPO news, a flight attendant snaps and Google sells out the web: Skype files for an IPO. I know they’re only trying to raise a $100M, but the financial numbers look bad. Low margins, less than 2% of registered users are paying customers. The plan is still to convert more users from free to...
It has taken me a while to type it up but I wanted to share with you my interview with TripAdvisor Product Vice President Adam Medros on their (now not so new) Trip Friends feature that allows review and destination surfing on TripAdvisor to be combined with Facebook social search features.If you have not come across the Trip Friends product yet, it allows you to connect your TripAdvisor search to...
It has taken me a while to type it up but I wanted to share with you my interview with TripAdvisor Product Vice President Adam Medros on their (now not so new) Trip Friends feature that allows review and destination surfing on TripAdvisor to be combined with Facebook social search features.If you have not come across the Trip Friends product yet, it allows you to connect your TripAdvisor search to...
The Orbitz press release boldly announced “Orbitz Launches Groundbreaking Hotel Search Experience with Industry-Leading Property Comparison Features.” photo credit: Erik CharltonThe Orbitz hotel user interface may be new and improved, but is it enough of a dramatic step forward to catch the attention of travel shoppers?Wow, sign me up! Nothing grabs my attention better in online travel...
Well that was an interesting week: HP’s Hurd and Google’s Wave are out (and IHMO Wave had the more egregious indiscretions), Travelport may finally revive their IPO and a few more things. Is a Travelport IPO in the very near future? LAN Airlines chooses Orbitz over Expedia for dynamic packaging. HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns amidst sexual harassment investigation. The wording...
Guest post by Revinate A few years ago, naysayers said that social media was just a fad. Today there are hundreds of millions of active users on Facebook and Twitter, not to mention major review sites and OTA’s. The rapid adoption of social media has forever changed the way people communicate and discover. With so many ways to share information with ever-expanding networks of friends, user-generated...
RT @PatentlyApple: Apple's iTravel App to Plug into Hotel Servers for In-Room Services http://bit.ly/9jT3hK #travel #hotel #Watching #sharkweek on @Discovery – Adding Seal Island South Africa to my #kickthebucketlist of places I don't want to swim #@OrbitzCareTeam Could not DM as you were not following me. Already called @Orbitz on phone & also confirmed with @Airtran #Note to Businesses...
Google-ITA Acquisition: What Lies Ahead? July 29, 2010 On July 1, 2010, Google officially—and finally—announced the acquisition of ITA Software, a leading provider of airfare shopping technology, for US$700 million. Subject to regulatory approval, the acquisition has raised a multitude of questions—and opposition—across the travel industry. What form will Google...