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Travel 2.0: Social networking takes a useful turn. If you visit Sheraton.com, you will see something completely different from other major hotel websites. Instead of the usual advertisements for exotic locations and special offers crowding the home page, you are immediately struck by the phrase "Welcome to the neighborhood" in the center of your screen, and a U.S. map covered with pop-up photographs and the words "Your story. In your words. " The photographs are all amateur, taken by Sheraton customers with no more travel logging experience than the average person. There are no actors or models masquerading as guests in these snapshots and they are not the views most hoteliers would choose to display.

There are no wide-angle, enticing displays of guest rooms, meeting rooms, the lobby, the restaurant or the grounds. There are no seductive panoramas of pristine beaches, perfectly manicured golf courses or local tourist attractions. User community websites often specialize to fill a niche. Read previous columns. DOPPLR. Lonely Planet Travel Guides and Travel Information. PlanetEye. Web 2.0 Travel Tools. RWW Live: Online Travel - ReadWriteWeb. The latest episode of RWW Live, today at 3.30pm PST, will be focused on online travel applications. We have executives from 4 great travel startups on the call: TripIt, Yapta, Dopplr and PlanetEye. In the show we'll be discussing how the Web is changing the way people travel for work and fun. It promises to be a fascinating discussion, so we hope you tune in to the show LIVE at 3.30pm PST Monday (6.30pm EST) on Calliflower or Facebook.

You can also ask questions during the podcast, using the chat function. As usual, RWW Live will be hosted by Sean Ammirati, with ReadWriteWeb's Richard MacManus, Marshall Kirkpatrick and Bernard Lunn on the podcast. Gregg Brockway, President & Co-Founder, TripItMarko Ahtisaari, CEO & Co-Founder, DopplrHugh Birch, VP of Product Development, YaptaJonah Sigel, VP Business Development, PlanetEye. Online Travel Companies Choose Their Targets. Suppliers seem to have won the battle for online leisure and unmanaged business travel market share in the US, according to December 2008 PhoCusWright data. Fully 61% of online travel sales are now made directly at supplier sites, compared with 39% for online travel agencies (OTAs) in 2008. This balance is projected to hold steady through 2010.

Online travelers have learned to book their reservations on travel suppliers’ Websites to avoid intermediaries’ service fees and collect loyalty points. Suppliers save money from direct bookings and thus encourage this behavior with aggressive, lowest-price guarantees. Yet market share does not tell the whole online travel story, PhoCusWright said. OTAs and travel service suppliers appeal to different types of travelers. Frequent, loyal leisure and unmanaged business travelers, who focus on schedules, convenience and specific suppliers head straight to those sites. Congoo News. Online travel itinerary and trip planner. Kayak. RouteRank. Cheap booking. Cheap Flights, Cheap Hotels, Cheap Airfare, Airline Tickets, Tra.