Priceline.com had revenues in the 1st quarter of $584.4 million, a 26.5% increase over a year ago. The Company’s international operations contributed revenues in the 1st quarter of $215.8 million, an 88.2% increase versus a year ago (approximately 79% on a local currency basis). Priceline.com’s gross profit for the 1st quarter was $319.1 million, a 53.2% increase from the prior year. The Company’s international operations contributed gross profit in the 1st quarter of $214.9 million, an 88.8% increase versus a year ago (approximately 80% growth on a local currency basis). The Company’s operating income in the 1st quarter 2010 was $87.9 million, a 105.2% increase from the prior year. Priceline.com had GAAP net income for the 1st quarter of $53.9 million or $1.06 per diluted share, which compares to $25.0 million or $0.53 per diluted share in the same period a year ago.

Pro forma EBITDA for the 1st quarter was $111.7 million, an increase of 75.3% over the prior year. Pro forma net income in the 1st quarter was $87.2 million or $1.70 per diluted share, compared to $1.09 per share a year ago. The high end of priceline.com’s guidance for the 1st quarter was $1.64 per diluted share and First Call analyst consensus for the 1st quarter 2010 was $1.66 per diluted share. The section below entitled “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” provides a definition and information about the use of pro forma financial measures in this press release and the attached financial and statistical supplement reconciles pro forma financial information with priceline.com’s financial results under GAAP.

“The Company’s worldwide businesses were able to maintain gross booking growth over 50% in the 1st quarter, powered by strong growth in hotel room nights, which increased 57% over last year,” said Jeffery H. Boyd, priceline’s President and CEO. “We believe all of our brands continued to gain share in hotel reservations during the quarter. International local currency bookings growth was 73%, representing continued high rates of transaction growth and stabilizing hotel room rates. Domestic growth at 16% came in at the high end of our range of guidance despite weaker results in opaque airline tickets and rental cars tied to reduced capacity in those markets.”

Looking forward, Mr. Boyd said, “We are pleased with the strong growth reflected in our 2nd quarter guidance despite the impact of several negative external factors. The Iceland volcano caused widespread disruptions in air travel which resulted in a significant increase in hotel room cancellations for our Booking.com business. Civil unrest in Thailand has substantially impacted hotel room reservations in Thailand, which is a key market for Agoda and Booking.com’s Asia business. Lastly, sovereign debt concerns in Europe have resulted in a significant decline in the value of the Euro as compared to the U.S. dollar which adversely impacts our financial results as expressed in U.S. dollars.”

Get the full article at hotelmarketing.com

“It’s particularly encouraging to see that travelers are finally recognizing packages are the easiest way to save big bucks.”

Travelocity’s most recent poll shows a dramatic increase in travel intentions, indicating traveler confidence is on the rise. Travelocity’s second Traveler Confidence Report finds that nearly half of respondents plan to increase their travel in 2010 as compared to 2009. The Traveler Confidence Report gauges travelers’ plans and attitudes now as compared to six months prior and one year prior. The following findings are based on the intentions of more than 2,000 North Americans surveyed by Travelocity.

Traveler Confidence Report Highlights:

• Travel Intentions Up: Significantly more respondents (49 percent) plan to increase their travel in the year ahead, compared to 21 percent six months ago and just 10 percent in 2009. Another 44 percent plan to travel “about the same” as compared to last year. The number of travelers planning to decrease travel is down significantly to 7 percent, from 34 percent one year ago and 24 percent six months ago.

• Decreased Hotel Rates Have Positive Impact: When asked how lower prices would impact travel plans, 33 percent said they would stay in a higher star-rated hotel; 30 percent said they would take a trip they had not expected to take; and 18 percent said they would extend their stay.

• Travel Budgets on the Rise: The majority of respondents (56 percent) did not have a predetermined travel budget for 2010. Of those with a predetermined travel budget, 34 percent plan to increase that budget.

• Travelers Committed to Saving Money: An overwhelming 76 percent of respondents are at least somewhat likely to book a vacation package as a way to save money.

“Great deals, especially on hotels, have given travelers confidence to hit the road and take to the skies in 2010,” said Genevieve Shaw Brown, Travelocity’s senior editor. “It’s particularly encouraging to see that travelers are finally recognizing packages are the easiest way to save big bucks.”

Find out more at Travelocity.com

The mantle has been taken up by Bob Cotton, Chief Exec from the British Hospitality Association.

Mr. Cotton said hotels across Europe were seeking to persuade the EU Commission to overhaul the rules governing website reviews to ensure that they have been posted by genuine guests and not by rivals or people simply out to cause mischief.
Read full article at the Independent

So while the fight continues to seek out authenticity of reviews, what you do in the meantime?

We need to leverage all the positive feedback from guest we can and your guest loves what you do.

A couple of questions to consider might be;

1. Do you make it as easy as possible for your guest to give you that compliment or review online?

2. Where do all the positive comments from your comment cards end up? Do you leverage these in your Digital Marketing Strategy?

3. Put yourself in the shoes of the guest, under constant time pressure with short attention spans and wanting fast intuitive processes in their online world. Does your feedback system cater for that person?

4. Did you ever consider, your guest who’s had an amazing experience with you who may never have written a review on sites like Tripadvisor? Consider this, they may not know how to?

Make it as easy as possible for your Guests/Fans/Followers to give you the big thumbs up.

A package holiday price war is being predicted as companies seek to capitalise on a recovering market in 2010.

Turkey is leading the way as value-conscious travellers seek to avoid eurozone holiday spots, according to the Co-operative Travel

The leading travel retailer reports that bookings across top 20 destinations for next summer have seen a 26% increase in the last three months as the market begins to recover.

Dalaman has seen an increase of 82% and has taken over from Majorca as the number one overseas destination for UK holidaymakers in 2010.

The average price of a package holiday to Dalaman is £516, £79 per person lower than the average break to Majorca (£595), according to the travel agency group.

Get the full story at travelmole.com

Over the last 10 years the way we travel has been revolutionised by the web. Many of us waved goodbye to high-street travel agents, newspaper classifieds and hours spent staring at endless Teletext pages, and logged on to new hi-tech services.

As the web began taking hold of the public’s imagination, the burst of sites and services began shifting the way we thought about travelling, making the idea of grabbing a bag and jetting off cheaper and easier than ever. In fact, the swell of activity in the travel industry seemed so lucrative that it was one of the cornerstones of the dotcom boom.

The boom itself may have ended ignominiously, with many of the individual names crashing spectacularly, but our approach to travel itself remained irrevocably altered.

Britain’s travel revolution circled around a pair of innovations that had the web at their heart.

Get the full story at guardian.co.uk

Both Priceline and Orbitz reported higher revenue and profits than expected in the third quarter, despite a travel industry-wide lull. So, why are the online travel agencies doing well when other aspects of travel are flailing?

Some say it’s because the leisure travel market is recovering faster than business travel, but I also think that an online travel agency has far less risks than a major airline or hotel chain. In fact, from previous reports, we know that such Web sites are muscling lower hotel prices when possible and can be seen as competitors more than collaborators. In several scenarios, OTAs gain profits while their member hotels lose them. Many critics of the Web sites say it’s the price hotels and airlines are paying for not offering great deals directly to consumers.

The trouble with the OTAs is that for many consumers, they cease to have an identity. While William Shatner is probably the highest-profile spokesman (although he’s probably on par with the Travelocity gnome) many consumers have little or no recognition of each Web site or loyalty to it.

Get the full story at bnet.com

Major hotel companies have been unable to break the habits of consumers from visiting OTAs in favor of looking and booking at the brand’s proprietary sites.

The end result is millions upon millions of dollars being funneled away from individual hotels and into the pockets of the smarter, faster and better marketed OTAs.

Now that hotel rates have tanked during the last year, the hotel companies are once again awakening and realizing that these sites, while they serve a purpose, are effectively torpedoing their profit potential while lining the pockets of companies such as the aforementioned Expedia and others, such as Hotels.com, Orbitz, Travelocity and Priceline.com.

“This is an interesting dilemma the hotel brands are facing. It’s really tough for hoteliers when RevPAR is down 20 percent,” said Bill Carroll, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Cornell School of Hotel Administration, who referred to the Choice-Expedia conflict as “acrimonious.”

But the larger looming issue is consumers have been well trained to visit these sites, which puts the one hotel company that does not participate in a major OTA at a significant disadvantage against its competitive set.

Get the full story at hotelinteractive.com

User reviews generated anonymously will become obsolete moving forward as consumers seek professional advice backed up by recommendations from friends and family.

Oyster unveiled its service in June and currently provides hotel reviews for major cities in the US as well as Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Hawaii and the Bahamas.

Elie Seidman, co-founder and chief executive of of US-based start-up Oyster, told Travolution there would be a shift in the next five to 10 years with consumers no longer seeing value in anonymous comments and reviews.

“When we first launched we had our user comments wide open and we saw people commenting on their own reviews and properties so we closed down anonymous review content.”

Get the full story at Travolution.co.uk

Simon Cooper, who has led Ritz-Carlton for the past eight years, talks with Forbes magazine about what makes Ritz-Carlton, well, the Ritz.

Ritz-Carlton has become a leading brand in luxury lodging by rigorously adhering to its own standards. It is the only service company in America that has won the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award twice, and Training Magazine has called it the best company in the nation for employee training.

Its unique culture starts with a motto: “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” One of its remarkable policies is to permit every employee to spend up to $2,000 making any single guest satisfied. Ritz-Carlton codifies its expectations regarding service in “The 12 Service Values,” “The Credo,” “The Three Steps of Service,” “The 6th Diamond” and other proprietary statements that are taught to all 38,000 employees throughout 73 properties in 24 countries.

Forbes: What is the Ritz-Carlton model?

Cooper: We focus on three fundamentals.

Get the full interview at Forbes.com

Hotel operators, who recall past cycles when booming growth came after business downturns “have to get over the idea that things are going to get back to the way they were,” said Lalia Rach, the dean of the hospitality program at the Tisch Center.

Every couple of months, I like to take the temperature of the hotel business because, like most business travelers, I generally like the way domestic hotels steadily improved services for about a decade. On Monday, I spoke with two experts at New York University Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management. Both say the hotel industry needs to think differently about how it does business, even after it gets back to a firmer financial footing.

Hotel operators, who recall past cycles when booming growth came after business downturns “have to get over the idea that things are going to get back to the way they were,” said Lalia Rach, the dean of the hospitality program at the Tisch Center.

She sees a number of hurdles once hotels start to recover, including improving person-to-person service, which has slipped as many hotels laid off staff and added extra work for those still on the job.

“They’ve cut so much labor that there is perhaps the question, ‘Do they really still have a customer service attitude?’ ” she said. “Do people still understand they’re in the hospitality industry?”

Get teh full story at nytimes.com