2 posts and columns on online travel booking

Voices

Ctrip Sees Challenge in Online Bookings

in News on May 20, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

One of the biggest challenges for China’s largest online travel booking company, Ctrip, is getting existing customers to go online. Though having users book flights and hotels through a website rather than a call center is more profitable, two-thirds of Ctrip’s bookings are done through its call centers, according to CEO Fan Min.

Voices

Travel Trouble: Expedia's Woes Pressure Orbitz, Priceline

in News on October 31, 2008 at 11:34 am PT

In a post-earnings conference call yesterday, Expedia remarked that the soft market they’d been seeing in the U.S. and U.K. ever since Lehman went bankrupt has now extended to “nearly all” geographies and products–including air, hotels and car rentals. Priceline and Orbitz share the same problem–Orbitz to the greatest extent, since its business is primarily focused on air. Travel well.