In today's edition: South East Asian joy for Hotels.com, TRX sees income and revenue fall, tech boost at the Alofts, groups and profiles for AirAsia, on-track for Off Track Planet.
This is the regular Tnooz roundup of product news from around the travel, tourism and hospitality industry, all with a technology, online and digital twist - Friday 13 May 2011.
- Hotels.com continues to spread its global footprint with the launch of sites in Indonesia and Vietnam. That brings the number of Hotels.com websites around the world to 77, including 15 in Asia-Pacific. The company says it can use its global clout to negotiate better hotel deals for consumers.
- Data and transaction cruncher TRX reported its first quarter of 2011 results, with net income falling 16.5% to $403,000. Revenue declined 15% to $12.4 million. TRX, which handles travel transactions and analytics, says it's been able to cut costs and diversify its customer base while becoming "increasingly friendly to smaller clients. Press release here.
- Aloft Hotels, which last year debuted Smart Check-in at Aloft Lexington in Massachusetts, will expand the product to five more properties, including Aloft Harlem, Aloft Brooklyn, Aloft Dallas Downtown, Aloft Jacksonville Tapestry Park and Aloft London, by the end of the year. Aloft is a Starwood brand and Starwood Preferred Guest members can choose to receive an SPG keycard with RFID capabilities. They receive a text message with their room number on the day of their reservation and can skip the front desk and use their SPG card to unlock their room upon arrival.
- Speed and efficiency appear to be the name of the game for AirAsia with the low cost carrier introducing a one-click checkout service and group profile storage system. 1-Click-Card allows a user to store their regular booking details into a secure part of the site for quick payments while the Family & Friends List enables guests to store up to ten guests’ information in their AirAsia member account.
- Chile-bound for US-based startup Off Track Planet [TLabs Showcase - Off Track Planet] after winning an incubator prize from the government of the South American country. The company will be creating a tech development studio in the capital Santiago as well as making use of $40,000 in equity-free capital, one-year work visas and governmental support to grow the business.