After a 27-year absence, global hotel company Hyatt is expected to go public late this week with an initial public offering priced between $23 and $26 per share. With the market's unsteadiness, interested parties which likewise may be considering public offerings, including Kayak, Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre, as well as the entire lodging and travel industry, will be watching how Hyatt fares as it takes the IPO plunge. But, Hyatt is expected to receive none of the roughly $900 million in proceeds from its projected sale of 38 million Shares of Class A common stock in the IPO.... Read More

Ancillary revenue (AR) has been the focus of ever increasing media attention as airlines struggle through the global economic downturn. Airlines worldwide reportedly collected $10 billion in AR in 2008, according to the Guide to Ancillary Revenue and a la Carte Pricing published recently. That’s an annual increase of 345% year on year.... Read More

Not content with letting Kayak take all the headlines for its new TV ad, UK-based engine Skyscanner has a rather more strategic announcement to make. The company has today launched domains across the BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India and China. The suite of new launches follows a similar roll-out over the course of 2009 in Norway, South Korea and the US.... Read More

Metasearch engine Kayak clearly sees its new TV ads as a pretty big step for the company, as Tnooz outlined last week. So much so that CEO Steve Hafner felt sufficiently moved to comment on our original post, albeit reminding people when the ad is first being aired. Anyway, those without any interest in the NFL in the US (ie - the rest of the world) can see what all the fuss is about.... Read More

It was Halloween evening. The kids were out trick-or treating and the first pitch of game three of the baseball World Series, weather-permitting, was about an hour away. The perfect nerdy moment to peruse Expedia Inc.'s latest SEC filing. Advertising and media in third-quarter 2009 was 10% of revenue, and that is definitely trending way up. In fact, air was 12% of revenue. And, car and cruise together were 14% of revenue so perhaps Expedia's advertising and media business, which still is in its relative infancy, will first eclipse air as a category, and then car and cruise before long.... Read More

What you missed on Tnooz this week, Sunday 25 October to Saturday 31 October 2009. Read on to see the most commented articles, every other article this week, and the most commented articles of all time...... Read More

Google has spent the best part of almost its entire existence denying the concept of Troogle - a travel vertical aggregating its existing and related content with organic search and metasearch. The content side of the suggestion has played out in a number of different ways. But the real reason for such swift dismissals from Mountain View - unofficial, most of the time - is why would Google risk irritating many of its existing advertisers by partnering with a metasearch provider or a well-sourced OTA?... Read More

Lufthansa has an equity stake in JetBlue and the two airlines recently kicked off a codeshare agreement from 12 of JetBlue's U.S. origin cities. But, their ties also have evolved into a vendor-client relationship as the two signed a five-year contract in which JetBlue employees will use Lufthansa Systems' myIDTravel corporate travel-management solution, which supports self-service e-ticketing for interline flights. Interline flights often still require much paper ticketing, according to Lufthansa Systems. The airline's IT arm says myIDTravel will enable JetBlue employee-travelers to use electronic ID tickets when traveling on interline flights.... Read More

Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship at 220,000 gross registered tons, today began its maiden Atlantic crossing from Turku, Finland, to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the cruise line rolled out an ambitious social media campaign in anticipation of the ship's scheduled Dec. 5 inaugural passenger sailing. The cruise line is publishing weekly webisodes and a countdown clock documents the time before the ship's scheduled arrival in Port Everglades, and its current position is plotted using Google Maps. Stung by the Royal Champions episode earlier this year, Royal Caribbean apparently is making good on its pledge to use its own voices to speak directly with travelers, but the line's execution of the policy falls short.... Read More

Words are not required to describe how well designed this gadget is. And how unique it is. Mobile Desk is a foldaway chair and mini-table, one suspects, primarily for business travellers, although conference attendees might prefer its ergonomic advantages to traditional event chairs. It measures 38 inches in length and costs a hefty $500.... Read More

Two key elements of Travelzoo's focus for 2010 are turning red ink into black in Europe, and increasing Fly.com's audience and revenue. Travelzoo makes money in North America, where it is working on further "monetizing its increased audience," but feels the pain of international expansion in Europe and Asia-Pacific. One bright spot is the U.K, where Travelzoo so far this year has recorded its first positive operating income since it launched there in 2005. With 1.5 million U.K. subsribers and revenue of £4.9 million in the first nine months of 2009, Travelzoo recorded operating income of £300,000 in the U.K. through the first three quarters of the year.... Read More

Word reaches us that Kayak's first ever national US television advertising campaign will air this weekend. The metasearch giant will simultaneously launch an outdoor schedule to feature in such exotic - and expensive - locations as New York's Times Square. The company is not releasing any of the creative ahead of when the ads are broadcast and unveiled on Saturday.... Read More

Expedia Inc. made some money in the third quarter, $144.9 million, a 23% increase, and produced very solid growth in total transactions, including air ticket and hotel-room bookings, but saw its revenue margin decline as revenue per air ticket and revenue per room night plummeted. Officials overall were pleased with the results, but warned of a continued tough environment in 2010. Turning to some of the hot-button issues, Expedia Inc. President and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi downplayed the import of losing Choice Hotels.... Read More

Southwest Airlines is probably the only carrier in the world with a executive in the position of "manager of emerging media". Yet Southwest isn't like many other airlines. Paula Berg is the holder of this rather curious title but is credited with throwing Southwest into the (not always) open arms of consumers around the social parts of the web.... Read More

The ownership structure of Lonely Planet seems to trigger all manner of angst and hand-wringing, especially from the mainstream media in the UK and in particular from the BBC-hating Rupert Murdoch-owned press. Our article yesterday from Tim Hughes gave a number of recommendations to those at top of Lonely Planet for what they should next given that digital seems to be huge focus. But what does the BBC have to say about its troublesome (from a corporate perspective) cousin and the continued criticism it receives from other media players?... Read More