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 - Wednesday 13 July 2011.
- Skyscanner adds new functionality to its air search results, grouping results according to the best price for each airline serving the route. The results also indicate information about the carrier's baggage charges, on-board meals and seat selection.
- Getaroom.com, a company that offers unpublished hotel rates over the phone, increased its portfolio of hotels providing such rates by around 1,000. The company, operated by Hotels.com founders David Litman and Bob Diener, says it now offers unpublished rates on 8,000 properties worldwide.
- Open AXIS Group, a U.S.-based airlines' XML standards body, issued a white paper for travel agencies to separate fact and fiction about the direct-connect issue. The white paper, Distribution 2.0, Direct Connect and Travel Selling: A Reference for Travel Agencies, can be downloaded for free here.
- Web accommodation brand Youtravel admits tough trading conditions but announced record profits for the year ending October 2010 - Euro 1.55 million, double those in the previous 12 months. Management changes are afoot, however, with UK sales and marketing director Paul Riches leaving at the end of August this year. Development director Matt Cheevers (ex-Teletext Holidays and Lastminute.com) will become UK and international sales and marketing director.