[UPDATE, May 9 2016: Hyatt reversed course on GDS participation for member rates.] Like two of its rivals before, Hyatt Hotels on Monday announced a marketing and rate program specifically for loyalty program members. The companies are attempting to neutralize online travel agencies. However, unlike Hilton and Marriott, Hyatt’s discounted rates of “up to 10 percent” off for Gold Passport members…
[UPDATE, April 19, 2017: Deem redesigned and rebranded its software suite as ‘Work Fource.’] [UPDATE, April 15, 2016: A Deem official indicated the company does not agree with the CrunchBase figure for total investment in Deem; the official did not provide a different figure.] With founder Patrick Grady out and new funding in, Deem anticipates layoffs and a narrowed product focus in an…
The most common and largely practical way to locate travelers in a crisis is to look at who intended to travel to the area and ping them. Credit card swipe data is another way follow an employee’s path. Potentially even more effective, GPS-based tracking is challenged by privacy concerns and battery drain. However, a relatively new crop of providers is…
Miami — Managing travel should generate at least 8 percent to 20 percent in reduced spending. The offsetting cost to achieve that should be 4 percent to 7 percent. Sourcing a travel management company to support all that should take seven to 21 months. Sadly, implementation fails seven out of 10 times. These are some rules of thumb for travel…
Long known to frequent travelers, a questionable practice called dynamic currency conversion is catching more attention from bank card issuers and their clients. While the practice borders on insidious, travel professionals can protect their organizations with a little education. Bank sources said the activity — in which merchants ask foreign travelers whether they’d like charges in their home currency, only…
[UPDATE, April 1, 6:29 p.m. EDT: Delta now says that while “end-on-end combinability of non-refundable fares has been restricted,” booking within one passenger name record “multiple one-way tickets for the purpose of constructing legitimate circle trips” is again possible. “You can book any one-way ticket we offer for sale, but we do not recommend using multiple one-way tickets to create…
Hilton Worldwide declined to comment, but several sources said it’s planning to reduce agency commissions on its new HHonors rates. Those are the discounted rates that Hilton revealed in February as part of its “Stop Clicking Around” marketing campaign, designed to compete with online travel agencies. Other travel agencies at first worried they also would not have access to those…
End of content
End of content
