Thursday, January 18, 2007

Blog Name Change - BOMST - the Business of Meta-Search Travel

Latest news in the non-stop world of meta-search is that Cheapflights have made an investment (dont know how much) in flight options meta-search company dohop.com. Dohop's claims to fame are that (1) they are based in Iceland and (2) come at the search results from all of the routing options first then price. Most meta-search players (and online agents for that matter) look to searching availability (and that means fares). The prices it finds on complicated routings are very high but that is ok and to be expected. It is great to have a service that can help me get over missing GDS access as I can explore and examine route options and will. Good move for Cheapflights as it should help them deliver more and better options on each search.

I have been talking almost non-stop about meta-search since returning from my break - come to think of it leading up to the break as well. The activity in this sector is running at break neck speed. The BOMST acronym is nowhere near as catchy as "the BOOT" so will resist the urge to change but that will require either the meta-search boom to slow down or me to find other deals to write about.

I owe few responses in comments, particularly to Hotelsbycity on their engine and AsiaTravelMarket. Am working on those for next week.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Take a look to search engine Trabber. I think you will find it interesting.

Anonymous said...

Hi

Found your blog while searching for info on Webjet. Lot of good info - and I find it amazing that Webjet is successful with the fees that they add on as well! :) TV must work!

Anyway, I'm posting in the Meta-Search post 'cause I run www.iwantthatflight.com.au - returns the cheapest flights for domestic Oz. Check it out & let me know (via your blog, I guess) what you think.

Cheers,
Gath

Tim Hughes said...

Gath

Good to have you as a reader and will have a look at your site soon. I think that Webjet is playing a dangerous game with the loyalty of its customers in the fees it is charging but do not think the reason for success is the power of their TV campaign. Instead I think they have enjoyed a first mover advantage in their search technology providing all domestic inventory.

superhelix said...

Tim,

Maybe this is a good place to mention that VibeAgent, the hotel search engine, just scored $3 million to help it become the market leader in the space! Check out the news on TC in case you missed it - techcrunch.com/2008/11/17/vibeagent-raises-3-million-to-join-crowded-hotel-search-market/

Great to catch up at PCW, see you soon!

Cheers,

Adam