CHICAGO -- A new Web travel service called LastMinuteTravel.com
plans to be a matchmaker between suppliers with time-sensitive
offers and travelers looking for good deals for spur-of-the-moment
business and leisure trips.
The Atlanta-based company said it signed more than a dozen
travel providers from the major travel industry segments to
participate on the site, which launches in late June but can be
viewed now at www.lastminutetravel.com.
The list of suppliers that have signed on to participate
includes Continental; United; America West; US Airways; Carnival;
Norwegian Cruise Line; Renaissance Cruises; Globetrotters, and
Travelscape.com, a Web service specializing in discount hotel and
air/hotel packages, LastMinuteTravel.com said.
Also signed on are Radisson Hotels; Hilton Hotels and Resorts;
the Bed and Breakfast Channel, a Web service; Avis, and Alamo, it
said. The firm plans to expand into golf course reservations and
special events tickets, among other things.
Participating suppliers will post offers on the site, with
prices, expiration dates and other pertinent information. A hotel
with a big last-minute group cancellation, for example, could use
the site to quickly advertise discount rates that could help fill
the potentially empty rooms.
The site includes travel-planning features for consumers that
enable them to search for offers meeting certain parameters like
price range, destination city and supplier name. Consumers can pay
a small fee to sign up for an e-mail alert service called My Travel
Minder, and they can ask to be notified about offers that interest
them.
When consumers find products that fit their last-minute travel
needs or that motivate them to make impromptu travel plans, the
bookings will be handled by the suppliers rather than by
LastMinuteTravel.com.
David Miranda, LastMinuteTravel.com's founder and chief
executive officer, said, "We don't want to be another intermediary.
LastMinuteTravel.com is a marketplace that will bring motivated
buyers and sellers together."
Suppliers' ads on the site will include information on how to
make reservations, such as a toll-free number or a link to the
supplier's Web site. In a demonstration at the @Travel conference
held here by Jupiter Communications, for example, a discount fare
posting from Continental clicked through to the airline's Web
site.
LastMinuteTravel.com executives emphasized that the consumers
who look at the site will be getting all the information they need
up front, before they buy. "With some sites out there, you don't
know what you're going to get," said Miranda, who is a former vice
president of brand marketing for Holiday Inn Worldwide.
"These are brand-name, highly disclosed offerings," said Jack
Arogeti, executive vice president of marketing for
LastMinuteTravel.com. Arogeti said the Web site offers travel
providers a faster, cheaper and more flexible medium than
newspapers for advertising time-sensitive offers.
Suppliers can post their offers -- and pull them down -- on
short notice, and they will be reaching a targeted audience, he
said. Miranda said he doesn't want to describe the product
offerings advertised on LastMinuteTravel.com as "distressed
inventory" but said, rather, the site will be of service to
suppliers who "are distressed about inventory."