Articles tagged “smartphones”

How long will it be before we talk about travel websites as always having an essential, if limited place, in much the same way that we sometimes talk about print guidebooks? Smartphones with bigger screens, tablets of mini and maximum dimensions ... buckle your seatbelts.

For Groupon, which has built its business on limited time-based inventory, the acquisition makes sense to add to its travel business. For the mobile booking sector, it is just the beginning, with a lot more to come.

News of the other acquisition this morning was a relief for anyone struggling to get good information from their iPhone using Apple's maps. The addition of fan favorite HopSpot should improve matters even more.

The study shows that there are no easy answers for travel research and transaction sites and apps: With travelers willing to change devices by whim, location or activity, travel websites have to accommodate the devices within reach, and will have to be flexible enough to handle new devices to come.

It's difficult to see why airlines, hotels, and others would want to replace apps that help them manage relationships with loyal customers with a feed to a platform that doesn't do anything special for them.

The physical phones will stay in the hotel rooms, but only as customer service intercom. Now if some hotel's bold enough to strip away rest of the functions and make these machines usable again....

Your baggage may go missing thanks to a carrier who is flying an Airbus plane, but at least you'll be able to track where that bag is thanks to Airbus.

HotelTonight blazed a trail in the U.S. as a first-mover in same-day, mobile hotel bookings. Although it has strong financial backing, achieving the same rate of success abroad may be a lot more problematic.