Argophilia

Αργοφιλία: For the love of the journey.

Travel Technology

TripAdvisor & Others at HotelWebsiteMarketing Conferences

Phil Butler

HotelWebsiteMarketing.com has announced a series of conferences to take place across Europe in May and June, 2011. Also, TripAdvisor, Availpro.com, Meetingsbooker.com, reviewPro.com, TIG Global, and other leading travel companies have joined the conferences to speak and contribute. The focus will be on hotel sales, marketing, revenue and e-commerce, among the many other topics.

Stay.com Lets Users Roll Their Own Travel

Phil Butler

Norwegian travel startup Stay.com release their version 2.3. As a mid-term development release, what Stay offered up was fairly significant. Stay.com affords users unparalelled tools for building, sharing, and printing their own personal travel literature, and great hotel deals as well.

Online Travel Warfare To End Soon

Phil Butler

The war in online travel over basically who gets what & when continues this week with Delta Airlines snatching seats from Rick Seaney’s FareCompare, American Airlines going hog wild trying to engage on their own, and Google outlining (see Matt Cutts video below) how they can manually crucify websites for SPAM. Meanwhile travelers just want some price break justice.

Tnooz’s THack Uncovers Some Tech Greatness

Phil Butler

Travel Technology Europe wrapped up earlier this week in London, and what was revealed is pretty significant for ongoing travel developments. Tnooz’s THack initiative in particular uncovered and showcased some extraordinary travel technology assets. Voice enabled travel search, advanced API use tools, and even superior advertising solutions were offered, among the many other cutting edge technologies.

Opodo Deal Worth Over Half a Billion

Phil Butler

Just about every news outlet in Europe is all a buzz about private equity firm Axa, and Permira headed for a deal to buy Amadeus’ Opodo. The OTA started in Germany in 2001, if the deal goes through as suggested, will be worth between $500 and $700 million. An unnamed source at Amadeus IT Holding SA told Reuters the sketch details of the negotiations.

iBAHN Secures a $20 Million for Distribution of IPTV Platform

Aleksandr Shatskih

iBAHN, the world’s leader in digital entertainment and Internet solutions for hospitality, has secured a $20 million credit facility with JP Morgan Chase & Co. The new multi-year credit allows for continued growth and installation of iBAHN’s IPTV platform throughout premium hotels around the world.

Carlson Wagonlit Buys Finland’s Kaleva Travel

Aleksandr Shatskih

Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the world’s largest business travel management player, has just announced the full share purchase of Finland’s Kaleva Travel. Kaleva, Finland’s leading business travel agency.

HomeAway & the Business of Super Bowl Commercials

Phil Butler

With Super Bowl XLV headed to living rooms and sports bars everywhere this weekend, one highly anticipated aspect of that great event is, of course, the ever present commercials which often entertain more than the game itself. Remember the time when your parents rented that beach house for the Summer? HomeAway remembers.

Cease Fire Called In Online Travel Wars

Phil Butler

The ceasefire between American Airlines and GDS giant Sabre signals an “all quiet” moment on the front lines of the online travel wars we have been covering. The announcement that the two companies would attempt to resolve their differences out of court, at least until June 1st, calmed the churning business cauldron for online travel for some.