Skyscanner, PhoCusWright, Marriott, Yatra, OneTwoTrip, WAYN, TripRental, Rover, TUI, TourWrist, Yelp, JetBlue, and American Airlines are mentioned in today's round-up of travel tech news.
STARTUP FUNDING
Russia's OneTwoTrip shows global ambition to compete strongly with Priceline.
TripRental has raised $500,000in Series A funding from private investors. This follows on the news from a few months ago that Montreal-based Luxury Retreats raised $5 million in a funding round.
Yatra, one of the biggest online travel agencies in India, says its next acquisition will be a mobile tech company. Get the backstory on Yatra, here.)
Bow wow: Rover, a Seattle-based startup that provides an ‘Airbnb’ for dog sitting, has raised $7 million in Series B funding. [TechCrunch]
TRAVEL DISTRIBUTION
UK-based metasearch giant Skyscanner plans to open its first US office, aiming to employ about 10 people in Miami by the end of this year.
PhoCusWright has released its predictions for top trends in revenue management. It says:
The most disturbing what we have seen is OTA reducing the taxes and fees to be 1 $ / € / £ cheaper to be listed on top on price comparison websites.
PhoCusWright's top tip for hotel owners is this:
Get your CRS or PMS to connect directly to distributors or channel manager with a 2 way interface. It will reduce errors in rate uploading and data entry of reservations.
TUI talks profit. In a company-produced video interview, Peter Long, CEO of TUI Travel, recently hinted at how his company doubled profits leading into this year.
TourWrist, the virtual tour website, says 18 travel companies that have signed licensing agreements within it in the past month. The companies will integrate its technology within their apps and websites. See our TLabs on TourWrist.
Zimbabwe has finally gotten a definitive hotel booking site, Zimbabwe Bookers. It will charge properties for commissions for reservations made through it.
SOCIAL COMMERCE
About 30 participating hotels in the Marriott Inc. family are letting people reserve workspaces in their lobbies.
Travel social network WAYN has unveiled the next stage of its redesign. There's a Pinterest-like feel and enables users to add photos, tips, places and ask questions of other members. We've written about the planned redesign before.
Some US airlines are more engaged with social media than others. American Airlines tweets the most, engaging with 1,200 mentions or direct messages daily.
AIRLINE TECH
When US airline JetBlue debuted 13 years ago, it set itself apart by having live TVs at each seat. What will JetBlue do for an encore? The airline's subsidiary, LiveTV, thinks that Ku-band satellite Internet connectivity will be a money-spinner for the company. It will start testing the service on some flights within the next six weeks.
AND LAST…
There's yet another reason to gripe about griping website Yelp. "What will happen when restaurant customers can view the nitty gritty of a restaurant’s health inspection report while deciding where to eat?" The answer isn't heartening for restaurant owners.