Argophilia Travel News

Bringing Eastern Europe closer to your heart. Sometimes we look at the world too.

travel startup

Twigmore Puts People First in Travel

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A new startup called Twigmore is aimed directly at putting people and their real impressions of “places” in the correct order. Unlike many “geocentric” travel tools, this new entry tries to arrange for local review wisdom for your trip planning. At least this seems like the gist.

Argo Travel Tech Pick: Inhabit Vacations

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Inhabit Vacations, another little gem of a travel initiative we found, is the subject of today’s featured tech review. Holiday Rentals is a straightforward and refreshing approach to listing and renting vacation spots – that vacation home of your youth.

Gowalla: Will It Be Google’s Next Announcement?

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It was inevitable once Google announced they were to acquire Zagat, the race for lost applications to engage travel. TechCrunch already reported on Gowalla, so did GigaOm, PC Mag, anyone “interested” in Gowalla. Chief Executive Josh Williams, according to PC Magazine, the Gowalla site will “re-focus” primarily on travel now. The selling point being, in depth guides, travel stories, relating the experience of travel – all conveniently on Gowalla.

HouseTrip – A Startup Taking Aim At Travel Alternatives

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TechCrunch reported on a fascinating startup in April, a new take on vacation rentals called HouseTrip. The news back then was about the Swiss startup’s $2.7 million in funding from Index Ventures, but today it looks as if the company is spending the money wisely. Let’s take a look under the hood of what my old friend Steve O’Hear called; “another play in the holiday apartments space.”

Skyscanner Shows UK Knows the Way to Emerging Markets

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According to a report from UK travel search site Skyscanner, Estonia, Madagascar and Iraq emerge as travel hot spots for UK travelers. Spain is, as always, a favorite among vacationers in Britain, but non-traditional destinations are headlining Summer travel so far.

Seamlessly Topguest Hypes Best Western Union

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Okay, I have finally had enough. Looking into the travel tech footlocker of startups out there, potential is about all there is out there at the moment. And for Best Western and a company called TopGuest, a bit of scornful ranting due from a Web 2.0 evangelist from the early days. The reason, someone out there in PR land still thinks everything needs to be “seamless” in its integration. BS

TripIt Cashes In Big Time

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Travel startup TripIt cashes in for an estimated $120 million after only 5 years of development and customer building. Concur is said to have acquired the Web’s most utilized business travel planning tool for cash and stocks. As for the future of TripIt, Concur has not released a statement as of yet.

Move Over TripIt Movolo Is On the Move

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A Latvian travel startup called Movolo may have hit on the future of online travel booking. Simplicity on top of trust will soon enable online travel companies to greatly simplify travel booking selections. With Google’s imminent entry into the online travel space, anyone should be asking; “How do we do this?” One answer may be to follow Movolo.

Tripit Still Shines If Not Altogether New

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TripIt is without a doubt one of the most useful travel tools yet developed. But, can this fairly limited tool, regardless how slick, remain atop the travel app list forever? With an increased user base via Hotwire TripIt has so far fended off all competition, but one slip is all it will take for the next big thing to steamroll this startup. The larger question is, “Can simple modular applications be stand alone monetization models?”

Once A Boy Cried Tripwolf – Softly

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Tripwolf is one of the most complete and useful online travel tools in the world. With its new iPhone and Facebook integration the service should be at the top of the travel booking heap, but somehow it is not. Regardless, Tripwolf is a complete online travel experience, maybe even the best one yet.