Sharing The Travel Industry's latest Technology
Posts tagged rezgo
Travel Innovation Summit – The Battle For Centre Stage
Jul 16th
We are really excited to be participating in the PhoCusWright’s Travel Innovation Summit (PCW TIS). Rezgo has come a long way since its inception, we are gaining attention, building strategic partnerships and have a robust feature set that really sets us apart from our direct competition. Well I may be a little biased, and I realize that our competition at PCW TIS is not direct market competition. As we are competing for innovation and ingenuity, I thought I would do a brief review of the presenters at PCW TIS.
This is not a complete list, and I will be adding others as more information is made available. I will be giving an overview of what they do and a rating based on potential to shake the industry, how innovative they are, and the likelihood of success. So here is a brief rundown of the presenting companies at PCW TIS thus far.
Cadabra
Overview: Looks to be a one stop shop for those going to New Zealand. PRO: You can generate a customized itinerary including hotel and activities and even book all items through their website. CON: Currently only in New Zealand, search for hotel etc can not be filtered and organized (price, stars etc)
Site look: 8/10
Potential to Shake Industry: 6/10
Innovation: 7/10
Success: 8/10
ekit
Overview: Their primary business is selling of SIM and calling cards for travelers, as an ancillary bonus, users are given a travel journal and a secure travel vault for storing important documents digitally. PRO: Free add-ons to a comodity type product. The live tracking features a really cool. CON: Not really an innovative product, there are numerous free mobile blogging and document storage platforms on the market.
Site look: 4/10
Potential to Shake Industry: 5/10
Innovation: 6/10
Success: 6/10
Innovata LLC
Overview: Innovata is positioning itself as the leader in Airline timedable data managing, hosting, and reporting. They have a number of services ranging from Data Licencing, Hosted Services to Analitical Services. PRO: Seem to have multiple strong revenue streams. CON: I am not sure how scalable this business platform is.
Site look: 7/10
Potential to Shake Industry: 6/10
Innovation: 6/10
Success: 8/10
NileGuide.com
Overview: I met the CEO Josh Steinitz at last years PCW, he has made NileGuide a shaker for the trip planning and UGC review sector. PRO NileGuide has great filtering features to help find hotels and activities that interest you, and they have a growing database of product. CON: Lack of transaction capabilities limits their revenue potential.
Site look: 9/10
Potential to Shake Industry: 8/10
Innovation: 7/10
Success: 7/10
Update:
It is refreshing to see the updates to content, UGC and usability on Nile Guide. Josh Steinetz is heading in the right direction, the guides that can be dynamically generated are a great merger of oldword guides meet custom travel planning. I will be using this site.
Roundtrip Systems
Overview: Roundtip Systems seems to be giving emails a dynamic booking capability. PRO: Piggy backing emails for booking, saves time, widely used technology. CON: Product bookings lack scope and range of options and media.
Site look: 5/10
Potential to Shake Industry: 6/10
Innovation: 7/10
Success: 7/10
WorldMate Inc.
Overview: World Mate offers mobile information for traveler. Their free product has weather, currency and time information, and their subscription service has flight information. PRO: Nice interface, free account is a good incentive to use. CON: With the proliferation of mobile information, all of their data can be accessed through traditional websites.
Site look: 8/10
Potential to Shake Industry: 6/10
Innovation: 7/10
Success: 7/10
UPDATE
Worldmate has just presented their live software, it looks to have a great user interface, and a impressive feature set. I am happy to see the progress in such a short time period. Good job guys!
Yapta.
Overview: I met Tom Romary and the Yapta Team last year at PCW. These guys have a great product for the american traveller. They track flight pricing for consumers and can help consumers get reemburced if the price of a flight changes before they fly. PRO: Huge market potential. CON: I hope they have a solid revenue model ;)
Site look: 8/10
Potential to Shake Industry: 9/10
Innovation: 9/10
Success: 8/10
Rezgo
Overview: Well I can’t really be objective here, but I think we have a great product! So feel free to go to Rezgo.com and leave a comment on how you would rate Rezgo:
Site look: ?/10
Potential to Shake Industry: ?/10
Innovation: ?/10
Success: 11;) /10
What to do when selling to VCs?
Jun 16th
I have been out of the blogosphere lately, and for good reason (read excuse ;). I have been working to promote the latest edition of Rezgo.com, the online tour and activity booking solution, and I have had some success! We were recently notified that we were selected for PhoCusWright’s Travel Innovation Summit and in B.C. we are one of 30 companies to make it to the third round of the New Ventures B.C. innovation competition. So great news all around!
Being thrown to the mercy of of lawyers, VCs and CEOs can be a tad intimidating, so a bit of research into VCs, Angel Investors and the like was needed, and here are some of my favorite resources:
- http://www.vcfodder.com/
- A straightforward look at the world of entrepreneurship and venture capital.
- http://www.sfentrepreneur.com/how-to-guides/
- Great how-to guides on legal, marketing, presenting etc
- Great how-to guides on legal, marketing, presenting etc
- http://www.thefunded.com/
- An online community of entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide.
- http://fundfindr.com/
- The elevator speech meets YouTube, also a NVBC competitor.
If you know of any others, let me kow, but I hope this list can help all of you out there that are in a similar situation.
The First International PhoCusWright Bloggers Summit at ITB
Jan 7th
After the success of the Bloggers Summit at PhoCusWright 2007 Orlando, PhoCusWright has decided to grow the event to a truly international collaboration. The first International Bloggers Summit will happen at ITB Berlin in March. There have been whispers of this event for some time (Jens, Vicky, Stephen) and it is now official! The summit has several components that will ensure a great time for bloggers:
Travel Industry Bloggers welcome and idea sharing
Wednesday March: 10:30am – 12:30pm
Includes exclusive access to travel industry leaders, the Bloggers Briefing session will give bloggers a chance to generate the latest news.
Tips From The T-List presents Blogging with the Long Tail of Tourism
Workshop to be presented and open to all ITB Berlin attendees
Wednesday March 5 in Hall 7.1b, Auditorium London 3: 2:00pm – 4:00pm
This workshop will show how an active, content-producing network of bloggers can have a growing influence on customers’ online spending habits.
Travel Industry Bloggers meeting
Wednesday March 5, 4:30 – 5:30pm
Gather and share techniques, strategies, contacts and more
PhoCusWright@ITB Conference
Thursday March 6, Hall 7.1b, London 3: 10:15am – 6:00pm
Hall 7.1b, Auditorium London 3
Take advantage of PhoCusWright@ITB, one of the premier events of ITB’s Convention.
Bloggers Summit Final Gathering
Regroup after PhoCusWright@ITB and discuss highlights, lowlights and everything in between
Cocktails and chatter – this event will NOT be hosted, and it will be an informal gathering
Thursday March 6: 8:30pm – late
This wifi enabled trendy bar will be a great back drop to unwind and recap all of the great finds from ITB. Anhalter Bar Mövenpick Hotel in Berlin. A private area of the bar will be reserved, wifi will be available, and there will be drink specials. Hope to see you there!
This summit is included with your PhoCusWright admission, and travel industry bloggers can apply for a bloggers entry pass. For more information join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6574840815
Email me if you are interested in attending: phil.caines [at] rezgo.com
Are you Connected? Toursim Industry Bloggers Unite
Jan 3rd
How connected is the Tourism Industry blogging community? There are numerous communities out there that are helping bloggers stay in touch. This post was inspired by Jens, who recently re-launched his popular marketing blog. If you are looking for ways to connect with fellow bloggers, here are some great links to help you connect:
Social Networking:
T-List Facebook Community
The WIWIH Bloggers Group
Turismo 2.0 (Amazing Spanish Travel Industry Blogging Network)
Indexing Sites:
Tips From The T-List
The Ranked T-List
The Recommended (Travolution’s Tourism Industry Bloggers)
Blogger Meet Up:
CES Bloghaus 2008 (not for travel but still one of the largest and most financed meetups)
ITB Berlin March (More information to come)
PhoCusWright 2008 (More information to come)
Staying connected is the best way to grow our community, and new technology is making it easier to stay in touch. Let me know if I have missed anything or if you have any recommendations.
Activity Pre-booking? Who Does It?
Dec 20th
Have you found that booking an activity or tour is the last step in a tourists’ travel plan? Quite often, independent tourists will wait till they arrive at a destination before they consider what activities and tours they want to take.
Is this changing? Are people now pre-booking their tours and activities before they depart to a destination?
There are large online travel agencies (OTA) sites like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com now gives tour suppliers the opportunity to add their tours and activities to the websites. While this will definitely help the tour company with distribution, it will also lower their margins. I posted some research in August that really put this in perspective.
While it may be difficult for companies to sell directly to consumers, there is a growing trend towards direct booking with a co branded online reservation engine. (Predicted to be 62% of all bookings by 2008) Small tour companies have to realize that the money payed in commissions to online travel agencies could go to driving traffic to their own websites, this would lower margins and give the tour provider greater control of their inventory and advertising message.
What distribution channels have you found to be the most useful? Are you selling your tours through Expedia or Travelocity?
Travel Technology Review Podcast
Dec 17th
The Travel Technology Weekly Review is, as you can imagine, a weekly review of the latest happenings in the Tourism Technology industry. We examine the latest trends, research, sites and happenings in the the Tourism Tech world.
Stephen first talks about Travelbookmarking.com, it gives travelers the ability to bookmark their own sites to make a travel guide.
He then talks about Travbuddy.com and how hotelscombined.com have partnered to allow site users to book hotels while browsing user generated content
Stephen finishes his commentary with a study conducted by the Kelsy group and how user generated reviews effect customers spending habits. Thanks to Joe Buhler for brining this to our attention.
In my segment of the Podcast I talk about research my friend Claude Benard found from Fabernovel regarding Facebook applications.
I then discuss a new Beta travel guide site, Nile Guide. This site has the potential to revolutionize the travel guide industry, you should check it out.
Lastly I cover some observations from the ever wise Vicky Brock regarding the influence of social media on online reservations.
Interviews from PhoCusWright
Dec 11th
Last month PhoCusWright (PCW) hosted their annual conference in Florida. These conferences bring the biggest names in the travel technology industry together in one place to talk shop, talk trends, and make great contacts within the industry. This year PCW held the first Travel Industry Bloggers Summit at their conference. This included a blogging workshop, several bloggers meet ups, a release of our book, The Tips From the T-List, and extensive press coverage for a select group of travel industry bloggers.
Rezgo.com had the privilege of attending this conference as hosts of the workshop and the blogger meet up, and as blogging press. We were able to gain great content from the conference and here are some video Interviews that we conducted at the workshop:
Tom Botts from Hudson Crossing, LLC
Kevin May, Editor at Travolution.co.uk
Eric Bjorndahl, CEO TravBuddy.com
We were able to conduct more interviews, and they will be featured in future blogs.
If you attended, what were your take aways from the conference? Did you find that most presenters stuck with the “Braving the Long Tail” theme?
Google + Travel = Troogle?
Dec 11th
Tim Armstrong just finished his talk on Google and Travel at the PhoCusWright conference in Orlando. His talk was an overview of the industry and gave some great insights on how Google was working towards optimizing the user experience.
He gave a background into Google’s “The wisdom of crowds†philosophy; letting the brainpower of the world make your product better. He stated “If you don’t have the wisdom of the crowds in your business, then you are missing a major piece of business.”
Google strives to use the wisdom of the crowds to connect the right consumer, at the right place at the right time with the right process and right product. The product he was focusing on is Travel.
Google values the travel market and handles 22% of all Travel all inquiries. That is quite huge, of the billions of the travel postings out there, 22% of them originate with Google.
Tim broke peoples searches down to the their life patterns, in that people get different types of information at differing times in the day. For example:
6am Morning Info – browse blogs and news items
7am Drive time commute – Radio and Blackberry
Google is trying to connect with the consumers with their mechanical day and several of their products (reader, gmail, blogsearch, news) help facilitate that.
Tim was then faced by an industry panel consisting of:
- Rob Torres, Managing Director, Travel, Google Inc.
- Jim Kovarik, GM of AOL Travel
- Jasper Malcolmson, Vice President and General Manager, Yahoo! Travel and Shopping
Jasper Malcolmson asked the question that was on my mind, “Troogle? When are you getting into the travel business?”
Tim -
“I don’t think there will be a Troogle. There are some spaces that are clear, and they anticipate that. Google would have a hard time doing super specific business. We would love to get travel info to the customer faster, but they are not planning on tackling the market specifically.”
Do you buy it, will we see Google selling travel anytime soon?
wCities and the Mobile Guide
Dec 3rd
Recently at PhoCusWright 2007, I was introduced to a company that is leveraging the power of mobile devices with travel guides, this company is wCities. This San Fransisco based company is making inroads in the convergence of traditional media with technology.
Gone are the days of the cumbersome destination guide, now all the information you need on attractions, events, hotels, movies and nightlife for a growing number of cities all around the world can be loaded into your iPod, mobile phone, or Blackberry.
In addition to their text based city guides, wCities also offers a variety of map based programs that can be loaded to a mobile phone. Their Wayfinder Navigatorâ„¢ combines the power of a GPS receiver with local attractions and activities. This is were I can see a great value for traveling consumers. Get notified of attractions, restaurants and other highlights of the area that you are currently in. What is also great is that the Wayfinder software will voice guide you to the location of your choice.
Here is a review of the iPod travel guide for San Francisco:
Do you think that mobile guides are the future?
Do you think http://www.Google.com/gmm will own this market?
Stephen Kaufer – Tripadvisor
Nov 14th
Get the truth and go. Sounds simple enough. Stephen Kaufer, President and CEO of www.TripAdvisor.com seems to think so. But in order to have truth, you need to also have trust.
At the PhoCusWright conference in Orlando, Stephen said “Trust online is gold dust.”
You need:
1. Honest brokers – People that can give you truth
2. Social networks – A group that you can trust
When travelers ideas are varying then the knowledge of the mass prevails and averages the results.
TripAdvisor has made headway in the social aspect of their online reviews. They allow you to get your friends on your own traveler’s network by connecting with friends with an interactive map. When you are browsing the site, your traveler’s network automatically populates their recommendations. This will give great trust based reviews with depth unmatchable by traditional travel agents.
Have you used Tripadvisor, or has your property been effected by a review? Do you trust the reviews?