Archives for June 2011
June 30, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Creating an Internal Social Media Strategy That Works
IN-DEPTH: Edward Perry, Senior Director, E-Commerce, Worldhotels on discovering how social media fits into your company and proving its worth
By Ritesh Gupta
Social media’s effectiveness is tightly related to how it is being used, rather than any inherit fault with the channel itself.
Social media has now been around for a while. Some companies have been using it for longer or more effectively than others. Many companies incorrectly assume that they can just set up a Facebook page, without a strategy or dedicated knowledgeable resources in place, and fans will follow. In fact, travel marketers need to think about promotional marketing activity to drive uptake of such initiatives. Overall, with companies, including ones from the travel sector, starting to measure the social media ROI in several ways - be it for setting up their own metrics to working on monthly reports to evaluate exposure and revenue generated through such efforts - social media marketing is becoming an integral part of Internet marketing.
“Social media marketing today still has a heavy element of experimentation. Since it’s such a new vertical, we have to take some educated risks to see what has the greatest impact on our communities,” says Edward Perry, senior director of e-commerce, WorldHotels.
“Today, travel companies are cautiously moving ahead, encouraged by the success of retail businesses that have successfully used sites such as Facebook to be a natural extension of their selling reach. Merchants such as Starbucks, J, Crew, etc., have opened our eyes as to what could be, especially if we adapted some of their key principles. Pages such as those of Delta Airlines prove that full social marketing can occur within Facebook without even having the customer exit Facebook,” said Perry, is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Travel Distribution Summit North America 2011, to be held in Las Vegas (19-20 September) this year.
The goal is not measuring for the sake of measuring or reporting, but to gain actionable insights to help you achieve your business goals.
“The definition of success in social media is open for wide interpretation and varies per company,” Perry told EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta in an interview. He added, “If I had to pick the very best way to measure to the success of social media, it would inevitably be engagement with one’s brand, pure and simple. Open and honest dialogue about a company and the resulting buzz in the market has a far more reaching, long-term effect on a brand that any singular monetisation campaign could offer. This is especially valuable for companies that perceive branding as a valuable ROI position through their social outreach.”
When it comes to optimising for social media and measuring ROI, the first step should always be to establish your business goals first, before you even look at a dashboard. You cannot start measuring, if you do not know what is it that you are trying to accomplish. Once you have set out your business goals and strategy, you can select the relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) which will then be tracked to measure success. This also does not necessarily mean that it is only about revenue. One should take into account the revenue opportunities as well as the potential savings. For example, a KPI could be to generate a certain amount of quality media mentions which would equate in certain amount of PR value, or to achieve x amount of links with brand related anchor text, which again could easily be monetised in terms of SEO savings.
There are three main types of metrics: Revenue/Business Development (sales, average order value, request for proposals, etc), Cost Savings (recruitment savings, online media mentions vs PR agency fees, online customer support vs call centre fees, etc) and then a set of typically qualitative metrics, be it share of voice, brand awareness, NPS (Net Promoter Score) and so on, which should ideally be benchmarked before you start your social media efforts, for pre/post comparisons. The latter group is very relative. If you cannot measure your NPS, focus on what you can measure and makes sense to you, based on the tool and resources you have available.
Perception
The full impact of social media has to support the brand’s strategy, as does every marketing effort. The biggest challenge is that most (large) companies are not comfortable with it, because it’s difficult to get your arms around and it’s generational too.
The perception is changing, according to Perry. He added, “Given the right “social evangelist” representing the core values of a company, any company can benefit from social media marketing. Although I agree that younger generations are more likely to adopt quicker, we should not rule out older generations either. Some of the most engaged tweeters I know are in their golden years!”
Management approval
What proof or conviction can a marketer bring in front of the senior management to get a buy-in for social media marketing? Is there any tangible way of explaining the utility of social media marketing?
A social media marketer needs to be armed with statistical analysis, available from the best research companies, according to Perry.
“He/she must also have a firm understanding of the competitive landscape in order to best advise a company on strategic direction. Most of all, the individual must have a driving passion for everything social. That passion, combined with tangible arguments, will break even the most critical member of senior management,” advised Perry.
He added, “The key is trust. Arm (team) them with a sound social media strategy, a clear direction, clear objectives, a clear position of the company’s value structure and let them be. Be there as support, but don’t stand in the way. Social media takes a life of its own. Trust your team to make the right decisions.”
Approach
The best social media outreach usually engages multiple departments within an organisation, ranging from marketing to product to engineering to editorial.
In a report for EyeforTravel last year, Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCCVB) shared that like so many organisations, it was heavily print driven. The organisation started really focusing on transitioning its entire team to achieve more balance from top management to support. It all started with more discussions on websites, value of SEO, how digital works. The Bureau conducted training sessions for its team. It engaged those connected with social media to be a part of the planning process. And, finally while social media is important, OCCVB developed a Digital Strategy document to ensure the organisation was working off the same goals, language and to ensure focus and resourcing. As far as social media implementation is concerned, OCCVB took the team approach enlisting visitor services, advertising, interactive marketing, publicity, corporate communications and promotions to work together to maximise the medium.
Perry says there has to be a clear dialogue as to the impact of social media outreach in every department of your organisation. The social media evangelist needs to be able to speak and interact openly with all departments and be able to communicate the objectives of the company. Each person plays a role in the story we tell, highlighted Perry.
And finally on how should travel companies go about recruiting “the social media person”, Perry said it’s all about grooming passion.
“Seek people in the industry that exhibit a passion that meets your brand objectives and nurture that drive to the fullest extent. Some important job attributes include: well versed, caring, culturally aware, people oriented and dynamic in nature,” concluded Perry.
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Travel Distribution Summit North America 2011 Edward Perry is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Travel Distribution Summit North America 2011, to be held in Las Vegas (19-20 September) this year. Perry is scheduled to be a part of the Marketing & Social Media Track. For information, click here:
Or contact: Rosie Akenhead Global Events Director Toll Free 800 814 3459 ext. 7229 Or Marco Saio Global Events Director Toll free 800 814 3459 ext. 7219
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June 30, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
“Expectations of smartphone customers are significantly higher than website visitors”
IN-DEPTH: Interview with Sam Shank, CEO of US-based mobile-only online travel agency HotelTonight
By Ritesh Gupta
Mobile devices are transforming the way people transact online.
A recent survey indicated that 10 million online consumers in the UK made a transaction using a mobile device in the last year. At the same time, it also needs to be noted that 83 percent of these experienced problems when conducting such mobile transactions. The vast majority (75 percent) of consumers think there is no reason why a mobile transaction can’t be completed on the first try.
Travel companies, including intermediaries, are making rapid progress in this arena.
One of the start-ups, last-minute mobile hotel bookings specialist HotelTonight , a mobile-exclusive hotel booking app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, has crossed 500,000 downloads this month.
HotelTonight, founded by Sam Shank, who to his credit has launched online travel startups DealBase.com and TravelPost.com, and Jared Simon, a founding team member of Orbitz’ hotel category, is focused on delivering convenience, quality and value to create an “uber-convenient way to book a hotel for people who woke up not knowing they’d need to book a room that night”.
Shank spoke to EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta about how HotelTonight’s operations have progressed since its launch earlier this year. Excerpts:
For a company that intends to position itself as a last-minute mobile hotel bookings specialist, what according to you have been the major challenges in establishing your offering?
Sam Shank:
Similar to any new company entering a competitive market, our biggest hurdle is one of awareness. The inherent challenges of the nascent mobile marketing ecosystem compound this problem. But, we've been very successful in getting the word out, with over 500,000 downloads, consistently positive reviews from users and the press, and solid awareness in the tech early-adopter community. As we are 100% mobile in our offerings, we will continue to build this core competency of mobile marketing as a key ability of HotelTonight.
What is the focus of your offering at this stage – be it for trip planning to booking to in-market and finally post travel stage? What according to you are the major challenges for expanding your operations at this juncture?
Sam Shank:
We obsess on delivering convenience, quality and value to create an uber-convenient way to book a hotel for people who woke up not knowing they'd need to book a room that night. This market includes travellers whose plans changed at the last minute as well as a couple who decides to turn a regular evening into a serendipitous staycation.
The biggest challenge to growing the business is finding great people to join our team. We have a superb group of people at HotelTonight and high standards for expanding the team, so we're thoughtful and selective in our hiring, which takes time.
It is highlighted that understanding how customers behave when using mobile devices is a major challenge. Can you elaborate on the booking behaviour of users of your offering? What stands out in their pattern?
Sam Shank:
Based on our customer surveys, we find a majority of HotelTonight bookers were not sure they wanted to book a hotel for that night until they looked at the app. They were compelled to book by the convenience of our approach, the quality of our hotels and the last-minute offers. So we're growing the entire travel market by bringing hotels new customers who would otherwise not stay in a hotel.
Last month the company shared that it is experiencing rapid growth with more than 300,000 downloads since its launch in January this year. How do you expect your subscriber base to grow? What are your expansion plans and targets for this year?
Sam Shank:
We've actually just crossed 500,000 downloads this month and plan to grow that several-fold by the end of the year. Additionally, we've expanded from our initial three launch cities to 17 destinations and plan to increase this number materially in the second half of the year - and not limit ourselves to just North America.
It is considered that travel personalisation is still in its infancy. What do you make of such viewpoint? Can you provide an insight into initiatives taken by your company for creating more personalised experience via HotelTonight?
Sam Shank:
We have amazing 24/7 live-person customer support and personalised CRM for our bookers. This may be hard to see from the outside but if you're a loyal HotelTonight customer, you'll know what we mean.
We feel that the mobile platform and associated technologies offer a number of opportunities to personalise the travel experience, and we'll have more to announce in this regard later in the year.
HotelTonight is available as a free download from the App Store for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. You are also looking to expand your offering to new mobile platforms. Overall, from a travel company perspective, how do you think the features of such devices impact customer experience?
Sam Shank:
The immediacy and persistence of these devices - of always being with users - naturally leads to impulse purchases. There are other technical capabilities of the device that we plan to take advantage of, that we are uniquely well positioned to innovate on, as a mobile-only online travel agency.
As smartphone adoption grows, consumers, according to a recent study by tealeaf, expect a faultless experience across all online channels, including mobile, with 75 percent agreeing there is no reason why a mobile transaction can’t be completed on the first try. What do you make of such expectations?
Sam Shank:
We find that the expectations and demands of smartphone customers are significantly higher than website visitors. With the dynamic of the App Store and the user-review feedback loop, it's imperative to deliver a stellar customer experience, otherwise one can end up in a deep hole of negative app reviews.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) this week shared that it has witnessed a nearly 1,000 percent increase in room night bookings from mobile devices in just over a year. The group has gone from under $1 million in monthly revenue to $10 million in just over a year. How do you think the whole category of hotel bookings from mobile devices is expanding?
Sam Shank:
It's inevitable that the growth of mobile bookings will continue to rise dramatically. Yet this growth will not replace non-mobile bookings. For example, mobile devices add no benefit to booking a highly-researched, advance-purchased family vacation. That said, within a very short period of time, we feel that for people on the go, there will simply be no other option than mobile hotel bookings.
Last month, Expedia mentioned that users to its site from any mobile device, on any mobile platform can now search via one-finger navigation. Users can use location-enabled search to find “Hotels Nearby Tonight” and then find and explore images, guest ratings, user reviews and greatly expanded details for each property and room. A single tap to the hotel map guides travellers directly to their chosen hotel. When an established OTA like Expedia comes up with such offering, how does it impact the whole category? How tough is it for you to even induce a trial considering that marketing expenditure of such OTAs would be really solid?
Sam Shank:
Competition and new entrants are a great things for the mobile hotel booking category. Unlike anyone else in online travel, HotelTonight is a "mobile-first" company and setting the standard for mobile hotel bookings. An example of this is our 10-second hotel bookings - only 4 taps from app launch to the booking confirmation page.
Mobile is our core competency and that's all we think about from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep. It turns out that last-minute booking is a natural fit for our mobile orientation. Our entire company, including our sales organisation, marketing team, brand identity and every bit of software code is built from the ground up for mobile and last-minute booking. We have no legacy systems or sacred cows. Our decision to focus on this platform and specific use case is an enormous competitive advantage.
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June 30, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Sabre focuses on fully integrated web-based solution for hotels
Sabre Holdings has acquired SoftHotels, a provider of web-based property management solutions. The company will become part of Sabre Hospitality Solutions (SHS).
This acquisition moves Sabre closer to a Hotel Enterprise Solution (HES), a fully integrated web-based solution that combines distribution, marketing and operations into a single platform for customers, stated the company.
This strategic convergence will bring Property Management System (PMS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Revenue Management System (RMS) and Central Reservation System (CRS) functionality into an easy to use HES. This solution will reduce system complexity and drive down IT costs for hotels globally, according to Sabre.
“Our customers want a single provider with a complete solution to manage everything from hotel bookings through to marketing campaigns,” said Felix Laboy, president of SHS.
The company highlighted that hotels will gain better channel and revenue management by using a complete solution from hotel to market; have better pricing and inventory control by having a true single image of inventory, pricing and customers; enable superior profile management with the ability to recognise customers shopping in every channel.
In addition, moving to a web-based solution will eliminate the need for an onsite server, offering substantial cost savings at the property level.
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June 30, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Travelport unveils new hotel booking engine
Travelport has unveiled its new offering, which is designed to be a one-stop hotel shop for travel agents. The company’s Travelport Rooms and More hotel booking engine will be made available to all agencies worldwide in the coming months, even those who do not use the Travelport GDS platform.
Travelport Rooms and More will be deployed to all regions globally by the end of the year.
The company says the new engine will allow travel agents to book a greater choice of commissionable accommodation and take advantage of the rapidly growing hotel sector.
Referring to recent Euromonitor figures, the company mentioned that the value of global hotel bookings will reach $545 billion in 2015, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate of 5.9 percent between 2010 and 2015.
Ready for a phased worldwide roll out from July, Travelport Rooms and More combines the consumer insights, metasearch functionality and user interface developed by Sprice.com, which was acquired by Travelport in May 2010, with Travelport’s core B2B expertise.
As well as Travelport’s extensive GDS hotel content (available to Travelport GDS subscribers), the Travelport hospitality team has also signed new agreements with over 20 hotel aggregators and OTAs including bedsonline, Transhotel, LateRooms.com and lowcostbeds. In total, over 200,000 hotel properties will be available to book.
Niklas Andréen, Travelport’s group vice president, global hospitality, said the new offering complements its GDS hotel offering.
He explained that new content would continue to be added post-launch and estimated that there could be as many as 50 aggregators signed up by the end of the year.
“Our leisure-focussed travel agency customers told us they were spending far too much time searching for content across numerous hotel booking solutions and websites and then struggling with inefficient booking processes,” said Andréen, who added that the new offering is now going to take care of such concerns.
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June 30, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Top 10 tips for hotel websites
No matter what type of business you’re in, a well designed, fully optimised website is a must and for hoteliers it has never been more important. It is effectively a “shop window” to the public through which the hoteliers can attract more business.
If you’re not using it to its full potential, you are effectively closing the door to sales.
Hospitality e-commerce and e-distribution provider evolution has compiled the top 10 things hoteliers should be doing on their hotel websites but probably aren’t.
1. Add social media share buttons
Adding social share buttons such as Facebook like and buttons and twitter share buttons to your website is a quick and effective way of boosting traffic to your site. Focus on offers, interesting articles and promotions and make sure the buttons look neat and tidy. Be careful not to clutter up pages with too many buttons. By a few people clicking these buttons, your message can potentially reach thousands of people.
2. Monitor your site loading time
Optimising your website loading time is essential for keeping your visitors on your site and not your competitors’. Ensure your page loading time is no longer than four seconds. Internet users are impatient and if your site is slow they will go elsewhere. Don’t have unnecessary background music, flash, embedded elements or large unoptimised images. All will increase your load time which will turn potential customers away.
3. Booking engine
Every hotel website should have a booking engine. If you don’t have one you will lose guests to your competitors. Install a booking engine that seamlessly integrates into the look and feel of your site. Make sure that it is user friendly and is able to sell ancillaries to the customer such as dinners, spa treatments or arrival gifts then sit back and watch your bookings grow!
4. Remove broken links
A website with broken links looks unprofessional. When most people come across a broken link, they will leave the website. Broken links also have negative effects on search engine rankings so check your website regularly to ensure there are none. It’s inevitable some busy hoteliers will miss one or two so get creative with your error messages. Avoid “coming soon” pages where possible; if this is unavoidable, at least include a date when the information will be available and redirect the user to another useful page.
5. Have a clear brand image
Let potential guests know who you are and don’t overcomplicate things. If you’re not clear about who you are, your guests will be the same and will swiftly leave your site. Include a prominent hotel logo in the top left of the site at all times and always link it to the homepage. Include a descriptive tagline that clearly states what your hotel is about and don’t use marketing jargon.
6. Improve your landing pages
Improving your landing pages is one of the easiest ways to improve your conversion rate. Once you’ve got the potential customer to your site, your landing page needs to convince them to stay on your site and ultimately to make a booking. Think about the user and what sort of information they expect to find out from the page. Remove anything that’s not needed and keep it simple and focused.
7. Analyse site statistics
Without analysing your site statistics, it’s impossible to improve your website. Familiarise yourself with the terms used to describe website traffic including - visits, hits, page impressions, unique views, etc. You’ll be able to find out which pages are the most successful, what times of the day are busiest for you, which search engines people use to reach you and lots more. Track and analyse these statistics and you’ll know how successful your website is and what you need to do to improve.
8. Keep it above the fold!
Web users spend 80% of their time above the fold – the upper half of the webpage before a user has to scroll down. Whilst some web users do scroll down below the fold, the space above it grabs the most of their attention, so make the most of it! Include prominent calls-to-action in this space as well as an appealing photo.
9. Be consistent
Make sure your website is consistent, clean and uniform in every way - it’s reflecting your hotel after all. The tone of voice in the copy, the colours, font style and size, the style and the type of images should all be consistent. Avoid bold, highlighted and underlined text as well as excessive use of capitals and exclamation marks. Be consistent with your site navigation, users don’t like learning how to use an unfamiliar site and do the same with the layout of the pages.
10. Use Google maps
Use Google maps to identify the location of your hotel. Show places of interest, good restaurants, bars and tourist attractions on the map to show the proximity to the hotel and highlight its convenient location. The rise in popularity of geo-tagging applications such as foursquare and Facebook places also means that you can offer incentives for “check-ins” to your hotel.
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June 29, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Do’s and don’ts when it comes to working on a Facebook App
IN-DEPTH: Abhiram Chowdhry, marketing director of Hotels.com in Asia Pacific says it is extremely important that the concept of the app complements the nature of Facebook, which is one that thrives on social connections.
By Ritesh Gupta
Travel companies need to be quite nimble and flexible when it comes to planning and testing new functionalities for any Facebook app.
Facebook is constantly evolving so one needs to adopt an agile approach to enable quick testing and development. Also, travel marketers need to treat their Facebook App as a unique channel, focus on the user experience and look at what will add value to their users. They also need to think about promotional marketing activity to drive uptake of the app. Seeding with bloggers, including it in your ATL marketing activity and developing acquisition initiatives are imperative to spread the word.
Hotels.com, the global hotel specialist, recently launched its latest Facebook app, Hotels WithMe, in Asia Pacific. The app enables friends, families and colleagues to get together through Facebook and collectively choose and book a hotel, ensuring that everyone is happy with the choice. According to the company, for the first time, groups can collaboratively choose a hotel without having to sit in front of the same computer together.
Abhiram Chowdhry, marketing director of Hotels.com in Asia Pacific, spoke to EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta about this initiative. Excerpts:
What do you think are the do’ and don’ts when it comes to working on a Facebook App?
Abhiram Chowdhry:
One of the biggest success factors for a Facebook app is to provide everything a user needs within the app itself without having to leave the page. For example with ‘HotelsWithMe’, users can research, find, chat with their friends and ultimately book the hotel of their choice.
It is also extremely important that the concept of the app complements the nature of Facebook, which is one that thrives on social connections. The ‘HotelsWithMe’app was created to allow people to research, discuss and book hotels with their friends on Facebook. That’s a great example of a concept that fully leverages the social network environment.
In addition to that, it’s essential to ensure that brands are fully aware of and complying with Facebook guidelines, which are constantly changing every day.
Finally, it’s key to remember that users want localised content that is tailored for Facebook and for particular markets. With travel booking for example, users are looking for local currencies, local languages and content that is relevant. One other thing on language – talk Facebook style like a friend would to you more casual and accessible, not dead-pan corporate style.
Can you elaborate on what other factors did you take into consideration while working on such application?
Abhiram Chowdhry:
It is also crucial for an app to meet the basic demands of any online user looking to book travel online.
At Hotels.com, we tap on our expertise from running one of the world’s leading hotel booking portals to enhance other customer outreach platforms including Facebook. For example, we know from experience that online travellers demand local pricing information, independent reviews and images that will help them make more informed decisions for room bookings. These are therefore elements that we worked with our partners at Columbus Internet to incorporate within the ‘HotelsWithMe’ Facebook app – which incorporates maps, images, reviews and pricing. These are all critical elements to help customers make hotel booking decisions.
How do you think your Facebook App stands out and is creating a new benchmark in the travel industry?
Abhiram Chowdhry:
The ‘HotelsWithMe’ app is the first of its kind that allows friends, families and colleagues to get together through Facebook and collectively choose and book a hotel, ensuring that everyone is happy with the choice. For the first time, groups can collaboratively choose a hotel without having to sit in front of the same computer together.
Three things make the HotelsWithMe app stand out.
The first is the ease of use. The app provides a hassle-free process to invite friends to join a ‘trip’, as if they are looking at the same computer screen. It’s just as simple to book a hotel once a consensual decision is reached. The app also automatically keeps track of prices and the availability of all the hotels on the shortlist.
The second is the fact that almost everything that is required and needs to be done can be found within the app itself. Most of what you see on Hotels.com can is available in the app. Even tools like Google Maps and Google Streetview are integrated so that users can research the location and area surrounding their accommodation.
Finally, the app features a new chat functionality that is certainly a new benchmark in the Facebook app world. It allows instant discussion and interaction, which is a strong motivation for users to download and use the ‘HotelsWithMe’ app.
How are you enhancing the exchange of trusted referrals, travel do's and don'ts, and making the travel experience more relevant and social to each person who interacts with the site?
Abhiram Chowdhry:
The ‘HotelsWithMe’ app is developed with the core objective to make it easy for a group of friends or family members to come together and discuss the hotel they’d like to book. They get to read traveller reviews that are also available on Hotels.com, and of course there is going to be a level of trust among this group of people who are trying to discuss – using the chat functionality – and making decisions collaboratively.
What’s great about doing this through a Facebook app is that it’s also extremely easy to do research on hotel options at the same time while still having the group chat in the app itself. It gives control to the individual as well as the group collectively in ultimately choosing the hotel to book.
The app enables friends, families and colleagues to get together through Facebook and collectively choose and book a hotel. Can you highlight salient features of Group buying in terms of it as a concept and how it works?
Abhiram Chowdhry:
Group buying is not a new trend in the travel industry – it could be a group of strangers coming together (travel tours) or a group of friends, families, people who know each other. What we have done at Hotels.com is simply to make group travel even easier by bringing it to Facebook, the world’s biggest social network. Friends, families and colleagues are already connected on Facebook so it’s only natural that they get to come together, discuss and make travel decisions on Facebook as well. Facebook and group buying for travel go so well together.
The salient feature of the group buying process is really the discussion stage. Providing the chat functionality in the ‘HotelsWithMe’ app offers the opportunity for a group to discuss and throw in ideas on suggestions – ultimately and hopefully reaching a consensus in the end.
Can you explain how typically you go about offering travel deals/ exclusive offerings to Facebook fans? How do you make it enticing for them to avail the same?
Abhiram Chowdhry:
Hotels.com is able to capitalise on its scale and reach of more than 135,000 hotels to offer very attractive deals that are extended to customers via several channels including Facebook.
Hotels.com already makes short-term and long-term sales available to our Facebook fans. Beyond this we also offer exclusive promotions to our Facebook fans from time to time through discount codes and competitions. These codes can be used on the Hotels.com website or on the ‘HotelsWithMe’ Facebook app.
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June 29, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
TravelShark closes $5 million funding
Online travel network TravelShark has closed a $5 million round of financing to further accelerate its growth.
The investment was made by DLA Holdings, a Singapore-based private equity firm. With this $5 million investment, TravelShark, formerly Swiftrank, has raised a total of $8 million to date.
TravelShark is headquartered in Singapore, with a U.S. office in Boulder, Colorado.
DLA Holdings mentioned that TravelShark is providing a new direct online distribution channel to hotels and other travel verticals, and with the new brand in place, the company is looking to extend its offerings beyond travel suppliers to consumers with a host of timely new products.
Sue Heilbronner, CEO of TravelShark. “With this financing, we will invest in sales, marketing, and new product development to leverage our new consumer-friendly brand and our traction with travel suppliers and consumers.”
The company says more than 600 hotels, hotel brands, hospitality companies, and interactive marketing agencies in more than 20 countries now participate in TravelShark’s Featured Hotel Program to promote global visibility and generate direct booking revenues. It offers access to a network of more than 12,000 highly optimised sites.
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June 29, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Orbitz launches weekly members-only flash sale
Online travel agency Orbitz has launched its weekly members-only flash sale initiative. The new offering, Insider Steals, gives Orbitz members 50 percent or more off handpicked hotels in top destinations around the world including Las Vegas, New York, Orlando, Cancun and Hawaii.
Orbitz registered members will receive an email every Tuesday with exclusive new deals available on Orbitz.com for just 72 hours.
Exclusive Orbitz “Insider Steals” can be found on Orbitz.com by registered email members only.
“Orbitz hotel market managers are scouring their destinations to help our members score exclusive, half price deals on high-end hotels around the world,” said Peggy Bianco, group vice president, hotel supplier services at Orbitz Worldwide.
Bianco said that the company’s participating hotel partners recognise the limited-time, members-only aspects of this offering, and “are willing to offer extremely attractive rates in exchange for broad email promotion to millions of Orbitz members.”
Orbitz’s sister site, CheapTickets.com, also launched weekly, members-only flash sales “Members Only Prices.”
Trend
The concept of private online travel clubs and its members being offered exclusive hand-picked offers, featuring savings of up to 60-70 percent off hotel rack rates or brochure prices, and the same lasting for few days or as a flash sale is gaining traction in the marketplace.
Recently, in an interview with EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta, Kurien Jacob, SVP Revenue and Distribution, Highgate Hotels mentioned: “There are a lot of trends emerging that are challenging or augmenting the OTAs of today, such as; Meta search engines, closed loop sales such as; Jetsetter, Snique Away, Groupon, Living Social, Travelzoo newsletters etc. There seems to be an appetite from consumers to always lap up special deals, discounts and special offers from these providers. It is very important though, for hotels not to fall into a trap of working with everybody and having discounts all over the place. It may prove too costly with all the heavy discounts and margins these players are requesting.”
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June 29, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
Travel companies using 'drip pricing' practices for surcharges online
The UK-based Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has put passenger travel companies on notice to change misleading debit and credit card surcharging practices or face enforcement action under consumer protection laws.
Publishing its findings on these surcharges, following a super-complaint from Which?, the OFT also calls for the law to be updated to stop consumers being surcharged when buying goods and services with any debit card.
Drip Pricing
A 90-day OFT investigation into the issue, which focused on the passenger transport sector, found considerable evidence of companies using 'drip pricing' practices for surcharges online - adding payment charges to the total price only after consumers have filled in a number of web pages during their purchase.
This practice is particularly prevalent in the airline sector - where the OFT estimates UK consumers spent £300 million on payment surcharges during 2009.
The OFT considers that surcharging for using a credit or debit card is potentially misleading to consumers when it comes as a surprise - particularly when free payment mechanisms are only available to a small proportion of consumers, making a surcharge effectively compulsory.
(posted by dailymail.co.uk)
Frustration
Cavendish Elithorn, Senior Director of the OFT’s Goods and Consumer Group, said: “The growth of Internet retailing has brought massive benefits, but the increasing use of card surcharges is not one of them. You can't buy online with cash and people are frustrated about being asked to pay for paying. Consumers find it harder to shop around and find the best deal if they have to invest time and effort in discovering surcharges. This also weakens competition between retailers which is bad news for the UK economy.”
“We recognise that most traders want to treat their customers fairly. Many already meet the minimum standards we expect under the law and we have secured a clear commitment to change from others. However, we will take enforcement action against any businesses that do not respond to today's announcement and instead continue to use misleading surcharging practices. We believe there is also a strong case for a change in the law so that the cost of using a debit card, the almost universal payment method for today's online consumers, is always included within the headline price.”
To make headline prices truly meaningful and comparable, the OFT is calling for traders to stop charging for paying with any debit card - the online equivalent to cash. Traders should still be able to impose surcharges for other payment mechanisms such as credit cards, which can be more costly to process, provided that they meet the minimum transparency requirements set out by the OFT in its report.
The OFT is currently discussing surcharging practices with a number of passenger travel companies to secure compliance with Consumer Protection Regulations and will take enforcement action as necessary.
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June 29, 2011 | Permalink | m-Travel.com
New private sale travel site promises “Best Deal Guarantee”
A new members-only travel site says it has come up with a “number of firsts” that make the company the most consumer-friendly flash-sale travel site yet.
Spire has launched its offering with members-only rates on select four- and five-star hotels worldwide.
Spire, owned and operated by the luxury travel experts behind Perfect Escapes and Travel Intelligence, has launched with the only Best Deal Guarantee in flash-sale travel.
The guarantee, according to the site, not only promises the lowest price, but it also backs Spire’s pledge to deliver at least 30 percent off the lowest comparable offer found anywhere else.
Spire stated that it is also the only site of its kind to allow easy cancellations, giving refunds for up to 72-hours after a trip is booked, minus a $29 fee. Only available to registered members, Spire’s private sales last up to 14 days. The company says this gives travellers more flexibility and planning power than other flash-sale travel sites.
“Consumers want to know that they’re getting the very best deal before they book, and they need more flexibility in instances where spontaneity may have gotten the best of them,” said Alan Josephs, CEO of Spire. He said the site is offering travellers what they need to be more confident in their purchase.
“If a traveller finds an offer that does not meet our best deal standards, Spire will give them $100 in credit to be used on a future booking, plus we will refund the difference if they happen to find a lower price elsewhere,” stated Josephs, as he explained Spire’s one-of-a-kind Best Deal Guarantee.
The site is powered by Starfish Interactive, an independent luxury-hotel booking engine.
For airfares, Spire has included Kayak search functionality and offers the help and expert advice of US- and UK-based luxury travel specialists by phone at no charge.
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