Wednesday, September 22, 2010

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.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

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?