Priceline’s Booking.com triples mobile booking transactions - Mobile Commerce Daily - Revenue The Booking.com Kindle Fire app Priceline’s Booking.com has seen the total transaction value of mobile hotel bookings rise from $1 billion in 2011 to more than $3 billion in 2012. In addition, more than 20 million mobile applications have been downloaded to date. The latest data is proof that mobile bookings are growing – especially because of its convenience. “The success is related to two major factors: the quality of our service with our broad reach in terms of accommodations, languages, guest reviews etc., and the quality of our mobile products on the various platforms,” said Olivier Voute, director of mobile marketing at Booking.com. “Having said that, the real driver of success is mostly related to the consumer shift towards mobile and our ability to offer them a great service on the various platforms with our apps on mobile sites,” he said. Driving bookingsThrough the booking.com mobile app, consumers are able to view their account, sign-in and browse their credit card details.
Non Skweeter Ryanair : "nous ne sommes pas les seuls à pisser sur la concurrence" » Air France, aviation, Gérard Depardieu, Ryanair Ryanair n’a pas tardé à rebondir suite au laisser-aller de Depardieu dans un avion d’Air France. En une de son site, on peut voir depuis ce matin ce superbe clin d’oeil à la concurrence : « Nous ne sommes pas les seuls à pisser sur la concurrence »… Pas très classe certes, mais efficace dès qu’il s’agit de créer le buzz sur Internet au risque de se retrouver avec un procès du grand Gérard pour obtenir des droits d’auteur ! Air France pourrait également se joindre aux poursuites et attaquer Ryanair pour humour pipi caca… Pour rappel, Gérard Depardieu avait uriné dans le couloir de l’avion pendant le décollage après qu’une hôtesse lui a interdit l’accès aux toilettes.
How Tech and Social Media Are Changing Travel [INFOGRAPHIC] It's spring break and summer is just around the corner, which means vacation season is upon us. From mobile apps to deal sites, people use technology more than ever to help find places to go. Technology also helps vacationers enjoy themselves after they reach their destinations. Nearly one-third of social media users have used a mobile app to find good prices for flights and hotels, and 15% have downloaded an app specific to a certain trip, according to a survey by the market research company Lab42. And just because people are on break, they aren't necessarily taking a break from their devices. For the full picture of how technology and social media are changing our travel experiences, check out the Lab42 infographic below. What role do tech and social media play in your trips?
Avis UK launches mobile booking site A mobile booking site allowing customers to search for car hire quotes and book direct via mobile phones has been introduced by Avis UK. The new site “will accommodate the high number of customers who prefer to research and book while on the go,” the company said. The replica of the main Avis website has been optimised to suit the dimensions of small screens and simplified to allow a fast and easy booking experience, according to Avis. Functionality includes branch search, calendar view, pricing, service details, quick checkout and reservation checking and modifying. Commercial director Anthony Ainsworth said: “Forecasters are predicting a huge increase in mobile bookings in 2012 and we’re responding to the growing demand for access to websites on the go with the launch of our new mobile site. “In 2011 1% of direct bookings for Avis came through our iPhone application. “Having a mobile site is an essential step in providing customers with a way to book car hire remotely.
Vayable - Tours, trips and other things to do on vacation Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels: VoyagePrive enters the US The European online travel "private deals" website VoyagePrive enters the US market this week. As some of you know, VoyagePrive is only available to members who have been introduced by their peers to receive a weekly newsletter about preferred deals VoyagePrive negotiates with suppliers (Tour Operators, Hotels...). The private outlet model has been booming recently at all levels. Whether for clothes, 2nd hand good or rare stuff, it looks like investors are really interested to invest in that model following the enormous valuation of a leading site like VentePrivee (another French online venture). VoyagePrive (I still think this is a bad name for an International venture) founded in 2004 allows their members to preview the offers before they go live on a specific date and hour (==> creates envy maybe?) I wonder how much more staff VoyagePrive needs to recruit to be successful in the US. If you already tried VoyagePrive, please feel free to share your experience.
Microsoft’s Internet Bloodbath: $2.5B/y “Online Services Division revenue grew 14% year-over-year primarily driven by increases in search revenue.” That was Microsoft’s statement about the Online Services Division in their earnings release yesterday. Growth! Yippee! Wrong. What they don’t bother to mention in the release, but they can’t hide in the actual numbers, is just how bad the quarter actually was for the division. Microsoft lost $726 million in the Online Services Division for the quarter. And despite the year over year revenue growth, the income was actually down year over year. And how’s this for a kick in the pants: if Microsoft had just scrapped their Online Services Division for the quarter, they likely would have beaten Apple in terms of profits once again. Of course, Microsoft can’t afford to scrap the Online Services Division (well, figuratively afford it, at least). But it that strategy actually working? Last October, I wrote that Microsoft was running basically the worst Internet startup ever.
Why to be proud of The Travel Talk on Twitter - #TTOT! | Travel blog This article is about what WE have achieved! The Travel Talk on Twitter is THE biggest weekly travel event on Twitter! A pat on your back! This was only possible, because the Twitter travel community decided to get it there. We've created a real Social Media Travel Event! #TTOT is the best example that it's possible to reach thousands of travelers worldwide in a social get-together! The Passion For Travel Where are travel brands concentrating their efforts in social media? [INFOGRAPHIC] Simpliflying spent some time analysing the data from a recent EyeforTravel report understand how travel companies are approaching social media in 2012. Here are some interesting findings from the study, Social Media and Mobile Strategies for the Travel Industry 2011: Location-based services such as Foursquare will be huge this year. And here is the obligatory infographic:
Tours and activities: Still looking for breakthrough company This is part two of our three part series on the online tours and activities market, focusing on the buzz around venture-backed startups in the space. Part one here. There are only a handful of companies that matter these days in selling tours and activities, and they are a mix of old-guard established companies, a hungry wannabe, and an online travel agency making some overtures. And, although there has been venture capital money funneling into the sector, the track record has seen a paucity of success stories. “There are never any winners in the space,” one experienced travel-industry investor chimes in, dismissing the tours and activities sector. Viator’s long wait Case in point, observers say, is Viator, an established online player, founded in 1995, that has raised some $20 million in funding from investors, including Carlyle Venture Partners and Technology Venture Partners. GetYourGuide makes boasts and enters new markets Old guard Gray Line trying new stuff
How Britney Spears Used a Groupon-Style Game to Get to the Top Britney Spears’s album, Femme Fatale, landed at number one on the Billboard charts last week, but the singer didn’t get there all by herself. The buildup for the album had a pretty serious social media component that may be used as a blueprint for future album releases. Spears's label, Jive Records worked with Crowd Factory’s Social Offer technology to spread the word as much as possible via social media and reward influencers. Here’s how it worked: Visitors to Britney.com saw an offer to pre-order the album and share the offer with their friends. If fans got 10 or more of their friends to visit Britney.com, they got a 20% off promo code for the entire Britney catalog. (This differs from the Groupon model — in which a certain amount of people are required to take part and, if they do, everyone gets the discount.) As a result of the offer, 30% of traffic to Britney.com came through Crowd Factory. The group-buying deal wasn’t the only social media innovation related to the album.
How To Get Paid To Travel {*style:<b>Photo </b>*} It’s easy to enter, just email your original travel photo and/or article along with a title and where the photo was taken for the photos to with “Photo Contest Entry” or “Travel Article Entry” in the subject, and we will notify you via email when your photo is live and available for voting. . If you would like a link back to your blog or website, include that in the email as well. Votes will be a total of all votes on BarrelHopping as well as the BarrelHopping Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Pinterest postings of your entry. Voting for current entries will end at midnight, EST, January 15th and the winner as well as new entries for the next contest will be posted by the following day. As our community grows we will continue to increase the frequency and the amounts of the prizes so more and more people have a chance to win.