Digital Travel Marketing This Week: Airlines, Hotels, Offer Black Friday Deals

This week we’re talking about Black Friday.

The deluge of deals and discounts offered in the days following Thanksgiving are a rite of passage for any savvy holiday shopper looking to stock up on electronics or clothing. But increasingly this year, many travel companies are getting into the act as well, offering steep discounts on hotel rooms, airfare and package tours.

Will travelers take the bait? Or will consumers (and retailers) respond to Black Friday craziness with a shrug? Read on for the details.

Black Friday Discounts Creep Into Travel Space
While Thanksgiving’s Black Friday discounts have traditionally been the province of department stores and electronics retailers, it appears more and more travel suppliers are getting into the act. According to this recent writeup, hotels, airlines, aggregators and ramping up their Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, taking advantage of the shopping frenzy that typifies the days following Thanksgiving. Read more

New Munich Hotel Targets Millennials with “Staffless” Property
Tech-focused millennials have helped create a new type of “silent traveler” that tends to rely mobile devices and technology, rather than humans, to help answer travel questions and find information while on the road. One Munich hotel is taking this insight to the next level with the launch of Hotel Buddy, a new property where guests manage their entire stay, from booking to check-in to payment, exclusively via mobile devices. Read more

Four Seasons Appeals to Chinese Travelers with New App
Four Seasons has released a new version of its mobile app dedicated to its growing Chinese customer base. A company press release mentions the app’s new more intuitive design for Chinese users, offering simplified Chinese language interface along with quick access to such hotel services as check-in and check-out, dining reservations and local recommendations from Four Seasons concierge teams. Read more

British Airways Caters to Tech Crowd on New London to Silicon Valley Route
British Airways, which plans to launch new service between California’s San Jose International Airport and London in 2016, is putting in place a number of tech-focused cabin improvements on its 787-9 Dreamliners to cater to the industry elite it hopes will patronize the new service. While the specific innovations are nothing all that different than what other airlines are offering, the report outlining the upgrades offers interesting insight into the cabin technology arms race that is taking hold of the industry as they fight for high-spending fliers. Read more

Legacy Airlines Retool Marketing, Pricing Strategies to Fight Low-Cost Threat
At this time of record airline profits, it might seem that the legacy carriers had finally gotten some breathing room in the brutally competitive aviation industry. Yet as recent comments from executives at American Airlines reveal, the industry’s legacy carriers are increasingly turning their attention to the threat of low-cost competitors like Spirit and Frontier, as the major airline players compete to retain the market’s sizable share of low-cost flyers Read more