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 - Thursday 11 August 2011.
- Travel Ad Network (TAN) is selling social media sponsorships on See Jane Fly, a lifestyle and travel site with a predominantly female audience. A spokesman for TAN says a Destination Marketing Organization, for example, might use the TAN-See Jane Fly partnership to get its marketing message out as See Jane Fly activitates some of its bloggers to do their thing and create content that fits the DMO's objectives. "TAN would distribute the content and enagage an interested audience across their 300-plus travel sites reaching almost 35 million unique users," the spokesman says.
- In separate and parallel moves, Room77 and HotelTonight abandoned their iPhone-only app status and introduced Android apps. Room77 is supplementing its own research efforts with crowd-sourcing techniques to expand its database of room-specific hotel information. Snap a pic of the room or fire exit plan on your phone, tag it, rate the room and send the info to Room77 on either the Android or iPhone app. And, HotelTonight, which focuses on same-day hotel bookings, has now expanded its coverage to select hotels in 19 US cities on both apps.
- StarCite, which provides a tech platform for meetings and event planning, is gearing up for a Fall debut of a Starcite Mobile Attendee app compatible with iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones. The app would provide event updates to meeting attendees and enable attendees to communicate with one another.
- Orbitz for Business introduced Orbitz for Business Meetings, powered by StarCite. The new channel on the Orbitz for Business website will enable clients to research and source meetings' venues and send RFPs to a host of suppliers, including hotels.
- Travelocity Business implemented a tool, IntelliTask, which flags bookings that need priority attention so offline agents can provide additional service. IntelliTask looks at VIP travelers, travel dates and last date to ticket as among the triggers which would elicit offline agent handling.
- Hotel in-room entertainment stepping up a gear, with self-styled "most high-tech hotel in the UK" Ecclestone Square in London the first to take 3D DVD licence for movies. The licencing system for 3D movies, handle by distributor FilmBank, is expected to replace the existing piped version of movies on demand through older sets.