YAHOO integrated price quotes from its FareChase
comparative-shopping engine into Yahoo search results. For now, some
travel-related keywords inputted into the Yahoo search box will
trigger the comparison-shopping functionality, and some wont. For
example, compare Las Vegas hotels and
Las Vegas to New York flights retrieve hotel and flight options,
respectively, from FareChase, which Yahoo purchased in 2004.
However, FareChase sits on the sidelines if a user inputs compare
Las Vegas to New York flights into the Yahoo search box. Yahoo also
said it integrated Yahoo Travels Trip Planner into FareChase. Trip
Planner enables travelers to create and share personalized
itineraries and post-trip reports. Each hotel listing includes a
clickable button titled popularity,
which takes the shopper to trip reports posted by previous guests
at the hotel.
SEARCH
PARTY, a venture-funded company based in Mountain View,
Calif., launched a beta version of a hotel comparison-shopping
engine, at www.searchparty.com, that identifies the total rate and
details the room rate, taxes and fees and cancellation fees. Search
Party, which is headed by Eric Christensen, who previously launched
WorldRes, said it conducts hotel room pricing comparisons from
online agencies and hotel companies, including Orbitz, Lodging.com,
OneTravel, Reserve Travel, LastMinuteTravel.com and Hilton. Users also can
download Search Party Desktop to compare hotel prices with Expedia and Travelocity, which
do not participate in Search Party.
UNITED signed five-year content agreements
with Galileo and Worldspan, although the two pacts appear to be
fundamentally different. The Galileo agreement guarantees that
traditional and online agencies connected to the Apollo/Galileo
systems will be able to access all of the airlines published fares
and seat inventory. Uniteds contract with Worldspan will give
agencies the opportunity to access Uniteds published fares and seat
inventory and their availability. Worldspan will do this through
its existing GDS product and two new optional programs, the company
said. Uniteds agreement with Galileo goes into effect in July; the
Worldspan contract will be implemented in the next six months,
Worldspan said. Galileo, Worldspan and United did not provide the
financial terms of the agreements. Galileo and United stated that
their new agreement provides flexibility to accommodate the dynamic
distribution marketplace. Meanwhile, United has an agreement in
place with Amadeus and recently extended its pact on a temporary
basis with Sabre while the two sides continue to negotiate a new
contract.
CENDANTS Travelport signed a pact with
JetBlue in which Travelports U.S.-based corporate clients will get
full access to the low-fare carriers inventory. The agreement also
provides access to JetBlues fares for Galileos Travelport
resellers, Cendant said, noting that only two online-booking tools
have agreements with JetBlue. The other is Cliqbook, JetBlue said.
JetBlue, meanwhile, does not participate in any of the major
GDSs.
ONELINK, headquartered in San Francisco,
rolled out booking and settlement services for nonair suppliers.
Frances Kiradjian, the firms chief strategy officer, said
participating agencies can access to up to 10,000 properties
worldwide from wholesale inventory created by CCRA International, a
OneLink business. CCRA is a hotel program that offers preferred
room rates to more than 18,000 agencies worldwide. When booking,
the OneLink settlement system will enable agents, once they
establish a PayPal account, to prepay and collect their markups up
front. Eventually, Onelink aims to expand its settlement services
to commissionable hotel rooms and other products.
Technology
Editor:
Dennis
Schaal
Phone: (201) 902-1904
[email protected]
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