The U.S. hotel industry, already suffering through a dismal U.S. economy, an airline crisis and record fuel prices, now faces tough negotiations over a major source of its income – corporate room rates.
Corporate contracts account for almost 35 percent of the U.S. hotel sector’s revenue, according to lodging industry veteran Bjorn Hanson of New York [...]

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Internet service is getting cheaper, not more expensive, and hotels already are shelling out for multiple T1 lines for their own internal use. The cost of providing the service to guests is marginal, and hotels are pocketing the sizable difference between that and what they charge per night for the privilege of a high-speed connection.
Travel [...]

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European Union and Danish officials named seven online travel operators and airlines Thursday in an ongoing crackdown against misleading ads and price schemes.
Online travel sites run in Denmark by Ryanair, Air Berlin, Air Baltic, SkyEurope, Aer Lingus, Brussels Airlines and Seat24 were singled out for violating European consumer law.
Consumers are being “led down by the [...]

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According to Hitwise’s latest travel report, 37.21% of all visits to the online ‘Travel’ industry went to the top 10 websites for the month of June, 2008. 46.43% went to the top 20 websites and 67.84% went to the top 100 websites.
The average visit duration for visits to the online ‘Travel’ industry was 10 minutes, [...]

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The tourism industry appears to come across major dificulties for the first time in recent years, writes the Chicago Tribune. Hotels likely will see occupancy rates downtown and nationally drop by 2 percentage points this year, though prices should hold strong.
Some observers see a potentially harsher scenario.
“This is the bow wave, and the rest of [...]

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