Laffitte Conseil

Priceline.com Acquires Asian Online Hotel Reservation Service Agoda Company

Priceline.com® (NASDAQ: PCLN) announced today that it has acquired Bangkok- and Singapore-based Agoda Company, an online travel company specializing in hotel discount bookings throughout Asia, in a transaction that includes an initial cash payment and a multi-year, performance-based earn-out. Priceline.com said it intends to retain Agoda’s current management team, who will continue to manage Agoda’s operations independently as part of priceline.com’s international business.

In the Asia Pacific region, Agoda offers hotel properties in Australia, China, Japan, India, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, the Phillippines, New Zealand and several other countries. In addition, Agoda offers hotels in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. Agoda’s services are offered in 12 languages. In addition to its transactional offerings, Agoda maintains a broad suite of content features, including customer hotel reviews, travel tips, journals and other user-generated content.

Complete article

Online travel company Orbitz Worldwide has appointed more than 20 EMEA and Asia Pacific-based market managers and senior staff in order to support the company's hotel supplier relations team

Orbitz Worldwide is focused on continued growth through increased hotel bookings, especially in Europe and Asia Pacific, said Peggy Bianco, Vice President, Global Hotel Supplier Relations, Orbitz Worldwide.

"The addition of experienced staff to our supplier relations team is an important step in building out improved inventory and long term partnerships in these markets," said Bianco.

Reporting to Bianco includes the following global team: Garry Wilson, Regional Director, sourcing EMEA (London); Andrew Cox, Regional Director, sourcing Asia (Singapore); Melanie Ryan, Senior Director, Global Strategic Accounts, (Chicago); Jeff Eckerling, Senior Director, Global Hotel Strategy, (Chicago)

The company also opened a new office in Singapore.

HotelClub unveils new corporate identity, adds user content

Flairview Travel has now released its new corporate brand identity as HotelClub, encompassing their three accommodation specialist websites: HotelClub.com, RatesToGo.com and Asia-Hotels.com, with new website features to be launched starting with HotelClub.com.

Discount accommodation e-wholesaler, HotelClub (previously trading as Flairview Travel) has revealed its new corporate brand identity as well as new features for HotelClub.com.

From today, Flairview Travel will trade as HotelClub and will continue to operate its three highly successful accommodation specialist websites: HotelClub.com; RatesToGo.com and asia-hotels.com. The decision to re-brand the trading name has come in association with HotelClub’s Chicago based parent, Orbitz Worldwide, and demonstrates the powerful family grouping of companies created under this newly NYSE listed company.

Complete article

Two Chinese search players collaborate on new travel service

Qihoo.com, a community search platform with over 20 million unique visitors, and Qunar.com, China’s largest travel search engine with 10 million unique users, announced today the launch of a new, innovative service titled “360 Degrees Travel”. 360 Degrees Travel combines Qunar’s real-time pricing information for flights and hotels with Qihoo’s community services and user-generated content.

“This is a great opportunity for our customers. As China’s largest community search and aggregation service, we are looking forward to working with Qihoo.com. The cooperation between Qunar.com and Qihoo.com better meets demand for personalized travel information,” said Dai Zheng, Vice President at Qunar.com.

Complete article

Chinese prepared to indulge in luxury travel

The survey, conducted by the Nielsen Company and Pacific Asia Travel Association, showed travelers to Europe to be the biggest spenders, splashing out an average of $5,253 per trip.

In comparison, those holidaying in Asia spent about $1,900 per person.

The exceptions were those traveling to Hong Kong and Macao - the long-preferred shopping and entertainment destinations for Chinese - whose average spend was US$2,185.

Grace Pan, head of travel and leisure research for the Nielsen Company, China, said: “Asia remains the most popular destination for Chinese travelers because of the proximity.

Complete article

Ctrip taps Baidu for hotel search

China’s largest online travel agency Ctrip announced today that it has formed a partnership with Baidu to promote its hotels on Baidu Map.

According to the company, Baidu Map users will be able to search for nearly 5,000 hotels through Baidu and view hotel details as well as book rooms through Ctrip.

Complete article

Zuji voted best online travel agent in Asia Pacific

ZUJI received the prestigious TTG ‘Travel Industry Award’ during the ‘18th Annual Travel Awards’ ceremony and gala dinner held in Bangkok, Thailand attended by the cream of travel professionals in Asia Pacific. ZUJI’s Executive Team members - including General Manager of ZUJI Hong Kong - and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Scott Blume, accepted the award on behalf of ZUJI sites and teams located in Australia (zuji.com.au), Singapore (zuji.com.sg), Hong Kong (zuji.com.hk), Taiwan (zuji.com.tw), Korea (nextour.co.kr), New Zealand (zuji.co.nz) and India (Travelocity.co.in).

Complete article