Tingo.com: Orbitz Price Assurance + Expedia Inventory = Bingo?

Tripadvisor launched a new online hotel booking site today: Tingo.com. Dont look for it (yet) on the Tripadvisor site however - not even as a search comparison option.

Tingo takes a little bit from Expedia (hotel inventory), a little bit from Orbitz (Price Assurance) and combines them into what is pitched as a new offering where consumers "just can't lose"

After a consumer books, Tingo continues to monitor the price of the booking to determine if the price has dropped. As many insiders know, hotels often actually drop rates as the departure date nears when demand fails to materialize. Yes, they raise rates too, but that isnt the issue if you have already booked. If Tingo finds the price has dropped, they rebook the room at the new price and refund the difference back to the hotel guest. Sound familiar?

Similar services exist today for air - Yapta anyone? Tripit Pro offers a similar feature for air. And Orbitz offers Price Assurance for hotels (and air) where they refund the difference if the price drops. Orbitz Price Assurance, however, requires another consumer to actually book the exact same stay (or airline ticket) for the refund to kick-in. Tingo promises the refund no matter what - back to "you just can't lose"

or can you?

Given Tingo offers hotel inventory only from Expedia (dig deep into the Ts&Cs for that) vs. a meta search model - this looks like just a slightly better place to buy a room from Expedia. And that is if you don't value Expedia Rewards....

Guestmob: A New Level of Stupidity for Hoteliers?

This morning, we saw a FB posting from a good friend about a new website, Guestmob.com. Guestmob claims to offer prices "20-50%" lower than Kayak by pitting hotels "against each other for the right to fill empty hotel rooms"

Consumers enter the site and pick a destination and dates par usual, and then offered a selection of hotels grouped by star quality and neighborhood. Sound familiar to Hotwire or Priceline? Yes, except the hotel name and brands are exposed. As are the retail prices for these hotels.

Next, a consumer selects the area and star level they want to stay in and is taken to a confirmation page showing the selection of hotels that Guestmob will later solicit (like a mini RFP) for the consumer's stay:

3 days before arrival, Guestmob lets the consumer know which hotel has "decided" to let them stay.

Hoteliers: downward rate spiral, anyone? Haven't we seen this movie?

Lets dive a little deeper, however...

First, we doubt that all of these hotels are actually participating in this platform. We kinda doubt that the distribution hawks over at Marriott have embraced a less opaque version of Priceline when they don't even participate in Hotwire. As for the other brands listed throughout the site, good for Guestmob if they have really signed up these chains but we think they are probably shills.

Second, Guestmob is listing competing OTAs and their "pricing." We imagine that the OTAs will probably find this rather distasteful for obvious reasons.

Finally, for hotels that actually are participating in Guestmob, I ask one question: WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

Hotels have been complaining for years about OTA margins and the lack of consumer brand loyalty. Opaque sales are an important revenue management tool but no one in the industry is particularly excited about growing the segment.

And yet, we still have hoteliers who apparently are seemingly not bothered by ANY of these issues and are willing to give street cred to what may be a very destructive model. Wow.

Roomkey.com - Keys to the Castle for Hoteliers?

Roomkey.com, a new hotel metasearch site created by six of the largest hotel chains launched this morning.

With industry vet John Davis at the helm and backing from Choice, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Wyndham, it somewhat resembles the industry's efforts to drive down costs and create consumer choice several years ago when a similar group created Travelweb.com - same CEO, slightly different group of hotel brands (noticeably absent from the group this time around is Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.) Travelweb was sold to Priceline.com and formed the basis of their non-opaque hotel product in North America.

Different this time around is metasearch. Roomkey is a pure meta play with room results returned in a nice, clean tile format:


Prior to the launch, the group purchased hotelicopter which had built a nice technology platform and user interface (as well as the awesome flying hotel ad that you may remember)

Clearly, and as expected, the call to action is a link to book at the sponsor's branded websites.

Roomkey (thus far) is a tool for comparing prices between hotels, not prices from different channels for the same hotel a la Kayak. Kayak pulls together disparate prices from various sources:


Multi-channel search, which Kayak never really delivered on the air side, is actually quite strong for hotels - and apparently, still an important issue judging from the sample above in which several of the founding members appear to be undercutting their own websites in various channels which Kayak is able to find and display.

Inventory today appears to be limited to the founding chains but we are sure that will grow, at least in critical markets such as New York and Las Vegas.

Hotel descriptive content on the beta site is decent with the usual photos and descriptions, although some brands (who shall remain nameless here) still seem to be returning content in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Given it is a beta, there are some photos with slightly strange descriptions: "NYCGH_P015 Exterior" but this will no doubt be cleaned up in due course.

That said, a great feature is the clear link to the hotels' property page where the rich content (and booking opportunity) lives.



Oddly, star ratings are included in the search results but it isn't clear how those stars are determined. In the past, the sometimes seemingly arbitrary OTA star ratings have been a source of frustration for hotels and brands alike. Roomkey promises to add user reviews shortly which should provide another, often more reliable way for guests to gauge hotels.

The hotel chains are not resting on their laurels after their past distribution wars with online travel agents (OTAs) and other distribution channels. Once fully built out with a mobile site, more inventory, reviews, Roomkey could be a potent weapon for consumers who want to be able to compare locations, features, rates across multiple chains and brands. With Google rapidly moving into the travel (and hotel) space and OTAs continuing to gain share, Roomkey will be another arrow in the chain's quivers to drive branded website growth and control distribution.

TSA Trusted Traveler Program: Finally, Something the TSA does RIGHT

I'm not usually a big fan of the TSA. In fact, quite the opposite. As a heavy business (and leisure!) traveler, I've found many of the TSA's tactics silly or simply pure theater over the years.

However, today, upon leaving Las Vegas, I got sent to the Trusted Traveler line after the agent up front scanned my boarding pass. I'm an Elite flyer with both Delta and American, the two pilot airlines for the program but hadn't yet seen anything special. The last place I expected anything was certainly Las Vegas.

But, get this! First, there was NO line. Next, I didnt take off my shoes. Really. I didnt have to yank my computer out of the laptop (I did buy one of those Tumi bags that allows you just to unzip awhile back but I didn't even have to do that!) And, I may jacket stayed on. So did my belt. And I didn't have the nudie scan - just walked through the metal detector old school - like clearing security in 1972.

Finally, something done right by the TSA! Bravo. Now lets just get it to more airports.

Delta and USAirways try again in DC and NY

Delta and USAirways, who previously (as we discussed here) tried to swap slots and gates at New York's LaGuardia and Washington Reagan National airports but were ultimately blocked by competitive concerns are at it again.

In the plan announced today, DL and US will still trade a similar number of slots and cash and will open up some additional slots for new competition and destinations from both LGA and DCA.

One major change this time around is Delta's plan to continue to operate the Delta Shuttle from the Marine Air Terminal at LGA (last time it was going to become USAirways home). USAir, Shuttle and all, will remain their current home at Terminal C at LGA in the new plan.

As before, Delta plans to operate 132 slots worth of flights (that is 66 departures and arrivals for those of you counting) with regional jet equipment vs. the prop-jets that USAirways utilizes on most of these departures. The cities may change, of course, but we expect that they will look largely as they do today.

One odd part of the press release is that the USAirways Shuttle is described as the "popular hourly Shuttle service between LaGuardia, Reagan National and Boston that is operated on dual-class mainline jets will remain unchanged as a result of the transaction." However, a quick scan of Sabre from our friends at Expertflyer.com reveals that while the LGA-DCA flights are, indeed, all operated with dual-class mainline jets, the service to Boston with the exception of the 6AM departure is actually operated with Regional Jets - USAirways' unions will probably have a field day with this...

Accuracy aside, we view this as a great move for both airlines, consumers and the cities served by USAirways from LGA today. Regional Jets will provide significantly more lift into LGA than the Dash-8s and such that USAirways operates today and Delta's much larger presence at LGA will create substantially more connecting opportunities from those smaller bergs than USAirways offers today. USAirways offers very limited connecting opportunities today unless you happen to want to fly from Portland, ME to Norfolk and such. Delta will offer those same connections from Portland to Norfolk but will also offer connections to many larger cities that Delta serves from LGA such as Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and the like. This is good for those cities and good for consumers who gain more choice and competition.

As for Cincinnati and Memphis - we expect the aircraft Delta will require to operate these flights will come from those operations. Both are largely duplicative with Delta's hubs in Detroit and Atlanta, respectively. Delta certainly is not going to acquire new regional jets to "fund" this expansion in New York and the small amount of flights they are giving up in DC are not nearly enough. Look for a final de-hubbing in CVG and MEM following the inevitable approval of this transaction.

Tripit Launches Evolutionary iPad App

Today Tripit, the company that brings all of your travel plans into a consolidated itinerary, is launching an iPad app to help you take those itineraries on the road. Unless you make most of your trips by covered wagon, you probably already use either the web based or smart phone versions of Tripit to manage your trips, and the company keeps things interesting by continuously improving its applications either by refining or extending the feature set. I’ve been a Tripit user from very soon after launch and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times it’s had a problem parsing the confirmation page from a supplier. It works well—period.

The iPad app is right in line with Tripit’s evolutionary development philosophy in that it’s not by any means a departure from the product on the web or phone, but a smooth shift to a midsized format. You may grouse that an iPad version should have some unique features that truly exploit some feature or capability of the machine (and you’d be right) but be patient—they first want to get off the ground with something that’s functional and usable before looking for the secret sauce. Having coached lots of product groups over the years, we know that’s a perfectly valid approach to the market, especially when you own a lot of mindshare for your product category.

When you install the iPad app, you’ll notice the same familiar look as on the iPhone, for example. Where the iPhone app uses a vertical ‘drill down’ approach that carries you from the trip level to the service level and further down to the details behind each service, the iPad app has the space to show the services and their details on the same screen. Most of the things you need are above the fold, but there are some additional items you’ll have to scroll down for if you’re interested.

One new feature is the map view, which shows you the locations of your trip on a map. You can see the relative placement of all of the components of your trip in one view. Unlike the rest of the application, this feature feels embryonic, as though it’s going to grow up into something interesting but it’s not there yet. It’s also fair to consider the whole app a little incomplete right now. There are features you remember from the other platforms that just haven’t been built out yet. The company says they’re coming in fast follow-on releases, so you probably won’t have to wait very long to have a full featured app on the iPad.

So what about those unique features that could really exploit the iPad form factor? I’m sure there are many plans in the hopper to spread out what’s already there. The map functionality, as mentioned before, looks like a great place to extend with the locations of points of interest, local businesses, etc. More important than all its technical and design assets, Tripit has a database of frequent travelers, many of whom have similar challenges on the road, and many of whom love the product and the company. The company could also expand laterally around some other things travelers do in connection with their trips. For example, given that Tripit already knows which services you’ve booked and, in some cases, how much you’ve paid for them, why not extend it with functionality like that of the amazing Expensify app that helps you prepare expense reports? Or provide tools aimed at all that time you have in the airport by taking a page from Gate Guru? Or, since Tripit knows where you are on your travels, what about creating a framework for local businesses to create promotions for travelers on the road? Arguably these are not iPad specific functions, but the larger form factor would help mitigate the additional complexity of the new features. Big screens make it easier to see the big picture.

It’ll be interesting to see where they’ve gone a year from now. I’ll probably still be using it regardless!

Look Beyond Orbitz/AA: Delta Pulls Inventory Off Three Other OTAs

The current fight between American Airlines (AA) and Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) and Travelport by default has been well publicized. In a nutshell, after winning a hearing in court yesterday, AA canceled Orbitz' ability to sell tickets on the Orbitz family of websites including Orbitz.com, Cheaptickets.com and ebookers.com. The dispute revolves around how AA distributes inventory to Orbitz, both financially and technically.

To date, AA has been a lone wolf in this area with scant public support from any other airlines. Unlike in many other airline moves where one moves on Tuesday and the rest of the industry follows by Friday (think commission caps, bag fees, change fees etc) AA has stood alone.

Until yesterday.

In an amazing coincidence, Delta Air Lines (DL) yesterday announced that they would pull their inventory off of three smaller OTAs: cheapoair.com, onetravel.com and bookit.com.

Delta has made it clear that they value some distribution points more than others. These three websites generate a significant amount of traffic from meta and click-off search sites such as fly.com, bookingbuddy.com and tripadvisor.com - we can imagine that Delta probably tired of seeing these smaller, less relevant websites listed alongside Delta.com (and other, larger OTAs) as a booking option.

By flexing their distribution muscle and removing inventory from these sites, Delta is making a calculated move that they will be able to continue to sell the inventory currently sold through these websites elsewhere, and in particular, Delta.com.

We would bet doughnuts to dollars (just by the URL names alone) that the vast majority of tickets sold through these sites are low-yield tickets. As anyone in the airline business knows, airlines don't need help selling more $39 tickets to Orlando. There is nearly insatiable demand for low-fare tickets and consumers visit multiple websites in the hunt for these fares - Delta is banking that consumers will still find their low fares elsewhere, and hopefully that will be Delta.com.

And, if those same consumers don't visit Delta.com (or another OTA) there are plenty of other consumers who will those same cheap fares - airlines can fill planes all day long with $39 fares without any help from an OTA.

Chasing Delta Medallion Status? Qualifying Miles for Charity Donations!

Delta is offering up to 15,000 miles towards status (not just regular old frequent flyer miles but status miles that push you towards Gold or Silver Medallion status which means free upgrades, no checked bag fees and the like) for donations to three Atlanta based charities.

Donate $500 or more and earn 5,000 status miles (or MQMs in Delta parlayance) - donate $500 to all three and earn 15,000 status miles. Given Silver Medallion status starts at 25K miles and Gold at 50K, this is a pretty good way to get the basic tier or bump up to a higher tier, particularly if you haven't flown much this year. Oh, and there is the tax write-off which, at least for many living in New York and other high tax areas makes the bite pretty reasonable. And, best of all, there is the do-good feeling!

Donation links are below:

https://www.aidatlanta.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=522

https://give.gradyhealthfoundation.o...e.aspx?pid=272

https://secure.mlkmemorial.org/site/...MK0PwE6LHLZPME

Expedia Jumps into Flash Sales - ASAP - A Sudden Amazing Price

Just when you thought there were not enough flash sale sites out there, Expedia has jumped into the fray with a slightly different model. Expedia is calling their program ASAP - a cute moniker for "A Sudden Amazing Price." ASAP offers an even shorter purchase window (12 hours) than industry pioneer Jetsetter.com. In addition, ASAP is open to all consumers rather than the Jetsetter (and others) private sale version which requires registration.

Interestingly, Expedia is promoting ASAP as a short-term program between today and December 17th. Does this mean ASAP is not a long term program? Given the high placement on the Expedia home page and in other places throughout the site, we expect it will be around beyond the holidays...

American Fires Back First Salvo Against Impending Virgin America DFW Invasion

American Airlines announced a new program squarely aimed at Virgin America's impending launch of flights from SFO and LAX to DFW.

The usual bag of tricks includes double AAdvantage miles and double elite qualifying miles. Somewhat unusual is the relatively long earning period - from tomorrow all the way until the end of February.

Slightly more original is the "15 Days of Giveaways" in which American is offering prizes on "mystery flights" between DFW and SFO/LAX free stuff such as 5K AAdvantage miles, Admirals Club Passes and AA Vacations discounts and AAvis car rental coupons.

A more original giveaway by American would have been a week on Necker Island...

Of course, Virgin still offers WiFi on every flight (free right now thanks to Google) and brand spanking new planes - two things, alas, AA can't come close to offering.

That said, penetrating a fortress hub like DFW is difficult for any upstart carrier, Richard Branson or not. American has already announced increased frequency on the LAX-DFW route and these programs will help ensure that AAdvanatge loyalists stay with Something Special in the Air.

Brian Clark Joins Hudson Crossing

We are excited to announce Brian Clark has joined the Hudson Crossing team.

Announced at this year's PhoCusWright conference and only slightly overshadowed by the Kayak IPO news, Brian's deep commercial airline and online travel experience will bolster the Hudson Crossing team's rich operational experience.

"Brian’s real-world accomplishments, creativity and strategic foresight are the perfect complement to the Hudson Crossing team" said Tom Botts, Hudson Crossing Managing Partner. “He has distinguished himself as a true industry visionary with his accomplishments at both Virgin America and Fly.com.”

Brian has spent nearly 20 years in the travel industry and was most recently Senior Vice President and General Manager for Fly.com. In this role, Brian was responsible for launching Fly.com in the US and Europe, including the business and financial plan development, product planning and site design, marketing and PR, airline and online travel agency partner contract negotiations, and overall operations of Fly.com. Prior to launching Fly.com, Brian was a founding officer at Virgin America where he was Vice President, Planning and Sales, responsible for all commercial planning functions including route network planning & scheduling, pricing and revenue management, distribution, sales, and loyalty marketing. Brian began his career with US Airways where he held roles of increasing responsibility in revenue and schedule planning as well as operations.

"Hudson Crossing has created an excellent brand and contributed to the success of dozens of travel industry clients over the last several years," said Clark. "I look forward to continuing the tradition of strong industry leadership and to creating new opportunities and delivering superior results for our clients."

Welcome Brian!

And Virgin Jumps in with Free Holiday WiFi as well

Virgin America has joined Delta and AirTran in offering free holiday WiFi via GoGO in conjunction with Google.

We have to wonder where American, one of the first airlines to offer WiFi, is in this game? And we aren't talking just about this promotion.

American started out fast offering WiFi on 767-200s and selected MD-80s and 737s. However, "selected" seems to, unfortunately, be the norm with AA. None of the 757, 767-300 and a good number of the MD80 and 737 fleet are so equipped. Alas.

Dueling Delta and Airtran BOTH Announce Free Holiday WiFi with Google/GoGo

Have to laugh at this one. Delta and AirTran, arch enemies extraordinaire have apparently both been played by Google for the holidays.

In press releases issued minutes apart, both senior marketing types at Delta and AirTran announced free GoGo wifi for the holiday season courtesy of Google Chrome. A great boon for travelers but how ironic Google managed to get both AirTran and Delta signed up for the same deal.

Delta opines about their 540 aircraft that have GoGo installed (including a DC-9 I was recently on!) while AirTran states they are the only major airline with 100% GoGo on their entire fleet.

The promotion dates are even the same - November 20th through January 2nd.

Lets hope we can use Firefox and still get it free.

Gnomes in Citi's Future?

Bloomberg reported today that Citigroup CMO Michelle Peluso (and former Travelocity CEO) has hired former Site59 and Travelocity co-conspirator Tracey Weber away from Barnes and Noble.

Tracey joined BN.com only in April after leaving Travelocity where she was COO.

The Gnome never sleeps......

Tripit Gets an Elf - and even a Unicorn

TripIt has taken a Narnian turn by adopting Elfs and Unicorns in their newest product demo, uploaded last night and sure to be a viral hit among travel junkies and fantasy seekers alike.



And in more serious news, TripIt also announced a great new feature for TripIt Pro users which monitors submitted flight itineraries for fare decreases. Using internally developed software, TripIt re-prices user's flights to scan for potential fare decreases. If TripIt Pro finds a user's fare has decreased (in Yapta-esq fashion) and that the consumer is in the black after the airline change fee, an alert is generated complete with sample language to feed the airline reservations agent to process the re-issue.

Virgin: Come Sleep With Me

This morning Virgin Group launched a new website, virginhotels.com which gives a small peak into Sir Richard's long rumored plans to shake up the lodging space. Don't look to book a room just yet - Virgin is still looking for hotels to convert into the Virgin Hotels concept.

Taking a page from Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses, Virgin aims to create "unique spaces where our guests can get some work done, nourish and refresh themselves, meet other interesting people, or just take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city."

Virgin has long operated small, uber-exclusive properties around the world under the Virgin Limited Edition brand but Virgin Hotels aims to bring the Virgin experience to the masses with a four star product in "major urban markets." Those markets just happen to be large markets for Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic.

Virgin lists hotel industry hitters Raul Leal (ex- Desires Hotels) and Paul Whetsell (ex- Interstate Hotels) as leading their efforts as they push into hotels.

Ready to get into bed with Virgin?

TravelCLICK Maximizes: Max Rayner joins as new SVP Product

Max Rayner, who was formerly CIO at Travelzoo (TZOO) until he departed several months ago has resurfaced as SVP of Product Engineering at TravelCLICK. The appointment was communicated internally today. Interestingly, Rayner will remain in the Bay Area where we expect he will grow TravelCLICK's internal IT resources and development capabilities. Given Rayner's title, we are betting TravelCLICK's growth plans include a host of new hospitality products.

Where I've Been Joins Private Deal Party w/ Groupon Twist

Just when you thought the world had enough jetsetters, vactionists, voyage prives and tablets, its time for another.

Where I've Been is launching a similar private sale but going one step further than just deals on hotel rooms. By partnering with Groupon, they aim to sell "travel experiences" which include not only hotel rooms but also deeply discounted local attractions such as restaurants, surfing lessons and other important leisure additives. The partnership with Groupon only makes sense given Groupon's founders (Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell) recently invested in Where I've Been.

We also have to compliment Where I've Been on possibly the simplest and cleanest online check-out screen we've come across yet. One page for your name, email, CC number, expiration date and the CID:

And yes, I am checking out with one night at the Bourbon Orleans hotels and 44 Rum tasting tours.

Glassdoor: Employee Satisfaction (or lack thereof) in the Travel Industry

Glassdoor.com, a cool website where "anyone can find and anonymously share an inside look at jobs and companies" has provided an interesting peek at job satisfaction inside the travel industry.

Travel is probably an industry Glassdoor knows something about given the site's founders which include such industry notables as Bob Hohman (Hotwire, Expedia) Tim Besse (Expedia) Ryan Aylward (EzRez, Hotwire) along with a few others who serve on the board who've spent a bit of time in travel: Rich Barton, Erik Blachford and Stephen Kaufer.

And what has Glassdoor, which garners its information from current and former employees, come up with? Might as well start with the OTAs since Glassdoor practically grew up in the OTA world:

The chart above details the approval ratings of the companies themselves and their CEOs as reported by the employees who came to Glassdoor and left feedback. (Hugh Jones isn't rated because of a limited number of responses - probably because he is still new in the role.) Looks like Hotwire is a pretty good place to work - we'll leave it to you to decide if that is because all of these guys left to start Glassdoor or not. (Just kidding, Ryan et al)

Glassdoor's info gets more interesting looking at hoteliers:
The highest rated CEO, Issy Sharp, has just announced that he is stepping down - a real shame according to this report. Bill Marriott and Hyatt's Hoplamazian are just a hair behind Sharp, however.

Not surprisingly, airlines show by far the greatest variability from one to another:

Things appear pretty bleak over at American and American Eagle - with labor strife a way of life at AA, clearly Something isn't Special in the Air. Even US Airways pulls better rankings. Southwest and JetBlue, as usual, prove that they are run more like hoteliers than airlines with ratings like these. (oh, they make money like hoteliers, too)

But the big takeaway? Continental and United - look a the difference in internal company ratings. Glassdoor doesn't have a rating for Jeff, but boy do they have one for Glenn. This is going to be one interesting merger, don't you think?

Travelzoo.com Gets a New Habitat

Today, Travelzoo.com launched a new, fresher homepage. The newly re-designed website offers a much cleaner look and feel and, best of all, the ability to search Travelzoo's deal content.

Previously, finding the deals listed in Travelzoo's weekly top 20 email outside of the email itself was a chore, if not impossible. Now, Travelzoo has (finally) given users a search box (front and center, no less) that allows searching by destination, keyword or using a "deal Locator" that allows you to enter your zip code to find details closer to home - Travelzoo for the staycation set. Mostly theater tickets now, but could this be the start of something bigger - a Travelzoo Groupon model of sorts?

There is also a "where to go now" section on the left that seems to be a destination marketing area. While it looks like editorial content at the start, we think the majority of this content is actually provided by (and probably written by) the destinations themselves - Look at Iceland for example. Thankfully, the deal content on the Iceland landing page is true to the Travelzoo mantra.