New Skyscanner site in Beta

Check it out the new Skyscanner website. Explanation of features.

Results page:

Route map:

Busy week in meta search land.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: skyscanner

Challenges for Mr Kayak Europe?

Kayak has moved today to appoint its first European and Asian managing director, namely Faisal Galaria, a seasoned global exec from Skype, FON and most recently jaman.com.

It's a critical position for Kayak, let's no beat around the bush here.

After receiving plenty of plaudits for its user interface and Ajax-heavy gadgets - a Travolution Award in 2008, in particular - it is now time to start delivering on the huge expectation.

So what will be the key goals for Galaria in his first 12 months?

Will the current strategy of white labelling and plenty of online marketing be enough to push Kayak beyond the gushing praise of many in the industry to become a major player?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: kayak sidestep meta search travelsupermarket

Scrapers and slappers!

A provocative headline for you. And not just to get your attention

Francesca Ecsery, UK managing director of Cheapflights, came up with what could the phrase of the year when talking to Travolution at the launch event last week for their new UK site.

When chatting about the recent Ryanair spat with meta search engines, Ecsery laughed cheekily and then said:

Well, we're not one of those that scrapes and slaps.

Fantastic!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights ryanair

CruisePricesCompared.com - Open Thread

It's going be a bit light on the blogging front today, so here's an open discussion for the new Cruisepricescompared.com site, which launches today.

The site has been created, according to Travel Weekly, so that travel agents can list their cruise deals direct to consumers. It's free for agents to list the deals and is a simple referral system (a bit like Cheapflights at a basic level).

So what do people think of the concept, and of the site itself?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travel brands on YouTube - mixed results

Listen to anyone from the Googleplex these days at an event and they talk endlessly about the benefits to travel brands of using YouTube for branding.

A campaign extolling the virtues of New Zealand is typically the example given - and deservedly so.

The Pure New Zealand page has had over 90,000 views. One particular video has been seen nearly 1 million times!

The organisation has uploaded 40 videos to its channel, with the top 5 all attracting over 15,000 views.

But how have some other major travel brands fared since giving some time and effort to creating a presence on YouTube?

Expedia UK has its own channel page and has uploaded a huge number of videos (103 videos) in just a few months, but its top-performer - the too-good-to-be-true hotels signs effort we featured a few months back - has attracted just 2,100 views.

STA Travel UK also created its own page in August 2007, but has just two videos on show. The TribeUnwanted video has 1,100 views so far.

Biggles The Bear, the YouTube nom de plume for Cheapflights, has faired much better. The channel page has attracted nearly 3,000 views, but its most popular video - Where The Hell is Biggles?, a pastiche of the infamous Where The Hell is Matt? montage - has been watched nearly 29,000 times.

Anyway, all this playing around on YouTube has revealed Travolution's skydiving extravaganza (and, no, for the last time, it isn't me in the video) has been viewed more times than 101 of Expedia's efforts.

And here it is again...!



Our sister title, Travel Weekly, has a ship tour video of the Norwegian Gem, which has an impressive 6,300 views against. Three times as many as Expedia's best performer.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution Summit - panel videos!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

A Declaration from Cheapflights

It seems the Google Trademark Issue (maybe we should trademark the phrase) is still sending the jitters throughout the industry.

The latest senior figure to wade in after recent news about a potential ollaboration behind the scenes and the amount of money some think they will lose has taken a different approach:

A public promise not to bid on its clients brand names.

The pledge comes from UK managing director for Cheapflights, Francesca Ecsery. This is an interesting move given that Cheapflights apparently splashes out a fair amount on PPC and could feasibly have spent even more once Google's policy changes in the next week or so.

We at Cheapflights would like to reassure our partners of the high ethical standards we hold towards our advertising partners.

As such, they have our guarantee that we would not do anything of detriment to their business, such as bidding on their brand names.

Brands will face stiff competition and may have to invest significantly more budget in protecting trademark terms from other players and affiliate sites with which they previously had none.

Ultimately, Google's PPC Quality Score algorithm will police the listings to ensure that only relevant ads appear.

Cheapflights’ relationship with its advertisers is its utmost priority and we would not do anything to jeopardise that. Therefore, we will continue to work closely in attracting the highest quality leads to their websites.

Cheapflights.co.uk drives the highest volume of traffic to the travel industry ranking second only to Google and welcomes businesses who are looking to diversify their industry leads.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: google cheapflights trademark

The Purple Day Opening Thoughts

The big boys are on stage in the form of Cheapflights David Soskin, PhoCusWright's Philip Wolf and Adrian Goldthorp of FutureBrand.

And here is the first meaty thought of the day - why do mega-corporations with the exception of Rich Barton from Microsoft find it so difficult to be innovative online?

Feedback please....

All the fun of the Farecast...

The Seattle Post Intelligencer is reporting that Farecast has been sold for $75m (£38m at today’s exchange rate).

The buyer is currently not known. The report suggest Expedia as ‘one natural choice’. Expedia told the paper that it doesn’t comment on rumour and speculation, as we all know by now.

Farecast positions itself slightly differently from other travel2.0 businesses. It datamines historic pricing data from a number of partner sites to let customers know if the current price offered is likely to go up or down. Its air fare tool is well established, its hotel channel still in beta.

The business has an impressive line-up of VC backers, as reported by Travolution’s US correspondent last year.

Farecast’s model is an interesting one, and with intelligent search being such a buzzword at the moment it'll be interesting to see who has taken it over. $75m/£38m is an interesting price point – spare change for someone like Google, well within the range of someone like Amadeus, maybe a punt too far for someone like TUI Travel plc.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Flash mob? Cause of T5 chaos?

Obviously not...

Cheapflights at Heathrow Terminal 5 yesterday, on a bit of a promotional drive and hoping to make the most of what was meant to be a great day for British transportation projects.

Maybe the poster in the background is also a clue.


Not sure why the Cheapflights crew - including UK MD Francesca Ecsery - is surrounded by the boys in blue... Protection perhaps?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: terminal 5 T5 flash mob

Broken broken cheep cheep

Imagine the dismay at Travolution Towers this week when this tasty piece of Easter-driven promotional puff arrived in two pieces.


The fate of this chocolate extravanganza, we hope, does not signal something about the fortunes of its sender, Cheapflights - or Rooster, its PR agency.

We are reliably informed that the chocolate does, in fact, taste rather good. So all is not lost.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

What is it about running an online travel company?

David Soskin, chief executive of Cheapflights, steps down.

Chris Nixon, managing director of TravelSupermarket, steps down.

Brent Hoberman, chief executive of Lastminute.com, steps down.

All loved being entrepreneurs. At least two weren't so keen on the numbers game, prefering to innovate and be in "start-up" mode.

Makes you think...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Five minutes of fame

In a nice touch, PhoCusWright offers five travel start-ups the chance to stand before the audience and explain their product.

This year's line-up at ITB includes the following:

TVTrip
Trivop.com
MyDays
HereOrThere.com [side project of Hugo Burge from Cheapflights]
MyDayTrip.com
PlanetEye

Check them out...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Cheapflights US up and running with new design

As reported a month ago, Cheapflights in the US was busily beta testing various elements of its new site.

We published a sneak peak of the new site in our February edition.

The beta is now over and a full relaunch, with new back-end functionality, was unveiled today out of the price comparison site's Boston office.

The top line improvements, according to Cheapflights:

• Enhanced location-based search function gives travelers more ways to find excellent deals.
• Gives advertisers new, more profitable ways to target consumers.
• Changes improve scalability facilitating easy international expansion.
• An expanded content library covers everything from airport security information and currency exchange rates.
• Tips on the best times to visit more than 500 highlighted destinations worldwide. This proprietary material is written firsthand by Cheapflights’ own in-house editorial staff.

Expect the UK site to follow suit shortly, or at least by the end of year.

Kevin May, edition, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights cheap flights

Cheapflights and the strippers

Yes, you read that correctly.

The latest viral marketing promotion from the gang at Cheapflights is, er, a rather saucy number.

From this:


To this:


Take a look.

We were first shown this cheeky effort by a very enthusiastic female executive from Cheapflights - who shall remain nameless - at the Travel Technology Show last week.

Those with prudish neighbours at work may want to watch their backs.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights stripper cabin crew

Travo weekly round-up #3

Here are the top stories by visits on the Travolution website for the week ending Friday 1 February 2008.

• Opodo profits to trigger investment in site.
• Sky picks Expedia-TripAdvisor for white label deal.
• Telegraph reviews travel search business.
• Cheapflights will not be rushed into float decision.
• WAYN approach over sale - but not by AOL.

Best of the blogs:

• Google Suggest, from Les Exploers.
• 10 questions for tour operators, from Musings.
• Microsoft-Yahoo dino deal, from Buzzmachine.
• Facebook apps on any site, from TechCrunch.
• SEO millionaire, from SearchEngineWatch.

Please post and further recommendations in the comments section.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The travel conference of the year!

Big day today. We are officially launching our Travolution European Summit 2008, produced in association with PhoCusWright.

We have started assembling what we believe will be the best line-up of participants from the online travel industry you are likely to find anywhere in the UK in 2007.

Confirmed so far:

• Caroline Cartellieri, Expedia UK (managing director)
• Graham Donoghue, TUI UK (new media director)
• Steve Hafner, Kayak (chief executive)
• Adam Healy, VibeAgent (chief executive)
• Brent Hoberman, Mydeco.com (executive chairman)
• Chris Lee, Barclays Commercial Bank (head of travel sector)
• Yen Lee, Kango (president)
• James Lohan, Mr and Mrs Smith (managing director)
• Ian McCaig, Lastminute.com (chief executive)
• Chris Nixon, Travelsupermarket.com (acting managing director)
• Andrew Owen Jones, Amadeus (director, travel distribution solutions)
• Jeff Revoy, Yahoo (Europe vice president, search and social media)
• David Soskin, Cheapflights (chief executive)
• Robert Torres, Google (managing director, travel advertising and marketing– North America)
• Gareth Williams, Skyscanner (chief executive)
• Philip Wolf, PhoCusWright (president and chief executive)

More names will be added in the coming weeks.

Delegates places, more information, programme, and the rest, available from the conference website.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Number One or Number Two - the topsy turvy world of online rankings

Thomson is understandably chuffed to pieces after overtaking Expedia in the first few weeks of January in the Hitwise online agency rankings.

Being able to say "We are the #1 online travel agency in the UK", or similar, on promotional material goes a long way. Not that Thomson has used it in that way yet.

But the scene at the top of the pile changes often.

The top ten for the week ending 13 January went like this:

• Thomson Holidays
• Expedia
• Lastminute.com
• First Choice
• Thomas Cook
• TravelSupermarket
• Cheapflights
• TravelRepublic
• Teletext Holidays
• Ebookers

But here is a graph illustrating the relative positions of Thomson and Expedia throughout 2007.


One can read a few things into this:

Seasonality impacts on Expedia and Thomson in different and/or the gap between the two is incredibly close, meaning the positions change frequently.

The other thing to note with the remaining sites in the top ten is the presence of TravelRepublic (above Ebookers), the inclusion of non-travel agency sites (Cheapflights and TravelSupermarket), and the absence of Opodo (number 12 or 13 normally).

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: hitwise thomson expedia

Travolution Predictions for 2008

Our predictions for 2007 12 months ago didn't work out fantastically well - but then, who would've forecast the mergers of Thomas Cook-MyTravel and TUI-First Choice.

One we did get exactly right was the floatation of MoneySupermarket (parent company of Travelsupermarket).

So without further ado, are the Travolution Predictions for 2008. Add your own in the comments section below (please keep them serious).

* Consolidation for the first time amongst the OTAs in Europe. Hotel-strong Expedia to buy air-strong Opodo perhaps?

* Cheapflights to NOT go public on the London Stock Exchange.

* Holidays Uncovered content to feature on TUI Travel sites by Easter.

* TripAdvisor to incorporate third party OTA booking engines.

* Expected economic squeeze will be felt in High Street retail before OTAs.

* New websites for at least 50% of Europe's flag carrier airlines.

* SilverJet to reach Heathrow (codeshare?).

* Homeworking agencies growth to plateau.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: predictions 2008

Spin or a bit of leakage at Cheapflights?

Nice bit of trickery perhaps in the Financial Times this morning regarding Cheapflights.

The article says the big daddy of the price comparison world will make a decision in the next few weeks on whether it will float in 2008.

The company has declined to comment on the story.

Cheapflights has stated publicly that a floatation, sale or private equity investment would be likely going forward, rather than the status quo (which isn't bad, to be fair - it's been profitable since Day One) - moving earlier this year to appoint Long Acre Partners as financial advisors.

Anyway the dreaded "person close to the situation" has told the the FT the Cheapflights’ management will “come back in January and start to make some decisions based on the markets”.

So this latest twist is either 1) a rather unfortunate leak or 2) a classic piece of Square Mile PR to get the City warmed up before the Christmas break over a potential deal or floatation.

By remarkable coincidence the FT reports how Cheapflights is "expected" to announce the appointment of the Maitland corporate PR consultancy.

UPDATE: Maitland is the new corp PR agency for Cheapflights.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: cheapflights floatation shares city