Headline News

Airguide Online, April 7, 2004

Travelocity has upgraded its TotalTrip vacation booking tool. Users can now simultaneously reserve tickets for attractions, ski lifts, airport transfers, air fare and accommodations. Travelocity said this extends to more than 70 destinations. The lift tickets and ground transfers were not available previously and are now all shown on one itinerary. Domestically, the transfers can be reserved on SuperShuttle, Aloha VIP Tours, All Resort Express and Colorado Mountain Express.

TripAdvisor has released the results of a yearlong study of popular hotel sites on the Web, ranked by quantity and quality of information found on the Internet. The greater the amount of positive content found about the hotel, the higher its ranking. In the U.S., the best were found to be, categorized by city, the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort in Las Vegas; The Carlyle in New York; Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando; the Mandarin Oriental in Miami; The Orchard Hotel in San Francisco; Hale Koa Hotel in Honolulu; Le Pavillon in New Orleans; Willard Intercontinental in Washington, D.C.; Fitzpartrick Hotel in Chicago and the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego.

Vacation.com has modified its customized email tool, called e- Engagement, to help agencies comply with new federal rules governing unsolicited promotional email, or spam. Under the CAN-SPAM Act passed by Congress, agencies must provide a physical agency address in their email, use a valid return email address and provide a clear means for the recipient to opt out of the mailing list. Even though its VacationPort tool has also been modified, it does not fall under the regulations because an agent can use it to respond to a specific inquiry.