Latest Travel News:

Online travel bookers beef up mobile offerings
September 02, 2010

Travel suppliers and the online agencies that sell their bookings are targeting a new breed of jet setter who cannot be bothered booking trips in advance.

These travelers are relying more on their mobile smart phones -- the iPhone, BlackBerry or Android -- to negotiate, book and manage trips they have already begun, perhaps even from the parking lot of a hotel where they hope to stay.

"They are booking at the last minute. They are booking near where they are located," said John Caine, the senior vice president in charge of mobile development at Priceline.com (PCLN.O). "I think they're staying shorter because they have flexibility."

Priceline says 82 percent of its customers with smart phones book their hotel rooms within one day of arrival, compared with 45 percent of the customers who do not have mobile devices. Fifty-eight percent of Priceline customers with mobile devices were within 20 miles of their hotels when they made a reservation.

This shift in consumer booking habits extends the trend in online travel buying that has put many brick-and-mortar travel agencies out of business over the last decade.

The top U.S. online travel agencies -- Priceline, Expedia Inc (EXPE.O), Orbitz Worldwide (OWW.N), Travelocity -- all have some kind of mobile access to their websites to let travelers with the appropriate gadgets book trips while en route.

Priceline's popular Apple (AAPL.O) iPhone app allows users to book reservations from the road. An app is a software application that can be downloaded to a mobile phone. Expedia offers an iPhone app called TripAssist, which is similar to Priceline's.

Orbitz Worldwide, the smallest of the three publicly traded U.S. online travel agencies, launched a mobile version of its flagship travel site Orbitz.com in 2006.

An Orbitz spokesman said the company is seeing more transactions in the mobile space and plans to unveil a "comprehensive mobile strategy" later this year.

Source :- http://www.reuters.com