July was a mixed month for European chain hotels, with year-on-year profit growth in half of the cities surveyed by TRI Hospitality Consulting’s latest HotStats report. Income before fixed charges (IBFC) – also known as gross operating profit – increased in Budapest, Hamburg, London, Munich and Paris.
The German cities of Munich and Hamburg stood out [...]

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Lodging Interactive, a leading interactive marketing agency servicing the hospitality industry, has published the hospitality industry’s first Web 2.0 Social Media User’s Guide. The guide serves to educate hoteliers on how to proactively establish and manage hotel profiles on the leading Social Media websites Facebook, Wikipedia, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter, PhotoBucket and others.
This comprehensive user’s [...]

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The common misconception about the online travel is that the number of online travel buyers in the U.S. is declining. In fact, that number is on the rise, as documented in The Consumer Travel Trends Tenth Edition recently published by PhoCusWright Inc.
In 2007, approximately 70% of online travelers (that is, adults who have taken a [...]

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There are thousands of holidays open for bids on the auction site – but are the deals too good to be true? Times Online’s Chris Haslam on his journey hunting for bargains eBay UK’s travel section.
The auction site has long fancied itself as an online travel agency, and has been running trials in Germany of [...]

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Recent years have seen an explosion in the number of hotel brands, since 1980, the number of brands reported by Smith Travel Research and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Hotel Business has increased from 81 to 324. In recent years, established hotel companies have introduced new brands, while newcomers have developed their own concepts.
Brand proliferation
New hotel brands [...]

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Improved security need not be costly, according to hotel study. When business travelers log on to their hotel’s internet network to send data back to their home office, they risk the possibility of data theft.
A direct analysis of the networks available to guests in 46 hotels, supplemented by a survey of 147 U.S. hotels, found [...]

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According to Hitwise’s latest travel report, 38.71% of all visits to the online ‘Travel’ industry went to the top 10 websites for the month of August, 2008. 47.51% went to the top 20 websites and 68.09% went to the top 100 websites.
The average visit duration for visits to the online ‘Travel’ industry was 9 minutes, [...]

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As Google turns 10, the Los Angeles Times asks technology gurus, advertising leaders and internet experts what Google needs to do to maintain its strong position in the digital world over the next decade.
“Google continues to fight a multi-front war. They dominate search and search marketing, which is where most online advertising dollars are spent [...]

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Cleanliness, Quiet and Customer Service Top Three Issues for Travelers
80 Percent of Travelers Concerned about Bedbugs
TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel community, today announced the results of its hotel survey of more than 2,200 travelers worldwide. Ninety-two percent of respondents said they are planning to stay at a hotel or B&B in the next 12 months. [...]

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