Better Search, Blazing Fast, Tested

by Chris Owen on

Travel search engines commonly claim to produce the lowest prices or best selection. Some say they have the most accurate reviews or are quick at what they do. When we received a press release from hotel-finder Room 77 claiming “blazing fast” results, we put them to the test.

On our 25.5 Mbps DSL line, it took just 3.5 seconds for Room 77 to deliver 573 results for an overnight stay in a hotel in Miami later this month. That did seem fast so we compared it to a couple other hotel-finding sites. Hotels.com brought 437 in 3.6 seconds and Kayak returned 354 in 3.8 seconds – about the same speed-wise. But in addition to more results, Room77 delivered lower prices and included hostels in the search.

“Room 77 searches other sites for you and compares the prices right in the search results,” Kevin Fliess, Room 77’s general manager and VP of product development told Gadling. He added, “In addition to a fast and comprehensive search, we also allow travelers to earn loyalty points or pay at the hotel.”

Going a step further, Room 77 has their Room Concierge, a free service when booking a 4-star or above hotel that helps travelers identify a hotel room matching their preferences. Buyers specify what type of room attribute is most important – size, noise level or view – and Room Concierge staff goes to work finding just that room for buyers.

On Room 77 and other travel-related sites, it’s all about providing detailed, intuitive results that match what buyers want: a search process that is quick and easy.

Another site that delivers rich content fast in a very “we’re not wasting your time” sort of way is a new feature from Nerd Wallet that searches and compares airline fees.

Nerd Wallet, best known for finding and comparing credit card offers, says they “scour the financial universe to bring you any and every bank and credit union we can find, along with our own unbiased take on what various rewards programs or deposit accounts are actually worth,” on their website.

Now, Nerd Wallet’s Search and Compare Airline Fee finder, gathers information for pretty much all domestic airlines quickly and efficiently. Users can compare, say, the baggage fees of all airlines or find out all the details about one airline in a speedy and easy search.

The results at Nerd Wallet also are intuitive and consistent with predictions made earlier this year; new technologies may create changes for our future travel planning methods.

“Today, we stand at the forefront of a technological evolution in travel that we refer to as Online Travel 3.0, which recognizes the power shift from suppliers to retailers and to end consumers,” Stephane Durand, Director, Online & Leisure at Amadeus, a major provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry told Gadling earlier this year.

That was just back in February when Gadling covered how travel search was becoming more personal, focused and nosy.

Then, we told of a global study that identified the online shopping behavior and future motivations of trend-setting travelers: micro-targeting information to specific consumers offering products that are actually relevant for the buyer.

Today, sites like Room 77 and Nerd Wallet’s Airline Fee Finder are delivering on that promise.

Up next, look for sites that learn from our online behavior over time and become interconnected, sharing information about us among each other.

[Flickr photo via Viernest]

Atlanta Airport To Become A Global Portal

by Chris Owen on

When the Atlanta airport’s new Concourse F international terminal opens on May 16, it will add 12 international gates and create a new entry-exit point for travelers on the opposite end of the airport from the main terminal. The new facility will address a number of current issues but the $1.5 billion addition is more geared toward future travel needs.

As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) reports, the project is tasked with anticipating a new travel industry. “You can’t build something today that meets your needs for today,” said airport general manager Louis Miller. “We’re building for the future.”

When the project began in the late 1990s, initial cost estimates of a few hundred million dollars had the new Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal opening in 2006. Now six years late, the facility will eliminate the current baggage claim setup for Atlanta-bound international travelers, who must recheck their baggage before a train ride to the distant main terminal after clearing customs.

That’s a good, immediate improvement for international travelers but the additional gates will not only provide more capacity for international flights but also open space for domestic flights.

“At peak hours, we have a need for additional facilities,” Miller said. “But we’re really looking toward the future.”

Delta, the airport’s biggest airline, thinks the new concourse will operate near capacity several times a day. Spokesman Trebor Banstetter told AJC that operating flights out of the new concourse would give its top customers access to the “world-class facility” and its new Sky Club lounge.

“We want our best customers to be in this facility,” Banstetter said.

Colorado-based aviation consultant Mike Boyd believes future growth in Atlanta’s operations will continue, propelling the facility into much more than it is today.

“The reality is, if we don’t build these things, you’re going to find yourself way behind the curve,” Boyd said. “Atlanta is still going to grow … Delta is going to turn Atlanta into what we call a global portal, where there will be enormous amounts of traffic flows going all over Latin America and all over Asia.”

[Flickr photo via redlegsfan21]

Rising Fuel Costs Cause No Reason To Kill Vacation Plans

by Chris Owen on

As travelers make plans for summer, rising fuel costs are coming into play more than ever. Still, a recent survey indicates that vacation loyalists continue to plan summer travel by land or air, despite rising fuel costs.

“Many Americans consider travel a mainstay to our way of life and are loyal vacationers,” said Bill Sutherland, vice president, AAA Travel Services in a statement. “While some Americans may modify their travel due to rising fuel costs, those who can are still choosing to travel and they are traversing the world.”

According to a recent AAA survey, many seasoned vacationers are expanding their travel horizons to exotic faraway lands too. While many Americans head to their computers when planning a summer getaway, AAA has seen a continuation of the number of vacationers seeking expert advice from a travel counselor to help guide their decisions, save time researching and get information on popular destinations.

The top 10 destinations asked about?

By land

  1. Orlando, Florida
  2. Honolulu, Hawaii
  3. Rome, Italy
  4. London, England
  5. Anaheim, California

By air

  1. China
  2. Peru
  3. The Galapagos
  4. The Amazon
  5. India

AAA has more than 54 million members, is a not-for-profit, fully tax-paying leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. AAA clubs can be visited on the Internet at AAA.com.


[Flickr photo via david drexler]

Hotel room price protection from familiar watchdog group

by Chris Owen on

Travelers booking hotel rooms often use a variety of sources while trying to get the best price. Once satisfied that they have found the best price, they book it and forget it. What they don’t realize is that between booking and staying, the price may very well go down. A price drop might happen for a number of reasons and might be a limited-time offer too. Now, a new service tracks hotel pricing and automatically refunds the difference between what a traveler paid and the lower, sale price.

Tingo is the first hotel booking site that automatically rebooks hotel rooms at a lower price if the rate drops, and then automatically refunds the difference to travelers’ credit cards.

“Travelers could have saved millions last year had there been a simple system in place that automatically rebooked their rooms,” said Smarter Travel Media General Manager David Krauter in a release. “And that’s what Tingo does, by taking the gamble out of booking and refunding travelers’ money when rates drop.”

The deal is simple: Book a “Money Back” room and Tingo watches that room’s rate to see if it changes. If the price drops, Tingo rebooks that same room at the lower rate and refunds the difference to the booking credit card.

The process adds up to big numbers too. Using comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor, Inc. and its subsidiaries, Worldwide, January 2012, Tingo estimates that in 2011 alone, Americans could have saved nearly $314 million if they had had access to a site like this.

“It’s a no-brainer,” adds Krauter. “And just to put it in perspective, $314 million would book the $2,000 per night Penthouse at The London NYC, straight through for the next 350 years.”

If this all sounds a bit familiar, it is. Tingo is a sister site of Gadling favorite AirfareWatchdog, a site best known for tracking airline fares and notifying members when point-to-point fares become available that match what the member is willing to pay.



Flickr photo by Bob B. Brown

Luxury vacations now within reach through new travel service

by Chris Owen on

For many travelers, a luxury vacation is a thing for which to save, splurge on for a special occasion, or hope to do some day. Adventure travelers often do not even have luxury vacations on their radar and are more apt to grab the backpack than to hit the road. But luxury vacations do not have to be for just the rich and famous. An online source for discounts on luxury is bringing that world within reach.

Luxury Link is an online destination for deals on luxury vacations at desirable destinations like Fiji, Hawaii or Tahiti as well as the cultural capitals of Europe or cities in Asia.

Luxury Link packages vacations then offers two ways to buy, sort of like eBay or Priceline, via auctions or offers to “Book Now.”

One significant difference when comparing Luxury Link to eBay, Priceline, or other similar options, is in the offerings. Luxury Link partners with upscale hotels, resorts, villas and cruise lines, to offer deals, many of which we don’t find anywhere other than on their own websites.

Luxury link boasts savings of up to 65%, “often including complimentary extras, amenities and activities for the best value available anywhere,” says the Luxury Link website. That’s just sales talk to catch our attention. All online travel sellers do it. Most buyers who frequent sites to research travel probably do not pay a lot of attention to those claims, nor should they.

But also differentiating Luxury Link is the notion that top-shelf hotels, resorts, cruise lines and others want to entice luxury travelers to their product, but often have a hard time making contact with them. Partnering with Luxury Link to create unique vacation products, they are offering something not available elsewhere.

That can be good and bad.The good part is that the move suggests the operators of those vacation options are looking to establish a long-term business relationship with luxury travelers. In other words, they are not in it to fill up some hotel rooms at the last minute where any warm body will do. We don’t see that a lot with online sellers of travel.

The potentially bad part is that those uniquely created vacation packages are difficult to compare with other deals causing buyers to not have a sense about the value being offered. They simply do not exist from any other source.

Still, Luxury Link does have some outstanding values, including a clean report from the Better Business Bureau, and might very well enable luxury travel dreams.


Flickr photo by Andy_Mitchell_UK