More than a third of visits to Skyscanner come through apps, and more items in our rundown of the stories that are making news and driving opinion on 20 September.Skyscanner’s flight app clocks 10 million downloads
Check out these surprising facts about
Skyscanner's app:
"Almost a third of the 30 million monthly visits to the Skyscanner site come via mobile, while in some markets in Asia more than 50% of visits are via mobile devices.
"The most popular destination search for mobile users is the ‘Everywhere’ option which allows users to browse all destinations in order of price, providing inspiration on places to visit in a given week, month or year.
Skyscanner's new widget for Android devices duplicates many of the app's features and lets users receive inspiration for destinations for a specific month or date.
Priceline gives a fresh spin to blindly booking hotels via mobile appPriceline shot to fame for its travel booking service that wouldn't reveal the name of a hotel until after a customer paid.
Yesterday the company rolled out Express Deals, a service that allows you to specify the amenities you want in a hotel, such as a swimming pool, separate double beds, or an on-site restaurant, before you book it blindly at a deep discount on its mobile app.
The OTA tested the feature on its website this past summer.
Carpooling.com unveils push notifications and PayPal payment in its Android app update
The ridesharing platform took the wraps off of its newest Android app, which lets users search, book, and pay for rides on the fly.
Users can now "book a seat in someone’s car the same way they would book a flight or train ticket," with a new feature of payment via PayPal. Drivers and passengers can rate each other for trustworthiness. New push notifications help users respond to last-minute changes.
The company says 15% of lifts on carpooling.com are offered from mobile devices. The company's Apple and Android apps have now been downloaded 550,000 times.
Check out who is carpooling in Berlin, Zurich, or Vienna, among many other European cities. The site is coming to North America soon.
Gogobot appoints a new VP of salesTripAdvisor veteran
Mark Mamber is the lucky guy to join the company, which has raised $19 million in funding.
Mamber’s team at TripAdvisor worked with more than 600 destination marketing organizations on custom digital marketing campaigns. He now aims to grow Gogobot's ad revenue.
GuestCentric and Genares team up
Digital marketing technology for hotels is a competitive space. To win business in in 4-star and 5-star city centers, GuestCentric is adding Genares' GDS connectivity to its solutions to help hotels promotions across social media and online platforms and via mobile applications.
Texas GDS
Genares benefits from brand exposure to the
GuestCentric client roster of more than 1,000 hotels in 40 countries.
InvoTech showcases its portable UHF-RFID handheld reader for hotels
Among its latest innovations in hotel inventory control,
InvoTech's new wireless reader can let an employee update the inventory of a large linen and uniform storeroom "in minutes", communicating that information with a database in the cloud via Wi-Fi.
Hundreds of hotels worldwide use the system, including ones that are franchised by all the major global brands.
Hotel managers may want to watch this video to see how the
new UHF RFID inventory control handheld reader works.
Singapore Airlines brings broadband to 35,000ft.
Singapore Airlines has launched
SwiftBroadband-based passenger connectivity services on an initial 14 A340, A380 and B777 aircraft, with full roll-out on the current fleet within two years. Says the press release:
Programme allows passengers to use their Wi-Fi and GSM/GPRS-enabled smartphones, tablets and laptops PCs for Internet access, email, Instant Messaging, and SMS messaging.