TRX expands its hold on Boeing's corporate travel department, Germany's under-the-radar booking engine HolidayCheck soars, and other news stories Tnooz is watching on August 8.
North America
Did you know that Boeing's corporate travel is powered by TRX, a travel technology and data services provider in Atlanta that supplies the mid-office reservation processing tool Correx? Well, it's true. What's more, the two companies have announced that will now also handle the airplane manufacturer's off-shore, online booking fulfillment, ticketing, settlement, and reconciliation.
LeisureLink is eyeing the estimated $30 billion market in group travel sales. The Pasadena company will now showcase its portfolio of about 1,000 large vacation rentals via white-label service Groupize, the first "fully automated website for booking group hotel rooms" from Groupize Solutions.
The backstory: Travelers book properties with 5 or more rooms via Groupize.com with rates from properties managed by LeisureLink of Pasadena with a digital hub for tracking payments from individuals in the group and other complexities. Competitor products include the poorly marketed Priceline Group Travel solution.
Launching this autumn, Stay Five Star will be a private sale site aiming to offer five-star hotels in Ireland, the UK, Europe, and the USA at discounts of up to half-off rack rates. It promises "more direct booking than LuxuryLink, and more hotels than Tablet Hotels. [CLARIFICATION 9 August: Tnooz was tipped off to this news by travel writer Barbara Benham, who runs the newsy Tumblr Travel Sweeps. Thanks Barbara!]
A TechCrunch writer gave a rave review to the new iPhone/iPad app from social trip-planning service Tripl. The app integrates with Instagram. The company says it's pleasantly surprised that "nearly 40% of the geo tagged content is being produced by friends that are traveling."
Europe
In the first half of the year, Germany's HolidayCheck booking site saw its transactions revenue rise 15% to $62.6 million. International marketing of the site will aim to drive further expansion, says parent company Tomorrow Focus AG of Munich.
It's a big summer for MOGO, manufacturer of Next Bus Sign technology, as many British municipalities adopt it. Each sign has a "photo-luminescent core" so that it can be read in the dark.
The backstory: The signs offer near-field communication and QR code and phone-text-message based ways for passengers with any type of Web-enabled smartphone to receive updated bus information provided by Traveline. The company hopes to land a contract with London's main transportation authority, TFL, which says it will start taking NFC payments this year.
India
On Monday, Cleartrip of Mumbai debuted its iPhone app for the global audience with the company's distinctive split-screen flight search interface.