Articles tagged “mobile”

HotelTonight puts simplicity and curation in the palm of users' hands.

If things go Starwood's way, then all of that expense in introducing keyless entry at Aloft and W properties will be recouped in higher occupancies and rates.

Kayak started the direct-booking trend among travel metasearch sites, but now CEO Steve Hafner says improvements have been made on partner sites so direct booking is no longer a priority and can hurt, rather than help, turning lookers into bookers. Have the conditions really changed or is this Priceline Group-speak?

The local and experiential trend in travel -- you know, the kind of trips that millennials are said to be in love with -- has gotten to the point that MasterCard and others are curating and offering these escapes for their customers. It is a natural fit as travelers knock off cities on their bucket lists, using their credit and debit cards.

Skift and Egencia hosted a webinar to answer an important question: If the hospitality – the actual human to human interaction – part of the travel industry becomes less and less important, how will the industry define itself?

Given the consumer base of sister companies Booking.com, Agoda and Kayak, OpenTable now has the chance to expand beyond its traditional local orientation into a dining app for travelers, as well. Some of its learnings and technologies can also apply to hotels and tours and activities.

In the current M&A environment, HomeAway is both the pursued and the pursuer. And all of this takes place as HomeAway becomes an even more attractive acquisition target because it is getting aggressive and ahead of schedule, expecting a majority of its listings to be bookable online within two years.

Qunar CEO Chenchao "CC" Zhuang isn't like some travel bosses who claim their companies can differentiate themselves based on the experiences they provide. Zhuang wants to compete on comprehensiveness and price, and he claims Qunar's platform is driving such efficiencies that he can win on price and by showing loyalty to consumers' wallets.

Booking.com is a big-time leader in travel marketing through Google, and Expedia spends a ton of money on search engine marketing, too. While both companies are committed to this type of "pull" marketing, Expedia is making a big bet on multi-device search and "push" notifications as the future of travel booking.

Hotel site Getaroom.com tried to drive consumers from its Web site to a call centers for up-selling, but the much larger CheapOair is intent on doing both -- perfecting online booking and giving travelers that option, but also prodding them to phone agents in its company-owned call centers.