Startups

Hundredrooms plans to challenge Tripping.com and AllTheRooms in vacation rental metasearch. Meanwhile, OneTwoTrip gets more funding, while Coras and Ithaca debut.

The once lavishly funded tours startup Zozi says it is still healthy, though it had to lay off many employees. The restructuring will have Zozi de-emphasizing its consumer product to "double down" on its B2B reservation service unless another player swoops in for its assets.

Airlines are using new channels, such as Facebook chat and other airlines' websites, to sell their seats and other products. Some are turning to startups for help, rather than rely only on establishment vendors.

Better late than never. Sales teams for meetings and events are finally starting to use software to forecast demand and extract the most money possible.

Boom will get a supersonic jet to test, Ixigo will get help with its Indian expansion, and Eventerprise will expand beyond South Africa — all thanks to fresh rounds of funding.

In the past nine months, a group of relatively low-profile startups began signing up brands like Expedia and United Vacations to the concept of layaway plans for buying travel.

It has been a big week for small players, as investors placed bets on startups in these sectors: tours-and-activities, ground transportation, Brazilian flight booking, and digital marketing.

Here are innovative young travel companies, from Medellín to Beijing, that are poised to achieve escape velocity.

Let's hope that GuestToGuest's bet on home-swapping ends better than General Catalyst's $15 million investment in Couchsurfing did. Plus, two startups — Hostmaker and Travis — raised money.

Making things predictable — such as train ticket confirmations, airport security lines, mobile phone data fees, how to get from point to point, and the effect of events on hotel demand — is a theme of this batch of startups.