Argophilia

Αργοφιλία: For the love of the journey.

Travel Technology

Accor Hotels Creates Their Own Travel Service

Aleksandr Shatskih

Designed to help customers of Accor Hotels to discover their next destinations, “Inspiration” presents online visitors to Accorhotels.com with unique destinations via internal hotel search. Guests into culture, wellness, exploration, a range of intentions, can get some relevance and quickness out of Inspiration, let’s take a quick look.

Scorecard: Winners in the UK Online Hotel Game

Phil Butler

According to a report (PDF) from greenlight recently TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and Laterooms now dominate the three most crucial search and social sectors of online visibility in the UK. Greenlight’s analysis of the top 15 brands across the online billboard showed not only each’s relative position to competitors, but just how seriously businesses engage via PPC, SEO, and social media means.

Britons On Exodus from Cold – Toward Spring

Phil Butler

We’ve all heard the news from the UK, mountains of snow and unseasonable weather of record breaking proportions. Fortunately for TUI Thomson there is an up side to bad weather – people on an exodus to better weather. A report from Thomson and First Choice the other day speaks of 30 something thousand headed out of bad weather and into good this Easter weekend.

Expedia Upgrades its Mobile App with New Features

Aleksandr Shatskih

Expedia has recently upgraded its mobile app with a set of mobile itineraries capabilities, that give the traveler up-to-date information at every stage of the journey.

Stay.com Partners with Over 100 Experts

Aleksandr Shatskih

The Norway-based company founded in 2009, Stay.com announced that it has partnered with more than 100 experts in various fields and includes on the website best places for any tastes and needs to visit in each city featured. Local professionals – chefs, artists, fashion designers, bartenders and baristas – picked out their favorite places in their fields in the city they live in. Stay.com now has an even wider collection of places to see, eat in, accommodate, etc. to choose from and create own travel guides.

Trustedhousesitters.com – Well Deserving of Your Attention

Phil Butler

If you ever dreamed of visiting far off places, and staying in a home away from home, Trustedhousesitters is just the ticket. Likewise, if you need someone you can trust to take care of your house while you are away, and maybe even your pets, then this service makes all the sense in the world.

InteleTravel & Travel Insured Hook Travelers Up

Aleksandr Shatskih

InteleTravel, a leading booking tool for travel agents, has just announced having selected Travel Insured International as their Preferred Travel Protection Partner for this year. According to the news release, InteleTravel will now automatically provide the offer of travel insurance during their reservation process.

BBC Abandons Lonely Planet, Or Is It the Other Way Round?

Phil Butler

Lonely Planet, one of the world’s most recognized names in digital travel, will now be owned by Nashville billionaire Brad Kelley’s NC2Media. BBC reported the deal for some $77.3 million, about half of what the British broadcasting giant paid for the business back in 2007. Despite the reported £80 million loss BBC will take, some say there are lessons worth learning still.

Google Flight Search Expands to Europe

Mihaela Lica Butler

Google Flight Search is now available in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, with search features in 8 languages, as well as prices in local currencies.

IAVRA: Putting Tech With Travel Agents for Value

Phil Butler

Today I revisited an exclusive villa rental player IAVRA, which I covered initially back in 2011. Back then my review was mega-positive, and I only have more positives to add today about the International Association of Villa Rental Agents (IAVRA) mode and method for renting us all fantastic getaways. Let’s take a look at how far these travel entrepreneurs have come.