When Paul English’s Lola launched, it aimed to bring the traditional travel agent into the mobile-only space with a compelling personalized chat experience for travelers.
It’s already been established that homesharing giant Airbnb doesn’t need to go public anytime soon. But if it did, Airbnb may likely have a market capitalization larger than any hotel company — and be on par with some of the biggest online travel agencies.
The travel sector has seen dramatic changes to the customer journey in recent years. Gone are the days of a simple process with minimal touchpoints: flicking through brochures; speaking to a travel agent; deciding where to book.
This article originally appeared on RealSimple.com. You already know about all the secret perks that come with a Prime membership, but some of these lesser-known Amazon shopping tips can help save more money (even beyond the Amazon Prime Day deals that are out there right now!).
Deep in the jungles of Koth, in what was otherwise an unremarkable patch of rainforest, a situation was unfolding. The trees shook, the animals vacated the area in panic and the underbrush was trampled underfoot as a gigantic, furious hydra thundered through the area in pursuit of its target.
The way we travel through time, at a speed of one second per second, is so boring that we take it for absolute granted.
This week on Hack Your City, we got your travel advice on Superman’s favorite vacation spot, Niagara Falls. We’ve highlighted dozens of great tips in the Staff tab on the original comment thread. Below are a few of our favorites.
One year ago, my girlfriend Gaby and I were talking about career choices and life dreams while having dinner with a friend in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. I was terrified.
Live and Let’s Fly writes about a United flight where a father sat up in business class and left his 8 year old kid back in coach.
With budget airlines charging extra for passengers to take hold luggage on flights, many of us are opting to travel with just a cabin bag. Not only is it cheaper, but quicker once you get through passport control and it minimises any risk of your bag getting lost in transit.
Solo travel is growing in popularity. In fact, the number of first-time travelers who choose to go solo has more than doubled in recent years. Despite that, solo travelers are still a niche minority as most travelers prefer to go in couples or groups.
MANY of us have found ourselves trying to explain to friends and colleagues that, no, business travel isn’t as fun and glamorous as it seems. Finally, there could be proof to back this up.
Colin Nagy, head of strategy at Fred & Farid, a global advertising agency, writes this opinion column for Skift on hospitality, innovation, and business travel. “On Experience” dissects customer-centric experiences and innovation across hospitality, aviation, and beyond.
Often find yourself scrolling through your social feed, daydreaming about faraway lands, inspiring photography and life-changing adventure? Then you wake up and check your bank balance…dammit.
Unlike big, impersonal online agencies, the best travel agents know a great deal about their clients and their travel choices. Now several new travel companies are creating data-driven, automated agents that rely on users’ personal preferences to make the travel-planning process easier.
Everybody has their own travel style, along with preferred systems and tricks to make it easier, quicker, safer, and more enjoyable. But don't just ask me: I've asked the hardcore travel community to share their own travel secrets.
Welcome Stumbled Upon & Delicious Users: You may also want to check out our 180+ Best Money Saving Tools. Traveling doesn't have to break the bank (in fact, you can travel for free), and there are plenty of places that'll help you find the best vacation for your budget.
IT’S pretty much every travelers dream: to find a travel job that allows them to stay on the road for as long as possible. Some of these may be fairly obvious, but many are likely ones you haven’t thought of before.
If Paris is a croissant, crafted with immeasurable pride, kneaded by the hands of many, some visitors only get a taste of the flaky exterior. Whether you’re traveling for a long weekend or coming back for more, here’s a quick primer on getting to, from, and around this iconic city with ease.
We're as guilty of it as anyone: trotting out every ridiculously cheap flight from New York or Boston or Atlanta to some cool-ass European capital or coast and saying, eyes wide and spittle spraying, "Now's the time! Get to Europe!"
Flickr/Jonathan Cohen Instead of insulting your intelligence with "hacks" like "pack light," or "bring an empty water bottle," we've put together a list of tips and tricks that will help even the most seasoned jetsetter avoid the inevitable hassles of frequent flying.
We all know about the awesomeness of TripIt, Airbnb and Hipmunk and how they've revolutionized travel. But there's a new crew of travel startups taking flight and shaking up the industry even more.
Hey there! This page covers my complete minimalist travel guide. I'll share my exact system for packing light, my favorite pieces of ultralight travel gear, and my thoughts on why it is always better to travel the world with just one bag. I have traveled to more than 25 countries so far.
The boarding procedure has barely started at Chicago O'Hare, and Ben Schlappig has already taken over the first-class cabin.
Your bag says a lot about you. But more than that, it can be the difference between a great trip and a hellish travel experience.
The concept invaded my consciousness as only an insidious radio advert can. Then came that slogan: “Travel yourself interesting,” and here was the rub — the once tedious Mr. Nuttall had been injected with an ebullient charisma by way of a simple trip abroad.
Web: Most travel sites will ask you for your destination before you showing you the airfare. GeniusFlight puts the budget first in your travel search, and suggests international destinations based on how much you are willing to spend on plane tickets.
There is an article doing the rounds online at the moment called "Don't Date a Girl Who Travels." The writer discusses the perils of well... dating a girl who travels.
When you're travelling, especially if you're short on time, you really want to make the most of your destination so you go home feeling like you haven't missed anything and that you've really got a feel for the place.
Travel is good for lots of things, but it can also increase mental well-being - and not just in the short-term.
Long gone are the days in which being a travel photographer simply meant you shot photography for a certain travel magazine or newspaper. The world isn’t that simple anymore, and the level of competition in the photography world has never been higher.
The paradox of big-city travel is that you never really get a break.
As I’m writing this, the McKay family is about to head off for our annual family vacation.
So, you’re going to Japan, huh? Fantastic. You might have some questions. Hopefully, I’ll have some answers. Back in 2001, I visited Japan for the first time. I liked the country so much, I ended up staying. Permanently.
When is Google finally going to tie all of its travel products together and become an online travel agency to rival Expedia, the Priceline Group and, increasingly, Ctrip? Not anytime soon or even in the foreseeable future.
No, you don’t need to adjust your screen, nor are any of these the product of extreme photoshopping. Instead, these places (natural and manmade, seasonal and perennial) possess such incredible and unusual colors that it’s hard to believe they really exist.
Lombok – an island east of Bali, but less famous than its neighbor. While every year millions of tourists are attracted to Bali, many places on Lombok are still untouched. Over here mass tourism is still unknown.
You can glean a lot about a person from where they decide to go on holiday. Paris, for example, has long been synonymous with old romantics; Goa has a history of hippies; and the Costa-del-Sol has a well-documented association with on-the-run cons (hence its nickname, “Costa del Crime”).
Chances are you’re familiar with Google Flights. The travel search engine does everything you assume it would, like locate flights based on your ideal outbound time, inbound time and number of stops. After all, it’s the same technology that powers both KAYAK and Orbitz.
These are my best travel tips after traveling around the world for more than 6 years. Over the last few years I’ve been to over 90 countries, all 7 continents, and even lived in countries spanning 5 continents. I’ve learned a few things along the way.
Lists get a bad wrap, especially in the realm of travel, where ditching set plans and itineraries can lead to the greatest adventures. But with a world this big and a life so short, you might want to set a few specific goals for yourself to chase.
The absolute worst part of traveling, whether it’s for business or for pleasure, is packing and unpacking a suitcase. The work it takes to pack a bag is negligible, but having a clean inventory of clothes each time you pack takes far more planning.
Technology’s effects on the travel industry are widespread, with innovation signaling the dawn of a new age of travel products and services after the birth of the Internet and modern-communication systems.
Have you dreamed of having éclairs at an outdoor café in Paris, or seeing the northern lights in person? Have you ever imagined gasping in wonder as you photograph wild giraffes in Africa? Or do you just want to see the tiny village where your grandmother was born? If you dream of far-off destinat
This is the time for small paychecks and big memories. This is the time for travel. We are about as attached to one location as we are to our favorite Chinese take-out place. We know what we like about it, and we take comfort in the familiarity, but that's about it. - Jessy Tapper
If you've ever sat in a plane on the tarmac only to have the flight cancelled, been bumped just before boarding, or landed at your destination only to be told your luggage will arrive sometime in the next 12 hours, you know how air travel can suck.
How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Lucas Peterson, who writes the Frugal Traveler column, discussed the tech he’s using. As the Frugal Traveler, you visit countries all over the world on a tight budget.
While my last post covered my previous year traveling, writing and programming, this article will go into the specifics of planning your own round the world trip, including flights, costs, activities and accommodation.
Traveling alone is enlightening. It’s empowering. It’s explorative. People think you’re amazing after telling them a story about a place you traveled to on your own.
If you want to go see the Eiffel Tower or the Grand Canyon, there are tons of well-written travel guides to help. If you want something a little more offbeat, you’re probably on your own.
Adventuring alone sounds exciting, but it’s also scary. Like most people, I’ve done the majority of my traveling with friends and family. That is, until I realized that I had places I wanted to go and no one wanted to go with me.
This year, we covered a variety of topics to help you save time, money and your sanity while traveling. Here is a selection of those articles, with some tips and techniques gleaned from them. Share your ideas in the comments section. Which Travel Search Site Is Best? It Depends on Your Goals
Not quite a century ago, Vienna was downgraded from being the glorious capital of a sprawling empire to the capital of just one country, Austria. What remains undiminished is the city’s reputation as a capital of high living.
I recently booked a round-trip set of flights from Minneapolis to Shanghai in business class. I needed to head back to China to resume teaching English after the end of the photo season in Minneapolis, where I was shooting portraits and wedding photos.
Airbnb is making good on its global campaign promise to help guests “live there” with its newest product launch.
THE BIGGEST CITY in a country always seems to get the most attention, and while tourists flock in droves to these “first cities,” it takes a traveler with a slightly different agenda to skip them (and thereby many of the iconic sites the country is known for) and head to the second cities inst
“That’s the one,” said Coleman, pointing up at a drab, second-story apartment. We were standing on a street corner in Trondheim — a lovable, wharf-laden university town perched on the lip of a fjord in central Norway.
Getting away for a little vacation shouldn’t have to be expensive. There are tons of great sites to help you plan your next trip, whether it’s for business or pleasure, and compare flights, hotels, and train or bus tickets, all without breaking the bank.
Travel is one of the industries that has completely transformed by the smartphone evolution and as a result, there is an abundance of ingenious apps designed to make your trips easy to plan, cheaper, well-informed and more enjoyable.
It doesn’t take a seasoned traveler to know that flights are closer to full than ever. Passengers jockey for overhead space, wrestle over an armrest or are smacked by a reclining seat — at least those relegated to economy.
Traveling can be one of the most important, most memorable life experiences (especially if you're a student and study abroad).
I’ve mentioned a few times that going to every country in the world wasn’t as expensive as most people initially think. But how much did it really cost? The short answer is that I’m not 100% sure of the precise figure.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my Disclosure. It’s now been 7 years since I sold everything and left the United States to travel the world. These are the best travel tips I’ve discovered along the way.
I can't explain airline pricing, but I do know some plane tickets can be cheaper depending on where you buy them or, even better, where you appear to buy them from. This is all about leveraging foreign currencies and points-of-sale to your advantage.
The best light to capture most kinds of subjects is in the golden hours- one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset (depend off course on where you are on the globe). So get up early to get that amazing photo opportunities, while all the other tourists are still asleep.
It's never been easier to compare travel and accommodation prices using sites like Hipmunk, Kayak, or Google Flights, but a little extra legwork can save hundreds on airfare, hotels, and attractions.
Which airline booking sites offer the cheapest airfares? If your answer was Expedia — or any of the other dozens of online travel agencies — you’re wrong. If it was “They’re all the same,” you’re definitely wrong. “It’s so overwhelming, I have no idea”? You’re getting close.
I didn’t travel anywhere by myself until I was twenty-two. And then I spent a year as an international hobo. Now I travel alone all the time, for work and for pleasure. There is too much I want to do and see to wait for the perfect travel buddy. This post originally appeared on Medium.
If you’re paying for your own flights, it’s easy to choose the cheapest option. But the cheapest option isn’t always the best option. Connecting flights are sometimes necessary to get from one location to another, but look for direct flights if at all possible.
When traveling abroad alone, you typically want to stay connected for safety reasons. There’s another reason to make sure you can reach friends and family, though: solo travel gets lonely. Adventuring alone sounds exciting, but it’s also scary.
Every year our US-based editors team up with Lonely Planet’s expert authors to compile a list of US destinations that are prime for the next year.
One year ago, I left San Francisco, sold and gave away everything I owned, and moved into a 40-liter backpack. And my total costs were less than just the rent in San Francisco.
The popular search site Kayak.com handles more than one billion travel booking searches annually, primarily for airfare and hotels.
iOS/Android: Google has been tiptoeing the travel game for a while now with useful tools like Google Flights and their hotel search function. Today, they completely jumped in with a new app that manages and helps plan your trip from start to finish.
I floated in a steamy, 38C rooftop pool, watching glints of the sinking copper sun reflect off the Rhäetian Alps.
If you’re looking to use some vacation days, but you’re not sure where you want to go, travel booking site Wander lets you search based on your overall travel budget. Fear not wanderlust-stricken soul. Whether you’ve saved up $500 or $5,000, there’s a trip out there for you.
One secret that hardcore business travelers know is you can often fly first class or business class for almost the same as flying coach (and sometimes it's just as cheap). Certain seats are priced like coach but actually upgrade you automatically. You can find them on ITA Software's Matrix.
Barcelona based TravelPerk, a business travel booking platform founded last year by a team of ex-Booking.com employees, has closed a $7 million Series A round of financing led by Spark Capital. Additional investors including Sunstone Capital and existing backer LocalGlobe.
There is no doubt that travel photography is an incredibly rewarding profession because you have an opportunity to tell stories through your own pictures. But it is also one of the most challenging genres to master.
Last updated: 1st March 2018. On the 17th July 2011, a very timid version of myself stepped onto a plane with a one-way ticket in hand. I hadn’t travelled alone before, and never for more than two weeks at a time. Travel was brand new and I had no idea what I was doing.
Looking for inspiration for your travels? Browse our 40 fabulous destinations around the world from capitals of culture to palm-fringed beaches, remote wildernesses to a new museum at the Pyramids
I travel around 15 times a year, most of them with my own money. Today I’m sharing my travel hacking tips to help you find the cheapest flights to anywhere in the world. As I’ve often preached, travel doesn’t need to be expensive.
The Maldives is a fascinating country to travel to independently, not least because it’s only been possible to do so for the past five years. Now, guesthouses are springing up on local islands on a seemingly monthly basis, offering budget travellers an affordable way to explore the country.
I can't explain airline pricing but I do know some plane tickets can be cheaper depending on where you buy them or, even better, where you appear to buy them from. This is all about leveraging foreign currencies and points-of-sale to your advantage.
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The next time you travel and want to budget out your trip, Numbeo will tell you the incidental costs of your travel in any city, including transportation and eating out.
If you want your next vacation experience to come with pre-planned activities and dining options built-in, consider a cruise or an all-inclusive resort. If you can't decide which one you prefer, these tips will help you choose.
When the 1962 Ford Galaxie convertible cruised up the hill, my car-crazy son Caleb, 15, was behind the wheel, a giddy smile on his face. It was a moment that drove home the idea that Airbnb, which I had associated with solo travelers in their 20s, could bring something unique to family vacations.
If you’re anything like me, you spend a lot of time packing for a trip. You painstakingly plan out everything to bring, make a full list, then Tetris everything into your luggage. A better solution? Keep a permanent travel drawer.
(Photo: Marc P. Demoz) OK, I’ve had a few short posts recently. Now it’s time for my favorite: a post you will want to print out, refer to often, and take with you on adventures. In this case, we’ll explore budget travel that is luxury travel.
You’ve got a long weekend or a few days in Prague and you’ve not had a great deal of time to go through the recommended guide books. Prague has hundreds of tourist attractions catering to a wide range of tastes and interests.
How is it that a paper that could not get published had the fourth highest reported Altmetric score for all scientific contributions in 2013 (Liu 2014)? This contribution to the Grain has the interesting backstory, written at the request of a Winnower editor.
As my plane descended into Yemen’s international airport and I had just finished reading the country’s English-language newspaper, I noticed a small article about a Dutch tourist who had recently been kidnapped by a hill tribe and released after two weeks of negotiations.
If you don’t know much about Cuba, Airbnb’s recent announcement that it has begun booking rooms there sounds pretty unremarkable. After all, Airbnb operates in more than 190 countries, and its offerings are as diverse as they are plentiful.