Travel Trends

Marriott is shaking up its brand in a new campaign – "Travel Brilliantly – that in many ways highlights the absurdity of the marketing concept that: if you say it is, it is.

One minute Marriott is a fusty old brand, the next it is cutting edge cool because the ad people come up with sentences like – “This is not a hotel. It’s an idea that travel should be brilliant… It’s not only about where you’re staying. It’s about where you’re going.” More …

Simon Isaacs

Just eight weeks after collapsing with debts of at least $4.4 million, the Check-in.com.au business has been resurrected with former MD Simon Isaacs acting as a consultant to the new owners, Allied Consolidated, which bought the failed company’s assets for $35,000 last Friday.

Check-in began taking bookings again today and – by pulling inventory from online wholesalers – is even selling properties that don’t want involvement because they are owed money by the previous owner, Accommodation Clearing House. More …

The Mantra Group is in the midst of a restructure that has cost two of its best-known employees their jobs. Director of Marketing, Ken Minnikin, and GM Distribution and e-Commerce, Luke Jamieson, left the company last Friday. They were among about a dozen employees at the company's Gold Coast head office who were made redundant. More …

Australia's budget accommodation sector is set to get a shakeup with the arrival of aggressive Asian operator Tune Hotels, which today announced its first Australian property. The 225 room Tune Hotel Melbourne will open in November. Room only rates start at $49. Guests will pay extra for Wi-Fi, satellite TV, toiletries, towels etc. Tune's regional office will also be in Melbourne, company CEO Mark Lankester said.

Journalism is a competitive profession.  Getting the story first and getting it right is crucial to long-term success. You write that story, you own that story. Then. Now. Always. So imagine my surprise when, searching Google for stories on Check-in.com.au (and to see how mine ranked), I stumbled upon a story that seemed very familiar in Backpacker Trade News. It closely resembled something I'd written the previous day. More …

Allied Consolidated, which was re-listed on the Australian Stock Exchange just 10 days ago and is headed by internet entrepreneur Adir Shiffman, pictured, has bought the failed Check-in.com.au accommodation website business for $35,000.

For that it gets Check-in.com.au's e-commerce platform, 350,000 customer database, supplier lists, domain names, logos, business names and other intellectual property. More …

Accor's long-term Australian PR boss Peter Hook (pictured) has left the company on his own terms after causing controversy by posting reviews of Accor properties on TripAdvisor. Mr Hook still stands by the reviews he wrote, all of which he said were genuine. "It's a pity that the initial reports decided to try and sensationalise the issue without trying to discover the real facts. There have been used like "fake" when even the most basic of analysis would show that wasn't the case. More …

Olivier Dombey at No Vacancy 2008

Wotif.com has appointed Olivier Dombey as Executive General Manager for the Group's Asian Business Unit, replacing Matthew Varley, now Chief Operating Officer at Wego.com. Mr Dombey is well-known in the Asian travel industry and joins from Hoteltravel.com, where he was Chief Information Officer.

Wotif Group CEO Scott Blume commented: "Olivier has very strong networks in the Asian market and as a fluent Chinese Mandarin speaker he will be an asset to the Wotif Group." He faces a significant challenge with Wotif losing market share in Asia over the past few years.

Tony Smith

It looks like Roamfree founder Tony Smith is doing well for himself once again, reportedly selling the Semara Resort & Spa he developed in the trendy enclave of Seminyak, Bali, to Singapore investors and recently acquiring a beach front block on Australia's Gold Coast for $7.3 million.

Mr Smith told The Australian he'd use some of the Semara proceeds to buy more Balinese real estate. "The timing of the approach to sell was perfect," he said. More …

Wotif has become the second major Australian OTA to sign with payment company Wright Express Australia this week. Wotif Group will offer the Wright Express 'virtual card system' as an alternative payment method for its accommodation partners from August. Webjet is also working with Wright Express.

Glenn Smith

The decision by management at the Thredbo mountain resort to own the name 'Thredbo' sparked a series of events that backfired spectacularly yesterday when the Federal Court determined they could do no such thing, ruling in favour of businessman Glenn Smith, who operates numerous local accommodation businesses and websites including Thredbo.com.

Thredbo, which has been in use since the 19th century, belongs to no-one, Justice Cowdroy determined. He also said that Kosciusko Thredbo (KT), which holds the head lease on the Thredbo Resort from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, is no longer able to control the use of the name Thredbo by local businesses that sign a sublease with it. More …

Andrew Cox

Sabre Hospitality Solutions plans to double its Asia Pacific business over the next two years with growth fuelled by the regional hotel building boom, increasing interest from Online Travel Agents and strong demand for new inventory management and distribution products.

Vice President Business Development Asia Pacific, Andrew Cox, predicted many of the new signings will come from existing client's properties while the proliferation of hotel openings offers enormous opportunity. More …

Low cost carrier AirAsia X wants to raise $US275m in an IPO. The money will be used to buy more aircraft and pay down debt. The airline is also planning new hubs in Jakarta, Denpasar, Bangkok and Tokyo. Meanwhile, Qantas has sold a one-third share of Jetstar Hong Kong to powerful local transport and tourism company Shun Tak, controlled by billionaire Stanley Ho. China Eastern is also a shareholder. Jetstar HK is seeking regulatory approval so it can fly by the end of this year with China the main target market.

Anton Stanish

Stayz.com.au has revealed its financials for the first time. Australia's most popular holiday house site made a profit of A$13 million before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation on revenue of  A$23.1 million in the 2012 financial year.

This makes it Australia's #2 accommodation booking site behind Wotif.com and gives Stayz a whopping gross margin of 56.3%, which will be tough to sustain in an increasingly competitive market.

Stayz GM Anton Stanish told investors at a Fairfax Media briefing that the compound annual growth rate for the company, which had revenues of just A$6 million in 2008,  from from 2010 to 2012 was 30%. More …

It's now a case of bookings first and reviews second at TripAdvisor, which has relaunched as a  'Hotel Price Comparison' search engine. The move brings to an end the annoying, difficult to navigate hybrid site TripAdvisor's been presenting it transitioned to the new business model. The new search-focussed site means site visitors will no longer be driven "crazy with endless annoying pop-ups before they've booked it," said TripAdvisor co-founder Steve Kaufer.  "This was the most logical step in the evolution of TripAdvisor."

Screen grab of the new TripAdvisor home page - where are the reviews?

Improving navigation and increasing the conversion rates of first time visitors are the core goals of a bold site redesign from Viator.com, which claims to be the world's largest tours and activities website. "The previous site was based around features while this one is designed to optimise browsing," said Viator's VP of Engineering Jeff Lewis. More …

Lots happening at Asian last-minute hotel booking app HotelQuickly, which from today is available on the new BlackBerry Z10. This week HotelQuickly will also release new builds of its iOS and Android applications with an improved payment system. Since launching in March, HotelQuickly has expanded rapidly and is now in eight countries. Tomas Laboutka, CEO & Co-Founder, HotelQuickly, is speaking at No Vacancy SEA in Bangkok on June 25.

Google is revamping YouTube to make it work on all devices, including tablets and mobile in an update called YouTube One Channel set to launch on June 5. The changes present great opportunities for savvy hotel and travel marketers. Here’s a quick and simple guide on how best to market your travel business of the new YouTube tools. More …

How much?

Snow Australia and Roy Morgan Research are  making the astonishing claim that a domestic ski trip costs an average of $123 per person per day. It's an amazing statement when you consider that adult lift tickets alone cost at least $100, accommodation in or near the snow is expensive, there's the need to eat, plus gear hire, petrol for the trip down, National Park entry etc. If anyone can show me how to have an Australian ski trip for $123 a day, please get in touch. PS: The research claims the average length of stay is 9.4 days, which will no doubt surprise operators who generally work on a seven night guest cycle.

Speculation is mounting that some of Australia's best known retail travel brands – Jetset, Harvey World Travel, Travelworld and Travelscene  - will disappear and be replaced by a single new brand as part of the Jetset Travelworld (JET) corporate review by the Boston Consulting Group. As a result, confusion and dissension reigns among retail JET franchisees, some of whom are threatening to walk. More …