Google Travel and the Death of Travel SEO

It’s not just Panda, Penguin and the other charmingly named Google search releases that have stuck the knife in… It’s Google Travel’s helpful presentation of relevant information that’s killing your SEO and SEM arbitrage.

For a great many years, travel suppliers have fought for browser “shelf space” in two ways above all:  paying Google for ads, and investing in SEO efforts.  The Holy Grail for many has been to be in the top 3 natural search results, or if not then at least on the first page, perhaps supported by a cost effective ad placement on that same page.

Commercially, this has given rise to a veritable military-industrial complex of in-house SEO teams, consulting SEO advisers, and “friends of Matt Cutts” who could divine the likely impact of each prior and pe...

Tingo.com: Orbitz Price Assurance + Expedia Inventory = Bingo?

Tripadvisor launched a new online hotel booking site today: Tingo.com. Dont look for it (yet) on the Tripadvisor site however – not even as a search comparison option.

Tingo takes a little bit from Expedia (hotel inventory), a little bit from Orbitz (Price Assurance) and combines them into what is pitched as a new offering where consumers “just can’t lose”

After a consumer books, Tingo continues to monitor the price of the booking to determine if the price has dropped. As many insiders know, hotels often actually drop rates as the departure date nears when demand fails to materialize. Yes, they raise rates too, but that isnt the issue if you have already booked. If Tingo finds the price has dropped, they rebook the room at the new price and refund the difference back to the hotel guest. Sound famil...

Guestmob: A New Level of Stupidity for Hoteliers?

This morning, we saw a FB posting from a good friend about a new website, Guestmob.com. Guestmob claims to offer prices “20-50%” lower than Kayak by pitting hotels “against each other for the right to fill empty hotel rooms”

Consumers enter the site and pick a destination and dates par usual, and then offered a selection of hotels grouped by star quality and neighborhood. Sound familiar to Hotwire or Priceline? Yes, except the hotel name and brands are exposed. As are the retail prices for these hotels.

Roomkey.com – Keys to the Castle for Hoteliers?

Roomkey.com, a new hotel metasearch site created by six of the largest hotel chains, launched recently.

With industry vet John Davis at the helm and backing from Choice, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Wyndham, it somewhat resembles the industry’s efforts to drive down costs and create consumer choice several years ago when a...