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Travel Technology

FastBooking Report Reveals Recipe for Direct Distribution

Phil Butler

A new report and a revealing graphic from FastBooking reminds us that hotelier uptake for using more and more advanced tools and strategies needs to be incremental. The report entitled “A guide for independent hotels: budget hotels, small luxury hotels, and hotel groups” shows how CRM and other energies need to work hand-in-hand with websites, social, SEO and SEM, email marketing, metasearch and other facets to spur direct bookings.

Uber Changes Lanes with Yandex.Taxi Merger

Phil Butler

Since launching in Moscow three years ago, Uber has had a tough time displacing its local counterpart in Russia. Yesterday the world’s biggest ride-share startup gave up on the quest and inked a deal with Yandex.Taxi. The newly formed venture is valued at $3.7 billion and is owned 59.3% by Yandex and 36.6% by Uber, with the remaining 4.1% held by employees.

French hotel groups seed invest in RoomChecking

Argophilia Travel News

Astotel Group, Maurice Hurand Hotels and BPI follow into AccorHotels’s footsteps, investing in hotel technology as the future of hotel management, and offer 750,000 EUR late seed-funding to RoomChecking, a hotel communications, housekeeping, and maintenance system startup.

New Startups Fill Great Hospitality Hiring Void

Aleksandr Shatskih

Getting a leg up on hiring qualified people in the hospitality space, a couple of new startups are hoping to solve the problem of connecting skilled hospitality workers with the businesses that need them on-demand. Here’s a brief take on how apps and services are intersecting the hiring space too.

Six Travel Startups to Watch in 2017

Mihaela Lica Butler

Among the startups to watch in 2017, six have caught my attention for their potential for accelerated growth, but also due to clear benefits they offer for travelers.

Airbnb Raises Another $1 Billion for Possible Expansion

Aleksandr Shatskih

Home rental company AirBnb has just got another $1 billion (£821 million) cash injection to be used for expansion. The company, which disclosed the funding in a securities filing on Thursday, raised the money in a financing round that began last summer. The company is now valued at soem $31 billion, but this filing did not list new investors.

Dreamlines Raises $19 Million Growth Capital

Phil Butler

Hamburg-based Dreamlines has announced its most recent investment round of €18 million euro. This is the latest backing of the online cruise marketplace in the last 12 months.

#SEW17 – Innovation Invades Crete

Phil Butler

All this week the European conference ‘Startup Europe Week’ is being held across Crete, in Greece. Organized by the non-profit Youth Entrepreneurship Club, with the assistance of the Europe Startup/European Committee, the Region of Crete / Regional Unit of Chania, KEPPEDIH-CAM, and a host of others. After a two day stent in Chania, the conference moved up […]

Booking.com Launches Startup Accelerator

Phil Butler

Today Booking.com announced the launch of a new accelerator program, Bookingcom Booster, designed to jump start innovation. The new 3-week program gives startups the chance to pitch for grants of up to €500,000 euro.

Airbnb Really Is the Big Bad Wolf

Phil Butler

The hotel industry is in a nightmare of dire concerns over a beleaguered hospitality market. Airbnb and the impact the so-called “sharing economy” is on every hotelier’s mind, and understandably. The industry is for all intents and purposes, lost in a forest like Little Red Riding Hood trying to figure how much business the Big Bad Wolf […]