Consumerist: Lonely Planet Writer Admits to Fabricating Guide Book Based On Info From Girlfriend

I love the Consumerist blog. Not sure what to think of Lonely Plant after this story about the shenanigans of guide writer Thomas Kohnstamm - “Lonely Planet Writer Admists to Fabricating Guide Book Based On Info From Girlfriend” This article was originally posted on The BOOT - The Business of Online Travel.You can read and comment on the original article here.  Read More →

Expedia rumoured to be looking at Farecast for $75 million

Expedia is not slowing down on acquisition activity if rumours are to be believed. Picked up a rumour just now on HotelMarketing.com that fare search Web 2.0 player Farecast is the next company to being booking regular flights to Seattle and join the Expedia conglomerate. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is the source of the story on HotelMarketing and is putting the valuation at US$75mm. Farecast Chief Executive Hugh Crean is saying nothing and there is similar silence from Expedia spokeswoman Katie Deines. Meta-search seems a natural play for a company building up a content ad network and looking... Read more »

Jetset purchase of Qantas Holidays: maybe good for Qantas online, but really bad for Qantas Holidays staff

I wrote back in 2007 about what successful online distributing airlines should do to stay on top of the online travel game. That post was published in the T-List book and you can find it here. You may have heard that Qantas has merge it’s vacation division - Qantas Holidays - with an offline retailer Jetset in a move that could (but only could) be a part of them listening to this advice. It is a good move for Qantas’ online efforts only if they use this sale to “un-cuff” the website from the legacy offline business of Qantas Holidays. That is - allowing Qantas.com to... Read more »

Virgin Blue - Premium economy has not been enough to save the share price

Bad day in the office in Fortitude Valley for Australia’s number two carrier - Virgin Blue. Despite efforts to reinvent the brand with premium economy, lounges and more the share price for DJ (their airline code) is at its lowest level ever at 87 cents on the back of dropping profits (SMH story here). To put this in perspective, DJ floated at $2.25 in December 2003 to a valuation of A$2.3billion. In early 07 it reached a high near the $2.80 mark. If the comments from the DJ management are right, this is not all their fault. Rather (they argue) the sector (ie domestic travel) is softening... Read more »

Five things start ups must spend their money on

Jeremy Liew of Valley VC group Lightspeed Ventures has an interesting little post on the Lightspeed Venture Partners blog called “Five things startups should not skimp on“. Read his post for the full details but his top five things not to save money on are: Large monitors for better productivity (I would add more than one is even better) Comfortable ergonomic chairs to keep the team healthy High Quality Speaker Phones to make sure conference calls go smoothly Experienced Law Firms for trhe right “i” dotting and “t” crossing; and Administrative Assistance to... Read more »

BOOT on the road - back around April 14

As per earlier I am in India this week so blogging will be light on. Am giving Thai Business Class a go for the first time in about 5 years. Will let you know. Thanks to all the tipsters sending advice (both in the comment section of my Bangalore post and in email). This article was originally posted on The BOOT - The Business of Online Travel.You can read and comment on the original article here.  Read More →

Qantas to the BOOT - what do you think about our Entertianment Guide?

About a year ago I was invited to join the Qantas Customer Advisory Panel. I don’t think it had anything to do with the BOOT. I have been a Platinum Frequent Flyer at Qantas since the end of 2000 so I am sure it is related to that not my blog love hate relationship with the flying Kangaroo. In this panel they send me a survey every other month on some part of the Qantas experience. I hear nothing back as a result of filling the survey so have no idea what they do with my response but am happy to engage in a customer feedback loop with them. In this recent survey I was asked my opinion... Read more »

Expedia / TripAdvisor keeps buying and the network keeps growing.

It is Expedia week here at the BOOT as they are filling the news funnel with story after story. TripAdvisor is showing no signs of slowing in its quest to become an advertising network. Another acquisition has been added to the ever expanding list of niche travel content companies. Airfarewatchdog.com is the latest to the following list of TripAdvisor stable-mates: HolidayWatchdog smartertravel.com bookingbuddy.com; TravelPod.com; Travel-Library.com; SeatGuru.com; and Cruisecritic.com. With airfarewatchdog and Holidaywatchdog in the family, it looks like the TripAdvisor Owl is being... Read more »

Expedia and the death of the dotcom

A brand refresh has come out of Seattle in the last week or so. Without much fanfare we can see a softening in the curves and tone of the Expedia Brand. As a trusted reader put it “a subtle change in the font, to make it easier to read…more inspiring”. Not sure about the inspiring part but I did notice a subtle but I think critical change in the new logo. In the US Expedia site, the logo no longer contains the domain. As well as a font change, Expedia US has in effect changed it’s name from Expedia.com to simply - Expedia. In the early days the “.com”... Read more »

Google to buy Expedia? Nah…surely an April Fool

Yahoo Finance! (with help from Reuters) is reporting that Expedia shares are up on rumours of a takeover by Google. The source of the rumours is list as Susquehanna Financial Group. Apparently the call volume from clients is off the hook. This comes a couple of days after the announcement of integration between Expedia and Google Maps allowing for instant Expedia hotel bookings on the Google map page. What do you think - an April gag or a real chance that Google wants into Travel in the biggest way possible?? UPDATE -looks like founder and ex-CEO Rich Barton agrees that should be a joke. Quoted... Read more »

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