Kayak's burgeoning effort to turn the metasearch model on its head by facilitating some aspects of consumer bookings will go much further than its mobile app, and eventually could permeate its websites. That's the word from Kayak co-founder and CEO Steve Hafner, who says "assisted bookings" will first be trotted out in its pending launch of Private Sale, will be woven into its mobile app "soon," and will be launched on its websites, too. One aspect of "assisted sales" that hasn't been thoroughly vetted is that the move could be a significant boost to Kayak's behavioral advertising efforts, and could be subject to some push-back from partners.... Read More

Two of the burning questions for Travelport ahead of its planned listing on the London Stock Exchange have already been answered - its ongoing strategy for investment in Orbitz and succession planning for its CEO. The travel technology and Global Distribution System provider is hoping to complete the listing in London within four to six weeks, subject to the investor roadshows planned for later this month and during February running smoothly. Although there is a 360-day lockdown of senior management and directors on completion of the offering, Tnooz can reveal deputy chief executive Gordon Wilson is most likely to take over once current president and CEO Jeff Clarke steps down.... Read More

FlyGlobespan administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers will have mixed feelings today following news that under fire credit card processing firm EClear was also placed into administration. On the one hand its protracted battle through the courts with the mysterious EClear is now over, but the question of what happened to the funds it supposedly owed to FlyGlobespan (and, by extension, the airline's creditors) remains at large. In a statement, PWC says it will now be working with BDO, the administrator appointed by the High Court in London to oversee the winding up of EClear, to find the missing money.... Read More

In the fourth of a series of exclusive interviews, Tnooz Node Claude Benard meets chief executive of Meetingsbooker, Ciaran Delaney. Delaney discusses how he created a business to solve a problem hundreds of hotels have with leasing space for meetings, growth opportunities in other markets, and the technology used to pull it all together.... Read More

Confirmed news this morning that Travelport has - true to the speculation reported yesterday - will list on the London Stock Exchange. A copy of the list documents required for an IPO in London indicate Travelport intends to raise $2 billion through by issuing new shares to the markets. Approximately $1.8 billion will be obtained via the global offer and a further $225 million from the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC).... Read More

Most popular travel websites in the US for the week ending January 16 2010. Data includes Top Ten travel search terms and the Top Ten Agency, Airline and Destination/Accommodation sites.... Read More

The JetBlue reservations system is slated to cut over from Navitaire to SabreSonic Jan. 29, a move the airline says will bring enhanced capabilities for travel agents through the Sabre, Travelport and Amadeus global distribution systems. However, despite the changes, travel agents using their GDSs to access JetBlue still -- for now, at least -- will lack basic functionalities that consumers take for granted when booking JetBlue. JetBlue, in a FAQ [pdf] for travel agencies, says the switch to Sabre as the host for the airline's reservations system brings the following improvements in the GDSs for travel agents: last seat availability, better inventory and fare capabilities, and "industry-standard e-ticketing."... Read More

User review giant TripAdvisor will have a few worries on its mind if Google follows through on its threat to pull out of China following a row over cyber attacks on government protestors. Tnooz has learned the TripAdvisor-DaoDao business in China currently gets around a third of all its search engine traffic just from Google. Google has threatened to reverse its previous decision to block sites and information banned by the Chinese government, a move which effectively could lead Google.cn being blocked at the touch of a button.... Read More

Most popular travel websites in the UK for the week ending January 16 2010. Data includes Top Ten travel search terms and the Top Ten Agency, Airline and Destination/Accommodation sites.... Read More

The airlines of late have toughened up their ticketing policies in a number of areas. These policies are designed frequently to make sure that revenue collected stays that way. With yield management more of a dark science, revenue management can be just as important. But now it is time to talk about ADM – airline-issued Agent Debit Memos.... Read More

Travelport is refusing to comment rather than denying outright reports claiming it will this week announce its widely rumoured stock market floatation (IPO). A Travelport official gave the inevitable response this morning - "we never comment on market rumour or speculation" - following reports in two UK newspapers that the travel tech firm will finally unveil plans for its listing on the London Stock Exchange. The other two major GDSs in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector, Amadeus and Sabre, are also considering IPOs in 2010.... Read More

What you missed on Tnooz this week, Sunday 10 to Saturday 16 January 2010. Read on to see the most commented articles, the most controversial topic, and every other article this week...... Read More

ARC, the airline-owned entity which settles with travel agents on air sales, informed travel agencies that it mistakenly debited or credited their bank accounts on Jan. 14 or 15 -- about a week earlier than the scheduled date, Jan. 20. ARC informed agencies several hours later that Bank of America reversed the erroneous credits and debits, and the reversals would hit agents' banks accounts Jan. 15 or perhaps the next business day. ARC said it would make good on any necessary reimbursements for overdrafts or other adjustments.... Read More

A TripAdvisor deal to place its facilitated-hotel-search offering, TripAdvisor Check Rates, as well as deals from sister Expedia Inc. company BookingBuddy on Yahoo Travel expands TripAdvisor's advertising network, but can't be welcome news for Travelocity or Shermans Travel.. Travelocity powers air, car, hotels and cruises on Yahoo Travel, but has seen its stature on Yahoo Travel diminish over the years. At one point, Yahoo Travel displaced Travelocity as its default for travel search and gave priority instead to Yahoo's metasearch unit, FareChase, until Yahoo shuttered FareChase, as a non-core business, early last year.... Read More

UK ecommerce and marketing service EConsultancy joined the likes of tech uberblogger Robert Scoble recently by unfollowing enmasse around 19,000 followers of its Twitter account. The company says the move is primarily to clean up its Twitter feed (how can it realistically follow 19,000 people, it says), avoid the overwhelming number of spam DMs and a whole host of other reasons, listed here. Its existing strategy to reciprocate those that followed its tweets with a follow back has been an experiment worth making but one it has chosen to end, editor-in-chief Chris Lake says.... Read More