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IAVRA: A Slick Way to Skin Villa Travel

2011-10-14 by Phil Butler

IAVRA branded villa pages

This is going to be a rave review about a new platform from the International Association of Villa Rental Agents (IAVRA), just to get you prepared. This new subscriber based database and tool set is a near perfect B2B conduit between travel agents etc. and Villa rental agents across the globe. The service not only makes searching, selecting, and renting villas efficient, but a bit of an aesthetically charged user experience on both ends of the exchange.

Tags: booking, booking innovations, hakia, no commission, Powerset, ReadWriteWeb, search engines, subscriber services, travel search, villa, villa rentals

Bing-Kayak: Travel Search or Dumb Meets Dumber?

2011-03-06 by Phil Butler

Barney Pell up the Amazon in 2008

The still raging war for online travel supremacy continues with news from Microsoft and Kayak. The pending sale of ITA to Google has spurred some fairly ridiculous allegiances and deals, not the least of which is the latest Bing “slash” Kayak pairing. Let’s face it, Microsoft has already spent two king’s ransoms trying to beat Google, and now this?

Tags: Barney Pell, Bill Gates, BIng, Bing travel, Google, Google Travel, ITA, ITA software, Kayak, Microsoft, online travel, OTA, Powermouse, search engines, travel conversions, travel search, travel wars

SnowTrax Compares Beyond Compare

2010-12-22 by Phil Butler

SnowTrax filtering

There’s a new ski trip search dynamo out there, and SnowTrax is the name it goes by. For refined ski vacation search, there may not be a better example on Earth. But, and there are always “but’s”, corporate lip service social engagement will never do for any new tech startup. On the consumer Web, there is no room for slip ups when professing social media kinship. Aside this flaw, SnowTrax has a foot in their skis for flawless ski vacations.

Tags: Airfare, Airfare.com, airlines, consumer search, hotel deals, Joe Bous, Movolo, search engines, search filtering, ski deals, ski search, ski vacations, SnowTrax, startups, travel search, travel startups

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The €730 Pebble: Three Swedes Learn that Russia Does Not Appreciate Gravel

2026-06-13 By Arthur Butler

Three Swedish tourists learned the hard way that Norway’s 1950 Border Act takes pebble-throwing very seriously, resulting in massive fines at the Russian border.

In Search of the Perfect Crete Retreat

2026-06-13 By Phil Butler

Metochi Lodge and the Art of Disappearing Beautifully Above Falassarna Bay Every season, another glossy list from Vogue or another glitzy magazine appears promising the best of Crete: the best hotels, the best beaches, the best villas, the best places to eat, the best villages to photograph before everyone else photographs them. Some are useful, […]

Chania tourist police

Chania Tourist Police Crack Down on Illegal Beach Masseurs and Unlicensed Vendors

2026-06-13 By Kostas Raptis

The Chania Tourist Police launched a targeted sweep on Crete beaches, arresting four individuals for unlicensed vending and unsanitary beach massages.

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Police Heavy-Handedness Terrifies Children and Enrages Chania Community

2026-06-13 By Kostas Raptis

Greek police face severe backlash after launching an aggressive, high-intensity traffic sweep directly outside a primary school festival in Vryses, Crete.

Loutro

The Other Crete: Why the South Coast Still Feels Untaken

2026-06-13 By Phil Butler

There is a Crete that most visitors meet first: the airports, the rental counters, the north coast highway, the polished resorts, the old Venetian harbors, the beach clubs, the easy restaurants, the postcard alleys, and the summer machinery of a Mediterranean island that long ago learned how to receive millions. It is not false. Chania, […]

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