Australia's online magazine for entrepreneurs & SMEs

Top business travel news, tips and trends

Thursday, 23 August 2007

Last Updated: Friday, 24 August 2007

• Aeroplane price war

  From August 23
  Virgin Blue Holdings chief executive Brett Godfrey has predicted that Australian air travellers will enjoy lower fares over the next year thanks to fierce competition between Virgin Blue, Qantas and the foreign newcomers Tiger Airways, Malaysia’s Air Asia X, Oasis Hong Kong and Viva Macau.
  

• Bland to brilliant, depending on your taste, Qantas’s new $20-million first-class lounge opened on May 23, 2007. It offers a concierge, spa services and a Neil Perry menu. Take a peek here.

• The votes are in on the world’s best hotels according to Expedia.com. The site has ranked hotels around the world using a rating system based on Traveler Opinions®, expert input, and value. The result? A list so exclusive it represents just the top 1% of all our hotels and resorts. Here’s a couple of destinations that make the list: Cozumel Palace on the Carribbean Sea in Mexico, The Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne in Miami and The Peninsula Beijing

• Before you get on the plane, get on the internet: here are a couple of great travel blogs – The Cranky Flier and The BOOT: the business of online travel.

• The first videoguide for hotel Trivop.com was launched in Paris earlier this year where hoteliers and travellers alike can make videos of hotels to share with the world. It allows travellers to get a really good sense of where they are going to stay. The video takes potential guests through the hotel, complete with contemporary soundtrack and links to TripAdvisor reviews. As well as a good snoop in the rooms, videos for hotels such as Hotel Sezz in Paris give viewers a peek at the neighbourhood, the façade of the building and even the nearest Metro rail station. In these early stages there are only select videos for hotels in France and Britain but the potential for video sharing is significant.

• And if you like to travel according to your own timetable, check out Branson’s Latest Travel Move. On June 15, 2007 Richard Branson announced a new venture VirginCharter, described as an eBay for private jets. The portal links people wanting to book private jets with more than 2500 charter operators who bid for the business. The site is invitation-only until September 2007 when it will have its full-scale launch.

• Making business travel a little less lonely

  Here’s an online social networking service for business travelers. PairUp matches business travellers headed to any destination for business, reports Springwise.

  Members upload their current contacts from Outlook or whatever contact management tool they use, and can build their network from there. When planning a trip, users enter their travel data: departure and arrival dates and cities, and if relevant, the trade show or conference they’ll be attending.

  They can then select the contacts they’d like to track or meet up with: people in the destination city at the same time, those attending the same event, flying on the same day, or working for a specific company or in a particular industry.

  For example, if a member is flying to Houston in the US, PairUp will display people that he or she might want to meet face-to-face. Either existing contacts that will be in the city at the same time, or people who work in the same industry or are attending the same event.

  PairUp also makes it easy to share travel plans with colleagues and coordinate meetings with new contacts. A memory-jogging trip history feature keeps tabs on past business trips, meetings and contacts made at trade shows, conferences, etc.

  PairUp will need to get lots of members quickly to work. It’s offering services to events organisers to get started. Will grown-up social networking work?