The creators of 101Holidays are launching 101ShortBreaks this week as part of a wider programme to expand the business into niche areas of the travel industry. The original 101Holidays site launched in January this year and uses a unique and widely praised interface to publish details of 101 different trips, hand-picked by its team of travel journalists. 101ShortBreaks features a mixture of deals provided by tour operators and hotel owners. The founders are hoping to unveil a further three new portals within the next 12 months, with another niche site expected in January 2010.... Read More

What you missed on Tnooz this week, Sunday 3 October to Saturday 10 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

Travelzoo, a pubicly traded company controlled by founder and Chairman Ralph Bartel, has agreed to sell Travelzoo's Asia-Pacific division, including Travelzoo Hong Kong, Travelzoo Japan, Travelzoo China, Travelzoo Taiwan and Travelzoo Australia, for $3.6 million to companies controlled by -- Ralph Bartel. You'll notice I used Bartel's first name, Ralph, twice in the preceding sentence. That's because I don't want to get you confused with Holger Bartel, Travelzoo's CEO, who's Ralph's brother. You may see where I am going with this. Apart from the coziness of the pending transaction (which could still be upended by a rival bid, but I am not holding my breath), the deal actually could be a clever move by Travelzoo -- not to mention Ralph Bartel -- and fuel Travelzoo's expansion in Europe and Asia-Pacific.... Read More

Amadeus UK and Ireland boss Tim Russell didn't hold back when he said recently that the airline sector had a major problem on its hands because the fundamental technology on which it operates is old and in dire need of an upgrade. On the one hand this is a rather predictable comment from a company which just happens to provide technology to the travel industry. But the underlying premise of his comment - "some airline systems are close to breaking point" - is probably true, and many do agree to varying degrees.... Read More

It took a while, but the idea of using travel agents to write online reviews of hotels and destinations did finally catch on, and now seems like a bit of a no-brainer. So while a plethora of review sites jostle for position in the increasingly busy B2C space, it has been left to a select few to try and harness the apparent collective experience and wisdom of the retail travel agency community.... Read More

Some brief news this week from price comparison site Cheapflights as it plays around with some of the functionality it introduced at its big relaunch in the summer of 2008. The redesign from August of last year dramatically improved the overall user experience of the site and added a number of new tools. Much of the relaunch was also to incorporate some major changes to the back-end of the site and ad serving capability.... Read More

The game of gotcha between U.S. cities and the online travel agencies continues and it's almost a full-time job just trying to keep tabs on the whole thing. It sort of reminds me of my visit to the Orbitz TLC Center last week, where about nine people, including three former air traffic controllers, were on duty, monitoring plasma screens filled with gridlocked jets and typhoons. Somewhere, undoubtedly, a team of lawyers is hunkered down in a corporate boardroom, monitoring a torrent of hotel-tax motions, city audits and new ordinances across the country. Anyway, here's what's been going on in the last few weeks as municipalities seek to force the OTAs to pay occupancy taxes on retail rates when they sell hotel rooms on a merchant basis, and the OTAs fight back.... Read More

This just in: ITA Software picked up another airline customer for its QPX airfare pricing and shopping system: Southwest Airlines. The press release hasn't dropped yet, but the functionality is now live on Southwest.com. The use of ITA gives Southwest a bunch of new capabilities, including calendar-based search and air search using flexible dates. One key element of this whole thing is that it doesn't seem to alter the airline's distribution strategy. You can't find Southwest flights in any of the metasearch engines, including the crowd powered by ITA (including Kayak, TripAdvisor and others) and Southwest's absence in metasearch will remain in place. It also doesn't change Southwest's availability status in the Sabre and Apollo GDSs. Another important aspect of this relates to international codeshares.... Read More

TripAdvisor's foray - US and now the UK - into flight metasearch appears to have triggered plenty of musing by executives and pundits alike. According to Bryan Salzburg, general manager of initiatives, TripAdvisor is finally becoming the more general travel portal it always wanted (perhaps needs?) to be. Salzburg stresses that the business model for its hotel review section "will not be re-invented any time soon", dampening any suggestions that a hotel metasearch could be configured along similar lines to its new flight engine.... Read More

According to Merriam Webster, the definition of fear is: “An unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.” Or: “A reason for alarm”. There is a very marked and prevalent fear of social media in individuals and organizations who have yet to adopt social media in their businesses. And I doubt that many would actually admit to having such a fear.... Read More

Joobili won the right to present at the European startup Seedcamp gig in London recently. But despite being unsuccessful - as this blog post explains - their pitch makes for interesting viewing. Take note of co-founder Jared Salter's remarks on how to tackle the thorny issue of inspiration versus destination choice for online travel information suppliers.... Read More

I'm minding my own business and in pops the e-mail pitch from Disney Cruise Line. I went on a Disney Cruise last year, so the cruise line knows where to find me electronically. Anyway, this e-mail caught my attention, given the fact that social networking and community is all the rage. So, Disney Cruise Line is doing it the old-fashioned way -- organizing house parties. Sort of like an Obama local-campaign gathering during presidential primary season. (I have no idea if Gordon Brown organized the same type of pre-election confabs.)... Read More

Google and Verizon Wireless are teaming to get Google's Android mobile platform humming on the largest wireless network in the U.S., with its 87 million subscribers. Both companies committed to putting a lot of dough into the effort. In addition to Verizon Wireless, Android has agreements with two other major wireless carriers, T-Mobile and Sprint, and you'll be able to find Android on nine handsets. However, rest assured that Apple isn't discontinuing production of the iPhone because of this new Google-Verizon partnership, and developers -- travel code-writers and others -- aren't slowing in their app-building for the iPhone. Android, in fact, has a lot of proving to do in the marketplace.... Read More

American Airlines is getting downright social as it launches Black Atlas, a community website where African-American travelers can "explore stories, reviews, travel tips, videos and photos as seen through the eyes of black travelers" -- and also book some AA flights. The airline is set to roll out more functionality for the website in about a week, around Oct. 15. It is great that American, like other airlines including British Airways with its MetroTwin initiative, see some value in social media. American already has community websites for women, gays and lesbians, and business travelers. But, with the exception of some stars like JetBlue, Southwest, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand, as outlined in a study, "The Airline Industry and Social Media," the aviation community generally is afraid of its own social-media shadow, and is floundering.... Read More

Much muttering and breaking open of the champagne in the UK today as Teletext Holidays unveiled a project to open retail travel agencies in conjunction with supermarket giant Tesco. The online and TV travel business is to open up to 20 retail outlets over the next two years either in or alongside Tesco's smaller, mostly town centre-based Metro stores. But there is clearly more to it than simply partnering with the Tesco retail giant, as Teletext Holidays' boss Victoria Sanders admits.... Read More