That’s the word from PackLate CEO Steve  Barsh, who says the company, founded in 2010, has transitioned from a consumer focus on last-minute vacation rentals to a business-to-business operation and white-label distributor of professionally managed vacation homes.

PackLate [see TLabs Showcase] has built a hub — Barsh calls it a “switch” in a bow to the proposed Vacation Rental Management Association switch — and connects it to about about a half dozen property management systems, and then contracts on a net rate or commission basis with the property managers in each destination.

Barsh says the hub’s integration with the PMSs delivers live inventory and rates, and door-level bookings as opposed to reservations for a condo complex or vacation home community, where specific-unit assignments are allocated on-site.

For example, American Airlines Vacations, a unit of American Airlines, makes some of this PackLate-delivered vacation-home inventory available through an American Airlines Vacations’ partnership with Tourico Holidays. In the following image, a condo, Incredible Burgundy Hill in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, is offered via credit card or AAdvantage miles, with no emailing or phone conversations necessary with the owner.

Tourico Holidays, a unit of Travel Holdings, has some distribution muscle: Tourico Holidays operates 150 websites in 23 languages and has widespread travel agency relationships.

Travel agents can book the vacation homes through Tourico Holidays’ agent site, although some agencies have direct-connects with the wholesaler and can book the homes on their own agency sites.

Travel Holdings, Tourico’s parent, also operates consumer sites, such as Easy Click Travel, where vacation homes provided through PackLate show up under a Vacation Homes tab and are offered in California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Utah, Wyoming and several other states.

Most of the bookings through the PackLate system, which currently stocks around 15,000 properties, come from in-bound visitors to the US. Many of the reservations are for destinations in Utah, Colorado and Florida.

Barsh says the PackLate system, which leverages Amazon Web Services and other technologies such as Ruby on Rails, MySQL and Engine Yard, is highly scalable.

In that regard, the company is talking with major wholesalers and airlines, with an eye toward expanding in Europe as a top priority, Barsh says.

Tourico Holidays and PackLate began their distribution relationship in May 2011, although bookings have really ramped up in the past couple of months, Barsh says.

“We are available today and it is working,” he adds. “We have proved to the Touricos of the world that we know what we are doing.”

Barsh says the VRMA-Pegasus Solutions switch notwithstanding, PackLate wants to become an industry switch in its own right or, as he puts it, the “Sabre of vacation homes.”

PackLate has raised more than $1 million in seed funding from First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures, FirstMark Capital and ETF Venture Funds.

Or so says the TNT Travel Show, which surveyed over 1,o00 Brits aged 18 to 35 ahead of its annual travel exhibition in London in March.

Supposedly modern methods of travel research, such as scouring social media-led efforts for ideas for travel recommendations, were favoured by just 14% of those in the survey.

This compared to almost three-quarters (73%) who claimed to prefer word-of-mouth as the best method of getting tips when researching a trip.

Of course, a survey commissioned by an exhibition which features over 100 stands from brands giving word-of-mouth advice would be expected to say as much.

But the results are still interesting.

Travel blogs, lest we forget about their impact on travel planning, appear to be almost nowhere on the radar as influential channels to find advice on places to go, scoring a lowly 13% in the poll.

So perhaps this new generation of supposedly tech-savvy travellers are just a bunch of luddites after all?

According to the survey, 85% of Blackberry users and 68% of iPhones owners would leave their mobiles at home when travelling, preferring (90%) to simply pack a camera (presumably a digital one!).

But surely the cool kids would still be logging into their social networks and updating their own travel blogs when on the road?

Nope.

Three out of ten would prefer to use email to keep in touch, compared to a quarter that use Facebook, 16% opting for SMS text messages, 15% with Skype, 12% preferring to call, 1% via Twitter.

NB: Backpacker image via Shutterstock.

On the heels of Expedia Worldwide president Scott Durchslag exiting the company in January, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi used words such as “unsatisfactory” to describe “the overall Expedia brand performance,” and “poorly” to characterize how airline ticket sales and vacation packages fared in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Expedia Inc.’s revenue increased 7% to $787.1 million on a 19% increase in hotel room nights in the fourth quarter, although a decrease in revenue per room night put a damper on things.

Adjusted EBITDA fell 4% in the quarter to $162.1 million, and content and technology costs, including monies allocated to the tech platform, rose 29% to $98.6 million.

Hotels.com and the Expedia hotel product have been migrated to the new tech platform, the air product will be on board by the end of the first quarter, but vacation packages aren’t expected to be transitioned “until the back half of 2012,” Khosrowshahi told financial analysts during the company’s fourth quarter conference call yesterday.

Khosrowshahi expressed confidence that the new platform will increase conversions and enable Expedia to innovate faster, but he conceded that the company has something to prove and “there are a lot of ifs at this point.” He said:

Listen, all other things being equal, when E3 is complete, I would expect to see room night growth accelerate for Expedia, not only standalone room nights but especially packaged room nights that have been a negative factor. And I would hope to see that in the second half of the year. Again, we haven’t done it. But that’s why we’re investing the way that we are on the technology side.

The company says subsidiary Hotels.com, which transitioned to the E3 technology platform in early 2010, “experienced healthy room night growth across all regions during the fourth quarter.”

Khosrowshahi added:

And Hotels.com has continued to maintain … high room night growth. And hopefully, with execution, we’d expect to see that continue on a go-forward basis. But again, we know that we have to prove that out to you. I think the Q4 room night number was really healthy, and I think it was really healthy without Expedia hitting on all cylinders. So if we can hit on all cylinders, we could see things get better. But those are a lot of ifs at this point.

There were bright spots in the earnings announcement.

Expedia is bullish on its 50-50 AirAsia joint venture, which chipped in with healthy room night and hotel revenue growth in the fourth quarter.

And, Expedia CFO Mark Okerstrom says the company is not feeling any impact from Booking.com’s share gains in the US market, where Expedia’s hotel share likewise is growing.

Financial analysts offered varying views about Expedia’s prospects following the earnings release.

Tom White, an analyst for Macquarie Capital, has a “neutral” rating on Expedia and wonders about the cost of the technology upgrades. White says:

The main question for the stock in our view is not whether the Expedia brand’s tech re-platforming will yield improved conversion rates but when and how much the initiative will ultimately cost. This limited visibility, coupled with the potential for y/y EBITDA declines in 1Q given EXPE’s increased seasonality post the TRIP spin is enough to keep us on the sidelines near-term despite EXPE’s appealing relative valuation. Add to this EXPE’s larger relative exposure to the slower-growth/supplier-friendly U.S. market, and we still view PCLN as the preferred way to play the secular shift of global travel bookings moving online.

And, Mark Mahaney, an analyst for Citi Investment Research & Analysis, also has a “neutral” rating on Expedia’s stock, but says the “soft” results for Expedia in the fourth quarter sets the company up for “an excellent 2013.”

Either way, with Booking.com growing its hotel business, Expedia has something to prove.

TAM increased its share of traffic in he airline category increase by over 3.5% week-on-week as GOL slumped by over 6% during the same period.

Most popular travel websites in Brazil for the week ending February 4 2012:

Agencies

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Decolar	www.decolar.com	23.26%	1
2	Hotel Urbano	www.hotelurbano.com.br	16.30%	2
3	ViajaNet	www.viajanet.com.br	15.84%	3
4	Submarino Viagens	www.submarinoviagens.com.br	11.84%	4
5	CVC	www.cvc.com.br	7.61%	5
6	Mundi Buscador de Viagens	www.mundi.com.br	5.86%	6
7	Melhores Destinos	www.melhoresdestinos.com.br	2.59%	8
8	Americanas Viagens	viagens.americanas.com.br	2.56%	7
9	Rapi10	www.rapi10.com.br	2.55%	9
10	Que Tal Viajar?	www.quetalviajar.com	1.95%	10

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Hotel Urbano	www.hotelurbano.com.br	16.57%	1
2	Booking.com	www.booking.com	11.39%	2
3	Trip Advisor Brasil	www.tripadvisor.com.br	6.88%	3
4	Mundi Buscador de Viagens	www.mundi.com.br	5.96%	4
5	Ferias	www.ferias.tur.br	5.00%	5
6	Alugue Temporada	www.aluguetemporada.com.br	4.42%	6
7	Milevo	www.milevo.com.br	4.10%	-
8	Hotels Combined	www.hotelscombined.com	3.67%	7
9	ShopF cil Travel	wwws.shopfacilviagens.com.br	3.64%	8
10	EcoViagem	ecoviagem.uol.com.br	2.26%	9

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes	www.voegol.com.br	30.82%	1
2	TAM	www.tam.com.br	27.50%	2
3	Azul	www.voeazul.com.br	8.06%	4
4	Smiles Mileage Program	www.smiles.com.br	7.41%	3
5	TRIP Linhas Aereas	www.voetrip.com.br	6.48%	5
6	Webjet Brasil	www.webjet.com.br	5.12%	6
7	Avianca Brazil	www.avianca.com.br	3.49%	7
8	Passaredo Linhas Aereas	www.voepassaredo.com.br	1.20%	8
9	Tam Viagens	www.tamviagens.com.br	1.13%	9
10	LAN Airlines	www.lan.com	0.63%	10

NB: Data courtesy of Experian Hitwise

NB2: Image via Shutterstock.

The app enables travel companies to choose from a series of modules including weather, currency and emergency contact information as well as link to their booking system to create their own branded mobile service.

It also enables companies to incorporate Off Exploring’s blog and postcard tools enabling their customers to create and share content across social networks.

Off Exploring director Doug Campbell believes the app ticks all the boxes in terms of removing the cost barrier to mobile, helping companies with a mobile and social media presence and the related search engine optimisation benefits.

The company says existing customers are seeing an upload from the mobile app generating hundreds of new visitors to a company’s website and thousands of page views.

Campbell adds that about two-thirds of blogs written on Off Exploring are now via a mobile device.

Off Exploring plans to charge companies for branding the app with an additional cost if they want to link to a booking system.

A number of properties – some of which are very high profile – have recently been contacted by an individual claiming to be the new “director of traveler reviews at TripAdvisor”, offering what sounds like a curious and potentially explosive new development from the user review giant.

The email, which included a sign-off with the address of the company’s official Massachusetts headquarters in the US, says the company is launching a programme known as TripAdvisor Select.

TripAdvisor is looking into ways of giving a select number of hotels on the site with the best reviews a rubber-stamp of approval to say that the property has been audited and verified for high quality by the company itself following a visit.

This could take the form of a mystery shopper or official visit.

Hotels getting the official thumbs-up from TripAdvisor would be rewarded with a logo on the site to say it is one of the best in a particular city under the TripAdvisor Select programme.

Furthermore, and most importantly (and outrageously), having the official sanction would prevent other users from leaving negative reviews about a property.

Such an idea would fly in the face of conventional wisdom of giving visitors to the site a string of consumer generated reviews and an overall score based on the quality of certain amenities, staff, ambience, etc.

While the idea is indeed used elsewhere, where third party and official reviewers write about and rate properties, bringing such a process into TripAdvisor would be a fundamental change in policy.

The problem with the strategy and approach, which is apparently targeting a number of properties around the world, is that it is complete hogwash.

The executive asks the property owner to respond and they will be contacted shortly to sign up to the scheme.

It is unclear how many hotels have so far been contacted in this way, but rumours have started circulated this week and there is indeed some confusion as to the validity of the programme.

The first sign that something isn’t quite right comes if recipients check the sender’s email address: despite the sign-off and official-sounding references, tripadvisor******@gmail.com [deliberately redacted] is clearly not one that would be used by the headquarters of the company.

Tnooz decided to see what happened when a response was sent to the sender.

This is the reply:

“Thank you for your interest. We are only working with a select few hotels around the globe currently. We are still in the very early stages of development but are testing this new program out in a few of our markets.  As soon as I am at liberty to discuss the program in more detail with you over the coming few weeks, I will forward you all of the literature.”

Tnooz:

“I understand you are director of traveler reviews at TripAdvisor. Are you based at its offices in the US or UK?”

Sender:

“I’m in the US. Which hotel are you affiliated with?”

Tnooz (which had its official email sign-off and journalist disclosure):

“I concentrate on a number in Europe. This sounds like a really interesting programme. I had no idea TripAdvisor was doing this. How long have you worked with TA on this initiative. I suspect lots of hotels will be really keen to learn more about this given the focus on quality and reviews, in Europe especially.”

Sender:

“That’s great! I will definitely keep your contact info, and stay in touch with you regarding progress and advancement of the program. As I mentioned, it’s still extremely new but I expect great things to come of it. Not just in Europe, but around the globe.”

Tnooz:

“Just one question: when did TripAdvisor officially start the TripAdvisor Select programme? I’d not heard about it at all until today.”

Sender:

“It hasn’t launched yet… We are still getting the program going behind the scenes and running focus groups etc. with hotels and also the public. I have an email list that I’m sending updates/progress to so I will include you on that and you will be one of the first to know.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss anymore about this program (which I’m sure you can appreciate) but stay tuned! Very soon…”

Tnooz:

“Sorry, just a final thing: I’ve known many people in TripAdvisor for a number of years. When did you join the company? Do you report into Christine Petersen [president of TripAdvisor for Business]?”

Sender:

“Nope. Different dept.”

Tnooz then contacted TripAdvisor to ask if indeed the individual was “director of traveler reviews” and if TripAdvisor Select is a valid programme being considered by the company.

The answer, inevitably, was “no” on both counts.

Tnooz:

“I have just spoken with TripAdvisor in the US. It is my understanding that you are NOT an employee of TripAdvisor and TripAdvisor Select is NOT an official programme which it is authorising.

“As you probably realise, I am a journalist and writing a story for Tnooz.com on the approach you have been making to hoteliers, offering a service under the guise of it being an official programme, when it is clearly not.

“TripAdvisor is issuing a warning to hoteliers about such activity. Do you have a statement you wish to make on this matter?”

Sender:

“It’s a class project/focus group I’m working on to learn if there is any interest in such an initiative. I was waiting for somebody like yourself to ask questions about the proposal and I wanted to get feedback from hotels to see if they would be interested in such an idea to have less criticism when it’s not warranted.

“What do you think about it? Unfortunately, it’s not possible to actually have reps go around the world but a fun idea!

“I am trying to see how many hotels around the world would be interested in such an offer and then possibly offer these consulting ideas to enhance revenue to large travel companies on consumer awareness.”

Tnooz:

“But you are masquerading as an employee of TripAdvisor. This is behaviour not approved by TripAdvisor and therefore unfair to hoteliers. What do you have to say about that?”

Sender, in what could become a classic and somewhat understated defence:

“Now that you mention it, it probably wasn’t the best way to go about the research. You can let them know that it was an error in judgement and won’t happen again.”

Indeed.

It is unknown how far the sender had got with the activities and whether the approach was for genuine research or the beginning of an elaborate scam is unclear.

Either way, preying on nervy hoteliers with the impression that TripAdvisor is launching a programme of such kind is just one a number of initiatives being adopted by opportunistic folk around the work.

Confirming again that the sender was not an employee of the company and the programme is a work of fiction, a TripAdvisor official adds:

“We recommend that hoteliers check the email address. They should be particularly suspicious if the address is from a free email account. We also encourage hoteliers to contact us if they have any concerns and report suspicious activity to solutions@tripadvisor.com.”

Another recent example, TripAdvisor says, are emails being sent to hotels claiming to be representatives of the company and offering to remove negative in exchange for a stay at the property.

“This was done illegally and without permission by a third party misappropriating the TripAdvisor brand. We are taking all appropriate measures to reduce the incidence of this type of spam.”

So whether an official kitemark of some kind against high performing hotels on TripAdvisor might get some interest (although the blocking negative reviews element would be pretty outrageous), on this occasion such an opportunity does not exist.

UPDATE: 

TripAdvisor says it is preparing to contact all hoteliers on its database to notify them about the TripAdvisor Select scam.

NB: Review image via Shutterstock.

The general noise is centred on mobile technology but there is more to it than that and maps is a good example.

Travel management specialist HRG has used maps as the starting point for its online Insight tool which enables travel or security managers or anyone involved in the process to get a quick view on where travellers are.

The data management and reporting technology provides users with relevant information on their travellers including destination – past, present and future, spend, potential risks and the related environmental impact.

Users can also drill down into maps for further information on what a highlighted risk may be with information provided by Red24, or, draw a circle around a particular area to bring up details of all the travellers in an area who might be affected.

Travellers can then be sent an email or text alert and their responses fed back into the system.

Maps are colour-coded so red for potential security risks or any elements such as weather that might be disruptive to travel, green for environmental impact and blue for travel and spend information.

Sitting behind Insight is something called ‘infohub’ which enables managers to analyse and draw reports on travel patterns and spend.

HRG believes the technology is applicable to all customers because of the ease of use and quality and speed of information.

The TMC is spending the next couple of months gaining customer feedback on HRG Insight before it goes to pilot with about four customers.

The technology has also been optimised for use on tablet devices and mobile phones.

With the ever-increasing proliferation of smartphones and tablets, mobile internet access and apps, consumers are becoming much more comfortable with browsing and shopping through the mobile.

As a result, many business sectors are having to really push forward their multi-channel strategy and approach to mobile, and travel is one of these.

There is one area of importance potentially above all others when it comes to successful mobile engagement – the experience.

Consumers have very personal relationships with their mobile devices, so it becomes even more crucial than on other digital channels, that the user experience is right and that the recipient is engaged with on their terms.

At Webcredible, we have been doing a lot of consultancy around the mobile user experience and have recently been working a lot within the travel sector.

A recent customer was Hotels.com, which wanted to optimise its mobile offering in line with customer requirements with the further aim of producing results that would improve brand experience, customer satisfaction and loyalty through the mobile channel.

This is a common problem, for many travel brands when looking to make moves in mobile.

The approach to mobile will differ according to the brand itself, but there are some best practice tips that travel brands can follow when looking to optimise the mobile experience for their customers.

1. Reduce the amount of content

Not everything shown on a PC site can fit reasonably onto a mobile web page, where space is short and every pixel counts.

It’s important to reduce the amount of content shown on the mobile-optimised version. Only include the most important content or features.

2. Use single column layouts

Website pages are difficult to view on small mobile phone screens. Even on smartphones like the iPhone with their relatively large screens, standard web pages load up zoomed out so that they can fit on the screen.

Instead, create single column pages that use up the whole width of the screen.

To add additional content the page should expand downwards rather than across, as scrolling down is easier than scrolling across and users generally prefer it.

3. Present the navigation differently

It’s difficult to fit the navigation across the top of the screen on a mobile web page, therefore you must look for alternative options to display the navigation.

A few options include:

• Place the navigation and site search at the top of the page and leave the content for later pages. This is suitable for users who want to navigate or search upon immediately finding the site – a common action with travel websites
• Place the navigation at the bottom – still accessible but doesn’t get in the way of the content
• Place the navigation in a dropdown link at the top of the page

4. Minimise text entry

Text entry on a mobile phone is much more difficult than when using a desktop or laptop keyboard, so mobile websites must take this into account.

Allowing users to store details in their “My Account” section is helpful, and if they already have an online account, then linking this to them as a mobile user will also avoid any unnecessary text entry.

5. Decide whether you need more than one mobile site

If your mobile website is only going to be seen by smartphone users with fast download speeds then one mobile version will be ok.

However, if you want a broader reach then you should consider creating a paired down version. Facebook goes as far as having three main mobile versions.

6. Take advantage of inbuilt functionality

Many mobile phones have an advantage over PCs – they come with lots of inbuilt functionality that most PCs don’t have.

You can make it easier for users to perform certain tasks by utilising a mobile’s inbuilt functionality and thereby remove the need for manual steps, for example; making calls, seeing an address on a map and finding the nearest.

However, although these kind of best practice guidelines can help with some ‘quick wins’ for your mobile proposition, travel brands must ensure that their mobile strategies are based on real insights into the behaviours and needs of their audiences and target markets through the customer lifecycle.

Live example

In the case of Hotels.com, Webcredible worked to gain more of an understanding of smartphone users’ use of mobile sites and applications (and any other activity) to guide the development of its mobile website and iPhone and Android apps.

The main objectives of the research was to learn:

How people use smartphones in relation to researching, planning and booking travel
How smartphones are used by travellers while they travel to their destination and how they’re used during holidays and business trips
What are the current barriers that prevent some users from travel-related smartphone use

We used diary study methods, interviews and expert analysis projects, along with its mobile industry knowledge and integrated research, to produce a set of guidelines and recommendations for Hotels.com to build its mobile strategy, which were detailed in a report which:

• Mapped smartphone use against the travel lifecycle
• Updated existing personas to include smartphone use
• Highlighted current attitudes and behaviours towards arranging hotels, flights, meals entertainment and other activities across digital channels
• Reported on how smartphones are being used to store travel-related information
• Discussed current barriers to using smartphones for bookings
• Offered ideas and suggestions for future smartphone opportunities

The importance of a mobile optimised website cannot be underestimated in the travel industry.

When online, if a user struggles to complete a task on your website, they are very likely to simply “drop-off” and go to a competitor’s site.

With the increase in speed of mobile devices and connections, this type of behaviour will become increasingly prevalent on mobile devices as well and travel brands need to ensure they’re providing a mobile user experience that seamlessly matches the online experience, making it easy for consumers to complete the tasks they want, when they want, through whichever platform they want.

NB: This is a guest article by Trenton Moss, director at UK-based Webcredible.

WebJet lost 0.75% in its share of the agency category and Expedia 0.2%. Flight Centre gained 0.3%.

 Most popular travel websites in Australia for the week ending February 4 2012:

Agency

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Webjet Australia	www.webjet.com.au	13.34%	1
2	Expedia Australia	www.expedia.com.au	11.83%	2
3	Flight Centre	www.flightcentre.com.au	9.20%	3
4	Lastminute.com.au	www.lastminute.com.au	5.14%	4
5	Best Flights	www.bestflights.com.au	3.41%	5
6	Jetabroad	www.jetabroad.com	2.66%	6
7	Wego	www.wego.com	2.46%	-
8	Airfares Flights Australia	www.airfaresflights.com.au	2.08%	8
9	ZUJI Australia	www.zuji.com	1.93%	9
10	Travelzoo Australia	www.travelzoo.com/au	1.72%	7

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	TripAdvisor - Australia	www.tripadvisor.com.au	6.21%	1
2	Wotif.com	www.wotif.com	6.00%	2
3	Booking.com	www.booking.com	5.09%	3
4	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	4.16%	4
5	Stayz	www.stayz.com.au	3.50%	5
6	Hotels.com	www.hotels.com	1.96%	6
7	Agoda Australia	www.agoda.com.au	1.94%	7
8	Totaltravel.com	www.totaltravel.com	1.47%	8
9	Agoda.com	www.agoda.com	1.12%	9
10	Lonely Planet	www.lonelyplanet.com	1.12%	-

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Postion
1	Qantas	www.qantas.com.au	23.00%	1
2	Jetstar	www.jetstar.com	19.85%	2
3	Virgin Australia	www.virginaustralia.com	17.65%	3
4	AirAsia	www.airasia.com	5.45%	4
5	Emirates	www.emirates.com	3.46%	5
6	Tiger Airways	www.tigerairways.com	3.30%	6
7	Singapore Airlines	www.singaporeair.com	3.06%	7
8	Air New Zealand	www.airnz.co.nz	1.68%	8
9	Air New Zealand - Australia	www.airnz.com.au	1.56%	10
10	Malaysia Airlines	www.malaysiaairlines.com	1.50%	9

Search Terms

Rank	Search Term	Percentage of Clicks	Percentage Paid	Percentage Organic	Previous Position
1	google maps	1.60%	0.04%	99.96%	1
2	jetstar	1.07%	0.76%	99.24%	2
3	webjet	0.78%	0.24%	99.76%	3
4	qantas	0.72%	19.93%	80.07%	4
5	maps	0.70%	0.00%	100.00%	5
6	wotif	0.58%	1.06%	98.94%	6
7	flight centre	0.57%	55.10%	44.90%	7
8	metlink	0.47%	0.03%	99.97%	8
9	whereis	0.35%	0.09%	99.91%	10
10	singapore airlines	0.34%	10.60%	89.40%	9

NB: Data courtesy of Experian Hitwise

NB2: Image via Shutterstock.

Simpliflying has taken a look at what airlines are doing with Google Plus and came up with the following findings:

• There are now 70 airlines with brand pages on Google Plus.
• The vast majority of the pages are in English – about 78.5%. But on average, pages in Spanish are “liked” more often.
• The airline with the highest number of “likes” (known as “+1″s) was Mexican low cost carrier Volaris with almost 3000, double that of the second most popular page.
• The most common type of content on Google Plus pages is brand-related (as opposed to sales related on Facebook or customer service related on Twitter).

Opinion is still pretty divided as to the overall value of Google Plus, compared to rival platform Facebook, but certainly those that have managed to harness some kind of value from it are seeing some results.

Matt Rhodes, strategy director at UK-based agency Fresh Networks, for example, believes Google Plus has the ability to change search in fundamental ways over time and the data which Google is capturing and re-serving through its other, connected platforms is becoming a critical element of the social graph which, inevitably, brands will need to understand and utilise better.

Early days, early days.

Anyway, here is an infographic from the Simpliflying team to showcase the results:

Yahoo Xtra gained 0.75% market share week-on-week, while Booking.com added around 0.25% over the same period.

Stuff, however, shed 1.75% share of the destination and accommodation category and fell to fourth position.

Most popular travel websites in New Zealand for the week ending February 4 2012:

Agencies

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Expedia.co.nz	www.expedia.co.nz	13.81%	1
2	Webjet New Zealand	www.webjet.co.nz	12.08%	2
3	House of Travel	www.houseoftravel.co.nz	10.13%	3
4	Flight Centre New Zealand	www.flightcentre.co.nz	6.17%	4
5	Jet Abroad - NZ	www.jetabroad.co.nz	3.54%	5
6	Kayak	www.kayak.com	2.86%	6
7	Orbitz	www.orbitz.com	2.23%	7
8	Agoda.co.nz	www.agoda.co.nz	1.67%	10
9	bookingbuddy	www.bookingbuddy.com	1.66%	-
10	FareCompare	www.farecompare.com	1.64%	8

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	6.67%	1
2	Yahoo!xtra - Travel	nz.totaltravel.yahoo.com	5.11%	4
3	Booking.com	www.booking.com	4.72%	3
4	stuff.co.nz - Travel	www.stuff.co.nz/travel	4.33%	2
5	Wotif.com	www.wotif.com	4.10%	5
6	HolidayHouses.co.nz	www.holidayhouses.co.nz	3.45%	6
7	AA New Zealand Travel Guide	www.aatravel.co.nz	2.83%	7
8	Book A Bach	www.bookabach.co.nz	2.58%	9
9	Jasons Travel Media	www.jasons.co.nz	2.38%	8
10	New Zealand Tourism Online	www.tourism.net.nz	1.77%	-

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Air New Zealand	www.airnz.co.nz	34.14%	1
2	Air New Zealand - grabaseat	www.grabaseat.co.nz	24.41%	2
3	Jetstar	www.jetstar.com	10.05%	3
4	My Air New Zealand	www.myairnz.co.nz	5.31%	4
5	Qantas	www.qantas.com.au	4.33%	6
6	Virgin Australia	www.virginaustralia.com	3.20%	5
7	AirAsia	www.airasia.com	2.92%	7
8	Emirates	www.emirates.com	2.47%	8
9	Air New Zealand - Global Site	www.airnz.com	2.16%	10
10	Singapore Airlines	www.singaporeair.com	1.55%	9

NB: Data courtesy of Experian Hitwise

NB2: Image via rook76/Shutterstock

Or, if Groupon doesn’t seek to disintermediate Expedia, would Groupon want to bring in additional partners?

In Groupon’s first earnings call as a public company yesterday, CEO Andrew Mason said Groupon is “very happy with the progress” of Groupon Getaways, but is already “broadening” it from a sales perspective.

With travel an integral part of Groupon’s growth strategy, Mason said Groupon already sources a lot of the hotel deals in Groupon Getaways with its own travel sales force.

So if Groupon’s travel sales force is already striking direct relationships with hotels, why share the revenue with Expedia?

Groupon and Expedia launched Groupon Getaways last summer.

It’s a time-worn practice at Expedia, and also in travel and outside of travel: partner with a company, learn the business and then dump the partner.

“It seems to me that Groupon is being quite obvious about it,” says one travel industry insider, “and Expedia seems to be asleep at the switch.”

Groupon has been casting a wide net looking at various travel startups and they are interested in companies with hotel relationships, technology and a great management team.

No one is saying that is indeed Groupon’s wish, but the apparently increasing activity of Groupon’s own travel sales force raises questions.

Mason said Groupon Getaways is doing “well” with hotel sales, but over time Groupon could add new products and features.

Speaking to financial analysts, he declined to break out numbers for Groupon Getaways.

Asked about the costs of it, Mason said Groupon makes investments in commissions to win initial business, but “over time it lessens.”

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Groupon recorded a net loss of nearly $42.3 million compared with a net loss of $313.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Groupon’s revenue in the fourth quarter grew 194% to $506.5 million, the company stated.

The pair added around 0.5% and 0.25% market share respectively to their tallies from the previous week, keeping Expedia in pole position and pushing Travelocity up one place to fifth spot.

Priceline, Orbitz and Yahoo Travel all lost market share.

Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending February 4 2012:

Agency

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Expedia	www.expedia.com	12.64%	1
2	priceline.com	www.priceline.com	8.68%	2
3	Yahoo! Travel	travel.yahoo.com	7.71%	3
4	Orbitz	www.orbitz.com	6.99%	4
5	Travelocity	www.travelocity.com	6.22%	6
6	Kayak	www.kayak.com	5.75%	5
7	Hotwire	www.hotwire.com	5.44%	8
8	CheapOair	www.cheapoair.com	5.35%	7
9	bookingbuddy	www.bookingbuddy.com	2.52%	9
10	Cheap Tickets	www.cheaptickets.com	2.51%	10

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	8.31%	1
2	Hotels.com	www.hotels.com	2.83%	3
3	Marriott International	www.marriott.com	2.71%	2
4	Booking.com	www.booking.com	2.20%	6
5	Vacation Rentals by Owner	www.vrbo.com	2.17%	4
6	Hilton Hotels Online	www.hilton.com	2.16%	5
7	InterContinental Hotels Group	www.ichotelsgroup.com	1.95%	8
8	Carnival Cruise Lines	www.carnival.com	1.88%	7
9	Southwest Airlines Travel Guide	travel.southwest.com	1.60%	9
10	Walt Disney World	disneyworld.disney.go.com	1.45%	-

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Southwest Airlines	www.southwest.com	22.89%	1
2	Delta Air Lines	www.delta.com	12.14%	2
3	American Airlines	www.aa.com	9.34%	3
4	JetBlue Airways	www.jetblue.com	7.36%	4
5	Continental Airlines	www.continental.com	6.75%	5
6	United Airlines	www.united.com	5.98%	7
7	US Airways	www.usairways.com	5.32%	6
8	AirTran Airways	www.airtran.com	4.48%	8
9	Allegiant Air	www.allegiantair.com	3.52%	9
10	Spirit Airlines	www.spiritair.com	3.49%	10

Travel search terms

Rank	Search Term	Percentage of Clicks	Percentage Paid	Percentage Organic	Previous Position
1	mapquest	4.36%	0.04%	99.96%	1
2	google maps	1.56%	0.88%	99.12%	2
3	southwest airlines	1.38%	34.03%	65.97%	3
4	travelocity	0.86%	58.52%	41.48%	6
5	expedia	0.81%	54.53%	46.47%	5
6	maps	0.72%	0.68%	99.32%	4
7	map quest	0.55%	0.42%	99.58%	7
8	continental airlines	0.53%	7.88%	92.12%	-
9	american airlines	0.51%	5.38%	94.62%	9
10	google earth	0.48%	14.08%	95.92%	10

NB: Data couresy of Experian Hitwise

Making what it deems to be necessary changes and investments despite the short-term impact was a theme that ran through the company’s conference call with analysts February 8 despite the fact that Wall Street looks for growth and bottom-line results.

Steve Kaufer, TripAdvisor CEO, said he couldn’t say whether or not in the future the company would take such steps as the redesign, which led to lower revenue per session.

And, TripAdvisor officials were adamant that it would increase investments in initiatives, including mobile and China, which currently are running at a loss.

There will be no slowing of TripAdvisor’s investment in China and Daodao, which has been posting operating losses since it came into the TripAdvisor fold in 2009, and is projected to record operating losses in 2012, as well.

“There is little doubt that the opportunity there is large,” Kaufer said, referring to China.

TripAdvisor provided lots of insights during its earnings call into its thinking about investments.

In fact, Kaufer said TripAdvisor has decided to invest in and emphasize mobile despite the fact that mobile traffic, to some extent, comes at the expense of desktop traffic.

As TripAdvisor benefits from its mobile offerings — 13 million downloads compared with 12 million for Kayak’s apps — the user review site has made the conscious decision not to monetize mobile fully at this time, Kaufer said.

TripAdvisor also continues to invest in the social arena, particularly in Trip Friends on Facebook, and revealed that “TripAdvisor users who are also Facebook users are approximately 27% more engaged in TripAdvisor site usage and are twice as likely to contribute content that the average TripAdvsor user.”

Some 85 million Facebook users have tried TripFriends, through the end of 2011, and they’ve received more than 1.5 billion travel “pins,” TripAdvisor stated.

The company also disclosed another fascinating statistic about users’ engagement with TripAdvisor — they add 40 pieces of content (a user review, rating, photo or room tip etc.) per minute.

TripAdvisor’s net income in the fourth quarter increased 18.8% to $22 million on revenue of $637.1 million, a 31% rise.

One element of the business, Business Listings, which didn’t exist a couple of years ago, and “other” revenue accounted for 11% of the company’s revenue in the fourth quarter. A year earlier the subscription business accounted for just 7% of revenue.

There were some interesting points made during the conference call about TripAdvisor database of 60 million reviews, which CFO Julie Bradley described as a “huge” barrier to entry for competitors.

When people talk about TripAdvisor transitioning to verified reviews, the 60 million reviews as a huge barrier to entry is one of the reasons the company is steadfastly staying with its review policy.

And, on the TripAdvisor user review front, the subject of the Advertising Standards Authority’s adverse ruling in the UK did not garner a single mention by Kaufer, Bradley or analysts during the conference call.

If analysts were concerned about its impact, they didn’t make that known.

Kaufer said the company’s rate of review collection around the world “has really gone up substantially” over the last 12 years.

He projected that TripAdvisor would be on pace to add another 20 million reviews in 2012 even if the “run rate” of review collection doesn’t increase.

Kaufer said he also looks to the company’s burgeoning vacation rental business as a major growth opportunity.

And, Kaufer was somewhat dismissive of Google Places, which impinged TripAdvisor traffic coming from Google in 2010.

Kaufer said he’s not worried about Google Places as a competitor because “they don’t have the content,” although he conceded that Google still has the potential of hurting TripAdvisor’s traffic.

In TripAdvisor’s view, those 60 million hotel reviews and climbing are a barrier to entry for Google, as well.

There is one thing those “Ten secrets for a successful startup” articles never mention – the critical business need for a fuzzy shark suit.

Who could have predicted that a costume purchase would spark a burgeoning embrace of social video for marketing and PR at TravelShark?

Even if you don’t have a college-football-quality mascot, and whether you’re a scrappy travel startup or an iconic hotel, here are nine signs it’s time for your company to dive in:

1. You own a fuzzy shark suit, or its metaphorical equivalent

Last June we changed our name from Swiftrank to TravelShark. The inspiration to create a company mascot named Mako Mark and make him our video leading man seemed nearly inevitable.

We binned our plan for a standard press release and instead shot a playful Shark-on-the-Street newsreel outside our office, capturing opinions from the hot dog guy and our mailman. Total spend for the video press release and a few shorts: under $10,000.

The videos made a huge splash in social media, exceeding every expectation, with traffic spikes, thousands of views, Twitter traction, and incoming sales leads. Did we celebrate when we got the news that we won a Gold Adrian Award for this grassroots campaign? You bet we did.

2. You are marketing something with a visual “story”

Video conveys visual and emotional touch points, which are present in almost every travel offering.

Our case and point. Last week we launched TravelSharkPix, a social travel-photo sharing service. We added a charitable component and asked users to help us pick three charity partners.

Cause marketing plus photography made video PR a natural choice. Our tongue-in-cheek launch video shows Mako Mark’s foiled attempts to find a partner.

Over the next week, we are releasing short follow-on charity stories like this one shown first at Tnooz today:

3. You can defuse the “Honey Badger” cynics in your office

I see fear about using video. You pitch an idea, and you get the “this is no Honey Badger” backlash. Instead of comparing your concept to one of the most popular viral videos ever, compare it to your other alternatives.

If your other option is a staid media release with a few photos, you don’t need blockbuster badger stats to score a win.

4. You want to reach consumers

C’mon. You know this one. YouTube is the second largest search engine. Facebook is clocking billions of video views each month.

If you are marketing a travel business to consumers, it likely has a visual story. Video is a must.

5. You want to reach forward-thinking travel executives

You know who they are. Tieless conference-goers mobbed with groupies. You take notes when they talk. They are the new media thought leaders in travel, and if they can influence your customers (or they are your customers), reach them with every arrow in your social media quiver, including social video.

6. You still care about SEO

If in the post-Panda era, you still work at reaching incremental customers through organic search, the YouTube-Google nexus means video matters.

Don’t miss out.

7. You’re allowed to wade in the perfect-is-the-enemy-of-the-good waters

Viral video marketing and PR success rests a great deal on something you can’t control: luck. It’s tough to predict virality, and so don’t break the bank (money or time) on any one video because our best-laid ideas may fall flat.

If your company allows experimentation and testing of “good” ideas, this is your game. If brand standards make “good” not good enough, you’ll spend too much money and time for the likely ROI.

8. You want to get the viral ball rolling with your staff

All those folks in your office may work for you, but if you want them to pull a social media oar, you need to inspire them.
Here’s the math:

Number of employees x (250 Facebook friends + 150 LinkedIn/Twitter) = WOW!

Impressive numbers, but your team members will only advocate for company initiatives on their social graphs if you give them material their friends will love.

A dull industry release is a cul-de-sac. Highly visual video that tells a compelling story – “Check out our new hotel in Da Nang! Let’s go!” – is great fodder for all-company engagement to get that social ball rolling.

9. Your employees aren’t having any fun

Sign out of your email for a minute. Walk around the office and check out the creative energy. Is anyone laughing? Our companies all have stories.

Stories build emotional glue. Videos are a great way to tell those stories, and your people will love being involved in planning, shooting, and giving feedback.

Ask yourself: “What’s my company’s shark suit?”

Armed with that answer, make your iconic story a video star!

NB: This is a guest article by Sue Heilbronner, CEO of TravelShark.

Most recent updates first…

Thursday 9 February 2012:

• Travelport and Bangkok Airways agree new multi-year distribution agreement. The deal gives Galileo and Worldspan-connected agents access to fares and inventory from the regional carrier, operating on 20 domestic and international routes.
• Amadeus and Conferma unite to launch automated hotel payment service. The billback support system, powered by Conferma, automates the need for travel managers to manually process hotel payments when booking through Amadeus.
• Vayant goes sub-second with new flight search technology
• Have travel agents been left high and dry by mobile?
• Who is driving evolution of business travel technology? The end-user, not tech companies
• Personality crisis: Am I an airline or a travel retailer?

Monday 6 February 2012:

• Sabre introduces an Eco-Certified Hotel Programme for the GDS. The system works by highlighting more than 4,700 hotels which are certified by globally recognised bodies as being “environmentally-responsible”. Sabre systems Red and Hotel RFP will be displaying the mark to 180,000 and 2,000 users respectively.  Sabre says it will “hold the line” against so-called greenwashing by accommodation providers by only including hotels in the system which have been audited for their eco-friendliness against Global Sustainable Tourism Council guidelines.
• Gullivers founder David Babai returns with group trip wholesaler G2 Travel
• Travelport debuts ViewTrip mobile trip management tool in UK, global roll-out to follow
• Asia hotel prices – February to April 2012

Friday 3 February 2012:

• Amadeus brings in former Wyndham executive to become vice president of hotels. Jeff Edwards will be charged with expanding the Amadeus hnotel division, covering both distribution and IT services. Prior to Wyndham, where he was chief information officer and EVP of distribution, Edwards was president and CEO of Micros Fidelio. He joins the new business wing of Amadeus alongside Thomas Drexler for rail and John Jarrell for airport IT.
• Guestmob uses Big Data to try and reinvent the opaque hotel booking model
• Bespoke travel trend pushes payment out of traditional reservation systems
• New distribution channels – Google Travel, Facebook, Apple and … Pinterest?

Wednesday 1 February 2012:

• Amadeus has bought airline strategy consultancy Airconomy. The deal, for an undisclosed fee, sees the Frankfurt-based company run as a separate business incubator to “develop ideas for new market intelligence reports”. The acquisition follows a deal struck with Airconomy in July 2010 to launch business intelligence platform to help carriers plan and develop networks.
• Travelport research shows agent confusion in airline ancillary market
• Five of the most important things every travel brand should be doing right now
• Europe rail distribution evolving as SilverRail and Pharos Datacom sign big deals
• Amadeus outage hit other GDSs as airline systems crashed

Previous GDS updates:

• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – January 2012
• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – December 2011
• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – November 2011
• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – October 2011
• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – September 2011
• GDS news: Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – August 2011
• GDS news: Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – July 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – June 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – May 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – April 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – March 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – February 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – January 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – December 2010
• GDS Bitesize – January 2010 to November 2010

Vayant believes the solution, which is in beta, is a first for the travel industry and says it aims to provide cost-effective fare search for airlines, online travel agencies, tour operators and meta search engines delivering results in milliseconds.

Users can configure the technology according to their business requirements and the company says the technology is 80% accurate.

FastSearch, which avoids the traditional caching method used by much of the travel industry, displays fares, schedules, availability and tax information and is updated whenever any changes are made to the components.

Vayant’s launch might be the answer to the prayers of many as last September, a post from Tnooz node Frederic Lalonde on big data discussed the importance of speed in travel search and highlighted how no travel company had been able to come up with a solution.

The compan plans to charge a monthly fee based on the volume of transactions made over FastSearch.

The company is planning further releases of the technology later this year including calendar and affinity search as well as the ability to search within a specific budget.

Vayant was founded in 2007 (Tlabs here) but really started elbowing its way into the airfare technology world about 18 months ago.

The gap between the pair is less than 0.2% market share as Expedia gained more than Thomson last week in the agency category.

Thomas Cook in third place also added a fraction of a percentage point over the same period, while TravelRepublic in fifth lost around 0.3%.

Most popular travel websites in the UK for the week ending February 4 2012:

Agencies

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	Thomson	www.thomson.co.uk	7.61%	1
2	Expedia.co.uk	www.expedia.co.uk	7.42%	2
3	Thomas Cook	www.thomascook.com	5.80%	3
4	Lastminute.com	www.lastminute.com	4.88%	4
5	TravelRepublic.co.uk	www.travelrepublic.co.uk	3.69%	5
6	First Choice	www.firstchoice.co.uk	2.82%	6
7	skyscanner	www.skyscanner.net	2.82%	7
8	Travelzoo UK	www.travelzoo.com/uk	2.62%	8
9	Cheapflights.co.uk	www.cheapflights.co.uk	2.61%	9
10	travelsupermarket.com	www.travelsupermarket.com	2.49%	10

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	TripAdvisor UK	www.tripadvisor.co.uk	11.97%	1
2	Booking.com	www.booking.com	7.20%	2
3	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com	3.17%	3
4	LateRooms.com	www.laterooms.com	2.79%	4
5	Premier Inn	www.premierinn.com	2.04%	5
6	Travelodge UK	www.travelodge.co.uk	1.97%	6
7	Hotels.com	www.hotels.com	1.57%	7
8	Time Out	www.timeout.com	1.25%	9
9	Holiday Lettings	www.holidaylettings.co.uk	1.15%	10
10	InterContinental Hotels Group	www.ichotelsgroup.com	1.09%	-

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain	Percentage of Visits	Previous Position
1	easyJet.com	www.easyjet.com	18.49%	1
2	Ryanair	www.ryanair.com	14.69%	2
3	British Airways	www.britishairways.com	12.09%	3
4	Jet2.com	www.jet2.com	5.11%	5
5	Monarch.co.uk	www.monarch.co.uk	4.69%	7
6	Flybe	www.flybe.com	4.60%	4
7	Virgin atlantic	www.virgin-atlantic.com	4.02%	6
8	Thomson Airways	flights.thomson.co.uk	3.26%	8
9	bmibaby	www.bmibaby.com	2.82%	10
10	flythomascook.com	www.flythomascook.com	2.54%	9

Travel search terms

Rank	Search Term	Percentarge of Clicks	Percentage Paid	Percentage Organic	Previous Position
1	google maps	0.98%	0.45%	99.55%	1
2	national rail	0.67%	0.76%	99.24%	4
3	easyjet	0.65%	3.09%	96.91%	3
4	thomas cook	0.65%	37.72%	62.28%	2
5	ryanair	0.59%	1.65%	98.35%	5
6	tfl	0.53%	1.30%	98.70%	6
7	travelodge	0.42%	33.08%	66.92%	7
8	trainline	0.42%	45.95%	54.05%	10
9	aa route planner	0.41%	0.73%	99.27%	9
10	train times	0.38%	21.18%	78.82%	-

NB: Data courtesy of Experian Hitwise

NB2: Image via Shutterstock.

The services, which have been optimsed for all smartphone devices, complement the company’s existing local-language sites as well as its portfolio of mobile tools including the Viator Ultimate Experience Guide iPad application.

Users can research tours and activities, read reviews and book in their preferred language or call to speak to a Viator agent.

According to the company bookings on its French, German and Spanish sites have grown steadily in the past year.

Viator now offers nine local language websites including Danish, Dutch, Norwegian and Japanese and plans to develop further services this year.

Among the top five are extra leg room, 70%, avoiding the middle seat (interesting given the post earlier this week on avoiding window seats), 61%, jumping to the front of the security queue, 59%, access to airport lounge, 47% and inflight wifi access, 43%.

Respondents were also asked if they are squeezing meetings into a day to avoid hotel costs in the current economic climate with 48% saying they are while 42% say they don’t and the inevitable 10% who don’t know.

The research also looks at who the average European business traveller is  - male, aged 31 to 50, travels once or twice a month mainly nationally followed by Europe and then internationally, flies economy and works in senior management, sales or technology.

Full findings of the Egencia Business Traveller Report are to be revealed later this month.