travel, hotel and booking Information

Survey Shows Companies Using Online Booking and Low-Cost Airlines

Hotel Booking GetThere has announced the results of its fourth annual Corporate Travel Benchmark Survey. The survey, which polls the countrys leading corporations on their travel patterns, showed that businesses continue to substantially reduce costs by booking online, as well as by using low-cost airlines. There was also evidence that medium-sized companies tend to book a greater percentage of their trips online than their mega corporation counterparts.

Groople, the leading online group travel planning and booking site, announces the launch of an exciting travel and social networking tool, offering an integrated solution for the challenges of planning and booking group travel. GroopVine will allow users to create their own personalized trip page to plan, create, share, shop and buy travel with their entire group's input every step of the way. Providing helpful tools from event schedules and suggested itineraries to RSS feeds and online surveys, GroopVine makes group travel planning fun, collaborative and easy.

Travel Agency It appears that companies cost saving attitude toward managing travel has become permanent. For the fourth year in a row, weve seen a substantial increase in online booking, resulting in lower average ticket prices and agency fees. This year 75 percent of companies also said they rely on low cost airlines to help them reduce costs, said GetThere General Manager, Bev Heinritz.

Groople In the News Groople Selected by Bizbash as Provider for Group Travel Bookings June 1, BiZBash, the preeminent resource for the event planning industry, today announces a partnership with Groople.com, making Groople the exclusive online group travel partner for BiZBash's thousands of event professionals. BiZBash users now have Groople's group travel tools, with the unique ability to research and make group travel arrangements online. While most travel booking sites don't allow for group reservations at all, through BiZBash, hotel bookings for 5 rooms or hundreds of rooms are now simple to book and include special group rates. With an initial offering of hotels, the service will expand to offer airfare, cruise, car and rail bookings online. free number ( 4316) is available for arranging air, cruise, car and rail, as well as more complicated hotel requests.

Cheap Hotel Online on the Rise, Cost Savings Continue

Groople (www.groople.com), the leader in group travel planning, has partnered with Go10000, a travel focused development and hosting firm, to bring to market a new group collaboration site for the travel space. GroopVine will provide the solution to the complex communication and booking problems group travel planning can create. Enhancing the online travel space by combining the key elements of social networking such as invitations, forums, messaging, photos and video posting, with the best in online travel booking, GroopVine is the only place for group travelers to shop, plan and book together online.

Flight Booking Overall, companies reported that online bookings represent 60 percent of their total reservations on average, compared with 53 percent in 2003. They reported that trips booked online averaged 15 percent lower airfares and nearly 50 percent lower travel agency fees than those trips booked over the phone. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they are now using a specialized e-fulfillment center for online bookings, versus just 48 percent a year ago. These e-fulfillment centers help companies secure even lower transaction fees from their travel agencies.

Travel agents obtain some of their information from the same sources as online booking sites such as Orbitz and Travelocity. They also receive daily emails and faxes with new specials from resorts and hotels that may not be published on the internet. Travel agents can also call a place directly to see if they can work out other kinds of special deals for you, something an online site can’t do.

Travel Agent Companies With Simpler Travel Programs Achieve the Highest Adoption

Groople (www.groople.com), the leading online group travel booking and planning site, has partnered with Hotel Hotline (www.hotelhotline.com), an online hotel reservation site including the properties HotelHotline.com and HotelsCheap.org. Groople provides Hotel Hotline customers with the ability to search for and book group hotels that are appropriate for their group type. Groople's private label solution offers Hotel Hotline with a customized booking solution that satisfies the needs of their users. "Partnering with Groople gives Hotel Hotline access to dependable group booking technology and professional group travel customer service, " said Mike Stacy, CEO of Groople. "HotelsCheap knows the size and growth of the group market and sees Groople as the best way to tap into that market"

Hotel Chicago While large corporations were initially quicker to deploy online booking technology, this years survey showed medium-sized companies are averaging 65 percent adoption compared with 56 percent for larger companies. The high level of success among medium-sized businesses is most likely a result of their ability to more easily implement proven adoption/cost savings strategies such as senior executive endorsement.

Online Booking Adoption at International Locations Approaching North American Levels

Travel Health Insurance Although online booking became popular later outside of North America, 41 percent of respondents reported online travel activity for global offices. And, online adoption for offices in Europe and Asia averaged 55 percent, rapidly approaching the same level as North American offices.

Hotel Reservation Low-Cost Airlines Driving Down Prices and Costs

London Hotel Booking According to the responses, 75 percent of companies believe that low-cost carriers help them reduce travel expenses. The majority of companies reported that low-cost airlines not only provide lower airfares, but also provide greater choice, increase regional competition and help to reduce overall airfares from major air carriers.

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