With the ever-increasing proliferation of smartphones and tablets, mobile internet access and apps, consumers are becoming much more comfortable with browsing and shopping through the mobile.

As a result, many business sectors are having to really push forward their multi-channel strategy and approach to mobile, and travel is one of these.

There is one area of importance potentially above all others when it comes to successful mobile engagement – the experience.

Consumers have very personal relationships with their mobile devices, so it becomes even more crucial than on other digital channels, that the user experience is right and that the recipient is engaged with on their terms.

At Webcredible, we have been doing a lot of consultancy around the mobile user experience and have recently been working a lot within the travel sector.

A recent customer was Hotels.com, which wanted to optimise its mobile offering in line with customer requirements with the further aim of producing results that would improve brand experience, customer satisfaction and loyalty through the mobile channel.

This is a common problem, for many travel brands when looking to make moves in mobile.

The approach to mobile will differ according to the brand itself, but there are some best practice tips that travel brands can follow when looking to optimise the mobile experience for their customers.

1. Reduce the amount of content

Not everything shown on a PC site can fit reasonably onto a mobile web page, where space is short and every pixel counts.

It’s important to reduce the amount of content shown on the mobile-optimised version. Only include the most important content or features.

2. Use single column layouts

Website pages are difficult to view on small mobile phone screens. Even on smartphones like the iPhone with their relatively large screens, standard web pages load up zoomed out so that they can fit on the screen.

Instead, create single column pages that use up the whole width of the screen.

To add additional content the page should expand downwards rather than across, as scrolling down is easier than scrolling across and users generally prefer it.

3. Present the navigation differently

It’s difficult to fit the navigation across the top of the screen on a mobile web page, therefore you must look for alternative options to display the navigation.

A few options include:

• Place the navigation and site search at the top of the page and leave the content for later pages. This is suitable for users who want to navigate or search upon immediately finding the site – a common action with travel websites
• Place the navigation at the bottom – still accessible but doesn’t get in the way of the content
• Place the navigation in a dropdown link at the top of the page

4. Minimise text entry

Text entry on a mobile phone is much more difficult than when using a desktop or laptop keyboard, so mobile websites must take this into account.

Allowing users to store details in their “My Account” section is helpful, and if they already have an online account, then linking this to them as a mobile user will also avoid any unnecessary text entry.

5. Decide whether you need more than one mobile site

If your mobile website is only going to be seen by smartphone users with fast download speeds then one mobile version will be ok.

However, if you want a broader reach then you should consider creating a paired down version. Facebook goes as far as having three main mobile versions.

6. Take advantage of inbuilt functionality

Many mobile phones have an advantage over PCs – they come with lots of inbuilt functionality that most PCs don’t have.

You can make it easier for users to perform certain tasks by utilising a mobile’s inbuilt functionality and thereby remove the need for manual steps, for example; making calls, seeing an address on a map and finding the nearest.

However, although these kind of best practice guidelines can help with some ‘quick wins’ for your mobile proposition, travel brands must ensure that their mobile strategies are based on real insights into the behaviours and needs of their audiences and target markets through the customer lifecycle.

Live example

In the case of Hotels.com, Webcredible worked to gain more of an understanding of smartphone users’ use of mobile sites and applications (and any other activity) to guide the development of its mobile website and iPhone and Android apps.

The main objectives of the research was to learn:

How people use smartphones in relation to researching, planning and booking travel
How smartphones are used by travellers while they travel to their destination and how they’re used during holidays and business trips
What are the current barriers that prevent some users from travel-related smartphone use

We used diary study methods, interviews and expert analysis projects, along with its mobile industry knowledge and integrated research, to produce a set of guidelines and recommendations for Hotels.com to build its mobile strategy, which were detailed in a report which:

• Mapped smartphone use against the travel lifecycle
• Updated existing personas to include smartphone use
• Highlighted current attitudes and behaviours towards arranging hotels, flights, meals entertainment and other activities across digital channels
• Reported on how smartphones are being used to store travel-related information
• Discussed current barriers to using smartphones for bookings
• Offered ideas and suggestions for future smartphone opportunities

The importance of a mobile optimised website cannot be underestimated in the travel industry.

When online, if a user struggles to complete a task on your website, they are very likely to simply “drop-off” and go to a competitor’s site.

With the increase in speed of mobile devices and connections, this type of behaviour will become increasingly prevalent on mobile devices as well and travel brands need to ensure they’re providing a mobile user experience that seamlessly matches the online experience, making it easy for consumers to complete the tasks they want, when they want, through whichever platform they want.

NB: This is a guest article by Trenton Moss, director at UK-based Webcredible.

Today, travel agents,  the human kind,  are either corporate agents or the entrepreneurial types who are scraping as fast as they can to make a buck, euro or quid.

Frankly, in the ever urgent world of needing to make money from the shrinking pie, they have to be increasingly efficient and don’t do things unless it contributes to the bottom line.

Agents are also very dependent on their GDSs, acknowledge the frailty of the system but, in the case of European agents at least, the extent of the content is barely adequate to provide ubiquitous service.

However, the increasing complexity in travel without the corresponding increases in net revenue makes for a hard life – things aren’t as much fun any more and perhaps agents have an inbuilt resistance to change.

At a recent Web In Travel conference in Singapore, Gerry Samuels of Mobile Travel Technologies, told a story of how when he was asked to develop an agent mobile solution, he developed a couple of options but agents chose the familiar green screen lookalike.

And how does the consumer perceive the agent?

To gauge this, I typed “why travel agents suck” into Google and turned up a pretty significant cache of results but put it in quotes and the results drop to nine.

Contrast this with the search term “why travel agents still exist” and you get 1970 results  - good news or false hope?

Part of the problem is they are choosing something familiar and don’t know what will work in future.

They tend to be mired in process and the here and now, not that future state that mobile is representative of.

And, as the Boomers leave the market, older agents are retiring and dying off, imagine the new workforce coming in who won’t know how to work with green screens (or even blue ones for that matter!).

Like many businesses which struggle with the evolution of technology, the travel industry has tried very hard to make mobile a cornerstone of the next generation platforms.

But. are these solutions just pursuing technology for its own sake?

Perhaps a critical question is how are we making it interesting for young people – the internet generation – to work for the industry? Can we entice them in? Or are there just too many older generations trying to migrate their business instead of allowing creation of new business?

Sadly, the position I would argue is that intermediaries didn’t realise the importance of mobile and delegated responsibility (as they have for many years) to the suppliers and now find themselves out of the loop.

Indeed by ignoring mobile agents were bypassed by the suppliers and providers who found they could go direct to the consumer and that an agent in the loop didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

There is no shortage of applications for users of travel in the mobile space, but what about the number of b2b applications for the intermediary community? Very few are operating today.

Mobile in travel has a broader meaning than just fully functioning “agent in a box” services.

Most will agree that the better apps tend to do one thing really well and travel with all its complexity is not easy to do well.

And perhaps that is the crux of this story – agents left high and dry by mobile are a victim of the evolution of travel.

NB: Image via Shutterstock

There was no such thing as an iPad in 2004.

Maria Sharapova beat Serena Williams in two sets at Wimbledon that year.

And, in 2004, Kayak issued Blackberrys to all of its engineers so they could “communicate instantly 24/7,” according to a recent blog post.

Not that Kayak engineers getting Blackberrys as standard issue was as momentous an event as IBM exiting the PC business, but it was a sign of the times.

And, now the times have changed. Kayak announced that it is dropping support of its Blackberry app, meaning there will be no new features, updates or bug fixes.

“RIM [Research in Motion] was a smartphone pioneer and we thank them for what they’ve done, and wish them renewed success,” Kayak states. “BlackBerry was (and is) an amazing messaging platform. But it’s not working out to be a great channel for consumer mobile applications, which is what leads us to this sad post.”

It sounds like Kayak isn’t placing its bets on a RIM turnaround, although Robert Birge, Kayak’s chief marketing officer, says the company would reconsider support for its Blackberry app if RIM’s prospects change.

“We definitely want to support people who use BlackBerry but unfortunately RIM has been very unsuccessful in developing their platform for apps in anyway that makes it an attractive channel for a developer to invest,” Birge says. “It really was a simple cost/benefit decision — no/low growth, low usage per download, etc. Hopefully their updated mobile browser will make it easier for BlackBerry users to access services like Kayak via m.web.”

Kayak recently announced that its various apps have been downloaded more than 12 million times.

“We’ll invest resources against any successful platform,” Birge says. “Right now, we believe that iPhone and Android will be successful and hold out hope for Windows Phone.”

And, eight years from now … who knows.

JetBlue.com not only has a simplified and clean “look and feel,” but it also jumps on the personalization bandwagon by displaying fares from your most recent departure airports and real-time flight updates when your departure time nears.

And, a new Pick Me Up feature for the websites and mobile app enables you to send your itinerary, replete with directions to the airport, to the person retrieving you from your flight.

JetBlue also integrated Akamai technology into the redesign not only to enhance the websites’ speed, but also to enhance personalization with a targeting engine based on geo-location, travel history and preferences, the airline says.

And, Jetblue’s new iPhone app features a so-called “smart home screen,” which provides timely updates about your upcoming flight on the app’s home screen.

On the merchandising front, app users can view the DIRECTV schedule and SiriusXM Satellite Radio channel line-up for your upcoming flight.

And, signing into your TrueBlue loyalty program account makes both the websites and mobile app experience more personal, the airline says.

Digital agency Rokkan handled the redesigns and Double Encore served as JetBlue’s mobile app developer.

 American Express Global Business Travel surveyed nearly 100 of these businesses about their corporate travel policies and found several shocking gaps, including one related to mobile adoption.

“None of the travel policies addressed the use of mobile applications or even referenced tools they may have available for travelers to use on the road or when working remotely,” American Express states.

That is “none,” as in zero out of 100.

All agree that business travelers have been early adopters of mobile technologies for travel, and many of the surveyed corporations undoubtedly have developed or offer mobile tools for their employees.

But, it all went missing in their corporate travel policies.

“A successful travel policy should include rules for these resources and help travelers find and take advantage of them to save time and increase compliance,” American Express says.

Without referring to the mobile issue specifically, American Express Global Travel suggests that corporations should get employees involved and revisit travel policies for “relevancy.” If corporations do so, they undoubtedly will take up the mobile issue in their subsequent policies.

“Establish a policy team with representatives from all stakeholders, including those that can represent the traveler, and charge them with the maintenance of the travel policy,” American Express suggests. “Then communicate changes to travelers so everyone can stay current.”

The mobile gap in corporate travel policies wasn’t the only omission uncovered by the travel management company.

The American Express Global Business Travel survey also found:

• 80% of the policies failed to address reimbursement of ancillary fees for add-on purchases at hotel and car-rental companies, as well as bag fees and reservations changes;

• Only 12% of the policies covered traveler security issues; and

• 70% of the companies provided no specific guidelines on when it is appropriate to book a cheaper flight through a nonpreferred airline.

Fewer than one-third of the policies reviewed had been updated over the last year, the survey found.

Note: Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

ViewTrip is an existing desktop service for Travelport-connected customers, but the latest incarnation has been developed solely for Android and iPhone mobile devices.

ViewTrip Mobile is essentially a mobile travel concierge service which will be made available via travel agencies, primarily in the corporate travel sector.

Travelport CIO Mark Ryan first hinted that a mobile version of ViewTrip was in development in January this year.

Tools included on the service range from live flight alerts and updates and airport/city guides to GPS-enabled amenity and service finding tools (such as restaurants) and a currency converter.

But clearly the main element of the app is the management service, allowing users to add and edit travel arrangements from their handset.

Travelport’s ViewTrip Mobile joins the likes of the Mobile Travel Assistant from Amadeus and TripCase/GetThere mobile products through Sabre.

Travelport is introducing its effort in the UK first, with other countries expected to come on-board from the second quarter of 2012.

Corporate travel agency Chelsea Travel Management was involved in a testing programme for the tool, labelling it “one of the richest apps of its kind”.

Alongside my Tnooz Predictions 2012, where I pondered whether Apple might cosy up with Kayak, my response was that companies should focus on getting the basics right first (develop a coherent mobile strategy, create mobile optimized versions of their websites) before even worrying about what’s next.

I’m a big advocate for creating native or hybrid apps, depending on the type of engagement you desire with your customer (a topic for a whole other post), but creating a mobile optimized website is pretty much a must these days, considering how much search and browsing is done on mobile devices.

It seems a recent report from L2ThinkTank bears out my view.

The report focuses primarily on luxury brands, which they refer to as the Prestige100 (though I’m not quite sure how Macy’s makes the list – but I digress).

Though the report is limited to luxury brands, it’s my impression that the results are at least directionally applicable to the overall state of mobile maturity across various sectors.

Their research shows that many of these brands are not yet mastering the basics, as indicated by this chart recreated by eMarketer:

So what are the takeaways for the travel sector?

In many ways the results don’t differ much from what I had noted ten months ago in a previous article for Tnooz.

The only companies that fit into the Prestige100 were luxury hotels (one might have thought that carriers such as Singapore Airlines or Emirates, or luxury cruise lines like SilverSea, might have made the cut, but alas, no).

Intercontinental made the “Gifted” class and, as a whole, the “hospitality” segment averaged a score of 86, which falls into the “challenged” category.

The good news is that it puts the hospitality sector as the second highest rated industry, behind retail, but also shows there’s still a long way to go. And I would further speculate that the scores for the non-luxury hotels would come up even a bit lower still.

NB: The report from L2 is available is below:

Actually you need both, but consider the experiences of travel metasearch site Kayak.

Kayak has attracted more than 10 million downloads of its mobile apps for iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Phone 7 and HP Touchpad, with iPhone and Android notching first and second place, respectively, in terms of apps which have scored the most downloads, says Paul English, co-founder and chief technology officer.

But there is a difference between the commerce proclivities of Kayak’s iPhone and Android users, English says.

In sum, iPhone users buy stuff online and Android users mostly don’t.

By “stuff,” of course, we mean travel products.

“People who have iPhones actually buy travel online and people who have Androids don’t really,” English says.

He wonders whether it is a “demographics issue.”

Regardless of the reason, Kayak’s iPhone users show more loyalty and click through more often than its Android users, English says.

Going beyond the anecdotal evidence, last summer the Hunch Blog published an infographic  detailing a user survey about the demographics’ and other differences between iOS and Android users.

Among the myriad findings:

•  iPhone/iOS users tend to have more females in their ranks, are older, have higher incomes and are more likely to have American Express credit cards in their wallets or purses than Android users;

• While Android users are “36% more likely to not remember their last vacation,” on the other hand iPhone/iOS users are 15% more likely to have taken a vacation in the last six months, and were 55% more likely to have used their frequent flyer miles to have taken several free rewards flights during 2011;

• Also, importantly, Android users tend to favor Honey Nut Cheerios while iOS/iPhone users favor Rice Krispies.

There is it is — the different tendencies and attributes of Android versus iPhone users — and the implications for travel commerce.

Snap! Crackle! Pop!

Is NFC ready for prime time? 2011 saw just four articles on Tnooz tagged with NFC (Near Field Communication), one of which was a futuristic video.

2012 will undoubtedly see a lot more written about NFC (starting here), but the real question is, will passengers see widespread use of NFC-enabled smartphones?

In truth, it’s unlikely.

In this article, I’ll go into some detail about some of the lessons we’ve learned during a SITA Lab proof of concept project (developed with Orange Business Services), list some problems limiting adoption, and what the industry is doing to address these problems.

Why NFC has value for passengers

NFC offers many benefits to the travel industry but I’ll focus on the passenger self-service uses identified by the IATA Fast Travel Programme, and highlighted in the joint GSMA/IATA document on mobile NFC for Air Travel.

Of course passengers can already use mobile boarding passes at self-service touch points in the airport – automatic security gates, lounge access, self-boarding. But the experience is not as smooth as it could be, especially at the point of use in the airport.

For example, with self-boarding the passenger has to visually present the barcode by unlocking the phone and then accessing a web URL or navigating through a phone app. In the SITA Passenger Self- Service Survey (2011), SITA found that 21% of passengers did not use a phone to board because it was perceived as too complex, and 12% cited the risk of the phone not functioning properly.

NFC promises a simpler experience as passengers simply place their phone on the reader and the boarding pass is read automatically. Passengers don’t even need to switch their phone on, they just “tap and go”.

For NFC to justify the costs of rollout and deliver real benefits it must simplify the passenger experience, and not just be a technology swap. And this makes the “tap and go” experience important.

But NFC phones are already here – what’s the problem?

The major device manufacturers have either released devices with NFC capabilities, or have announced that they will do so in 2012. But not all NFC phones are made equal, and what is not made clear is what type of NFC communications they support.

By and large, they all support basic NFC tag reading. But, the most exciting thing you can do with an NFC phone ’off the shelf’ is to hold your phone to an advert and get even more adverts. So, what are the different NFC types, and why does it matter?

NFC comes in several flavours:

1. Reader/writer mode.

The use case here is to tap your phone against a smart tag (e.g. embedded in a poster) to get more info about that poster, maybe launch a web page. The phone reads data from the tag.

This is a good way for a passenger to get data but not a good way for the airport touch points to get data from the passenger.

2. Peer to Peer mode.

Hold two NFC phones together, or hold a NFC phone to a device and the devices will exchange information. This data can be anything from business card data to videos, to passenger data.

But Peer to Peer mode is user-initiated and features proprietary data exchange protocols. Again, not a great way for the airport touch points to get data from the passenger.

3. Card Emulation mode.

In this mode, the phone emulates a contactless smart card (such as the London Underground Oyster Card). A reader (e.g. boarding gate) can read a boarding pass from the phone.

And crucially, it does this without any user interaction.

When it comes to simplifying the user experience, card emulation is the crown jewel of NFC. It is the only NFC mode that will let a device read data from a phone without requiring the phone user to initiate the process or even take any active part in the process.

But to understand how it does this is to understand some of the problems holding NFC back. So, let’s consider what happens in card emulation mode.

Cardlets – not your ordinary app

But first, an introduction to the Secure Element and cardlets. The Secure Element is a special chip on the phone that can store data and run cardlets. There are multiple implementations of the Secure Element:

• In the GSMA model, the SIM acts as the Secure Element.
• Google Wallet uses an embedded Secure Element
• Visa is proposing using a secure memory card

In all cases, the cardlet is an application that executes on the Secure Element to manage data. It runs in this secure environment outside of the main phone OS. A Secure Element can contain multiple cardlets – each cardlet has a unique ID.

So, in the self-boarding scenario, the following sequence of events happen:

• The passenger holds the phone near a boarding gate NFC reader
• Boarding gate reader selects the cardlet from the Secure Element using the pre-assigned cardlet ID (there may be multiple cardlets on the Secure Element)
• The cardlet validates that the boarding gate is authentic by using a secret challenge/response
• The boarding gate reader then issues a query to get the appropriate boarding pass from the cardlet. (there may be more than one boarding pass on the phone)
• The cardlet responds with a boarding pass (data is encoded in format IATA Resolution 792 just like 2DBCs)

This brings up several problems, for which there are currently no standard solutions. Some problems must be solved by the air transport industry, and some must be solved by the mobile industry (mobile network operators, device manufacturers and mobile operating system vendors).

Mobile Industry Challenges:

1. How do you install a cardlet app on the Secure Element?

Not through the app store, that’s for sure! An update to the Secure Element can typically only take place over a contactless interface (e.g. charging your Oyster card) or Over The Air (OTA) via a Trusted Service Manager. But the developer community needs an API or a Service for this.

2. How do you send the boarding pass data to the Secure Element?

Again, the developer community needs an API or a service for this.

Air Transport Industry Challenges:

The challenges facing the air transport industry are ensuring the appropriate boarding pass is presented securely to authorized readers. A passenger can have more than one boarding pass stored on the phone but a security or gate reader should get the appropriate boarding pass automatically.

The appropriate boarding pass depends on the location (airport), the date or time, and the context (passenger boarding a flight, at security, duty free, lounge access, etc.).

• A reader must know the cardlet ID in order to query that cardlet. Should there be one cardlet for the ATI? Or a cardlet per airline, per alliance, airport or country/region? Given that each cardlet app must be uniquely identified, who will manage and allocate unique cardlet IDs?
• How to ensure security and a consistent way to retrieve a boarding pass between the reader and the various NFC- enabled phones.

For the mobile industry issues, we are seeing solutions emerge from GSMA (promoting the use of the SIM as the Secure Element).

They have established the Open Mobile API initiative which has already been incorporated into some Android NFC devices as a way for the application to access the Secure Element in an Android NFC phone.

Google has its Google Wallet which uses the embedded Secure Element, but it is a closed shop and there are no public APIs for Secure Element access. The picture is less clear when it comes to the other players such as RIM, Nokia and Microsoft. Apple, as is the norm, is silent on the issue.

IATA is taking the lead in the air transport industry and the Fast Travel Workgroup is working through the problems and opportunities to define the necessary standards to ensure NFC boarding passes can be use consistently across different airlines and airports. Interoperable standards are key to the success and adoption of NFC.

Next steps?

In 2012, SITA Lab will continue with NFC as a research project, both with Orange Business Services and others. Our aim is to release the current proof of concept “into the wild” (albeit on a limited basis), and to continue to work with industry organisations – such as IATA – airlines and airports to establish global standards to ensure the NFC ecosystem is as interoperable as current e-ticketing or 2DBC services.

As an industry, air transport must push the mobile industry players to solve problems that are blocking adoption. Watch this space.

Here is a clip:

NB: This is a guest article by Kevin O’Sullivan, lead engineer at SITA Lab.

NB2: Image via Shutterstock.

And now with Siri included as part of the latest Apple iPhone, some applications are emerging, including a system developed by social travel booking startup Bonvoy.

In this clip, Bonvoy founder and CEO Mujteba Naqvi demonstrates how the system works, including integration into the existing Bonvoy search and booking system.

The idea mirrors in part the winning entry to THack London in February 2011, developed by SITA Lab, using voice recognition on a Android mobile device.

The iPad app enables you to track a ship and receive updates, and showcases itineraries, route maps, port photos and re-sizable deck plans from 30 cruise lines, along with the Revelex-powered ability to book 13 of them.

Most iPad users access the app for dreaming and planning, but still call to book, although Cruise Finder provides booking capabilities for Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Azamara, Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, Disney Cruise, Holland America, Princess, Seabourn, Crystal, Cunard, MSC Cruises and Costa Cruises, says Uf Tukel, founder and co-president of parent company WMPH Vacations.

iCruise, which has no ties to Apple and its patent activities, has had iPhone and Android apps on the market for some time, but wanted to introduce an iPad app to take advantage of Wave Season’s booking windfall.

“We wanted to harness as much as we could from our website and smartphone apps,” Tukel says. “However, most of those images weren’t optimized for iPad. As a result, we had to create over 20,000 new images that would present well on multiple platforms.”

In addition, iCruise coders had a complex task in adequately rendering deck plans given the iPad’s “pinch and zoom functionality,” Tukel adds.

In addition to free iPhone, iPad and Android apps, iCruise.com has a mobile website.

And, a Kindle Fire version of Cruise Finder is in the works and slated for introduction by the end of the first quarter.

However, by that time Wave Season will have just about sailed.

The company, which operates a on-demand car services via its mobile apps or text message in cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago New York City, Washington, D.C., and Boston, issued a couple of blog posts, including this one, to justify why it boosted prices exponentially on New Year’s Eve to meet the holiday crush.

The prices hikes, which Uber says was meant to ensure that there were enough cars available to meet demand, led to a barrage of tweets such as this one from Aubrey Sabala, complaining that Uber charged her $107 for a 1.5 mile ride on New Year’s Eve.

And, there was this sarcastic tweet from Gabe Rivera, wondering why Uber’s rates were equivalent to asking him for a 5% stake in his company.

Uber claims it was transparent about the entire episode, warning customers before they requested service at one point, for example, that rates on New Year’s Eve were 6.25 times higher than normal, and if they waited awhile, then prices would dip.

Uber says it also notified customers in October about surge pricing — which is not to be confused with the US surge in Iraq — through a blog post and email, as well as follow-up emails, tweets and another blog post December 31.

Uber defended its supposed supply-and- demand pricing, arguing that hotels and airlines commonly engage in demand pricing, and adding that its customer base just may have not been used to the idea in the car-service sector.

In addition to the follow-up blog post, Uber has been active making amends of sort on Twitter and pledging to customers that “we’ll do what we can to make things right.”

Perhaps one lesson to be gauged out of the mess is that sometimes transparency is not enough when you are moving in a direction that customers can’t stomach.

After all, airlines may list their bag fees on their websites, but that may not make them more palatable to passengers.

Of course, one Uber competitor, Limos.com, which got into a tiff with GroundLink recently, couldn’t resist jumping into the Uber storm, as well.

T.J Clark, the Limos.com CEO, likened the Uber scenario to customers only checking one airline site when they book flights. Clark says:

Customers who book last-minute tickets (and only check one airline) will generally pay higher prices (Uber). Whereas consumers who plan ahead and book a ticket through travel shopping sites like Orbitz and Expedia (Limos.com) will generally see significant savings.

“By offering a truly competitive marketplace where private car companies can compete for the customer’s business, Limos.com allows the transparent marketplace to set the price, as opposed to Uber’s model where they only allow you to book last minute and Uber dictates the prices — holidays and everyday.

It looks like there will be no holiday-like respite in the fisticuffs between car service companies and models as 2012 gets under way.

So with that tension in mind, and as luck would have it during a trip to a conference this year in Holland, Tnooz found the perfect image to demonstrate both points of view.

In October the Hotel Casa 400 in Amsterdam posted signs above every urinal in the male toilets, each with a QR code which would direct, err, users to a page on the property’s website.

One the one hand the use of codes in the toilets shows some degree of imagination – capture guests during seemingly idle moments, let them know about various services the hotel offers.

But surely there are practical considerations here, right? Or is there some QR Code etiquette?

Presumably users are expected to snap the code with their smartphones while they use the toilet, or, more hygienically, do they come back after washing their hands, politely asking the person now perhaps occupying the area to step aside for a moment?

Jokes aside, such a scenario illustrates why some consider QR Codes to be nothing short of an annoyance and waste of time.

Neverthless, QR Codes do appear to be popular with marketers, attempting to capture the apparent zeitgeist before the next gizmo comes along.

Indeed, Tnooz has heard of at least one European tour operator which placed a QR Code within a press display ad and saw “significant levels of activity” as a result.

Here is an infographic which illustrates some of the key datapoints from QR Codes, in terms of how they are used.

It appears for the time being that QR Codes will survive (or, at least, not find themselves flushed down the toilet just yet), but realistically they will only last until something better comes along.

But with the speed in which smartphone cameras and Near Field Communications are developing, QR Coders haters will probably not have to wait too long… just a few more trips to the gents.

Regardless of the platform, the apps enable users to search for hotels and check rates, and book hotels for all of InterContinental’s seven brands, as well as view or cancel reservations.

And, InterContinental lays claim to being “the first hotel company to launch apps for both Kindle Fire and Google TV.”

Users can find the Kindle Fire app in the Amazon Appstore for Android, and both the Google TV and Android tablet apps are ready for download in the Android Market, InterContinental says.

The Priority Club Rewards app had been available for Android smartphones since July 2010, and InterContinental had launched an iPhone app in April 2010.

“Extending our solutions to work with Kindle Fire, Google TV and Android Tablets is key to our next-generation personal technology strategy,” says Michael Menis, vice president, Web and Interactive Marketing, at InterContinental.  ”As consumers embrace new devices like tablets and interactive television, we will continue to expand our reservation options and brand presence through these fast-growing, emerging touch points.”

Readying apps for diverse touch points is becoming a key mobile challenge for travel and other companies.

For example, Google says Android developers can migrate their Android apps to Google TV, but those including touchscreen functionality, telephony or GPS features won’t make the cut.

Because travelers are inherently “mobile”, it’s natural that travel companies have been early adopters in mobile, often blazing the trail in the mobile industry.

They were the first to have a transactional mobile site, first to leverage mobile apps, first to reach a global audience, and so forth.

By understanding the mobile traveler’s behavior, companies can leverage different mobile technologies to create new experiences that ease a traveler’s journey.

A notification strategy, for instance, is a great way to capitalize on existing technologies that can benefit the mobile traveler.

This article outlines top tips on how travel brands can use push notifications, SMS, and email notifications to maximize their customer engagement in the travel space.

1. Pushing information to plugged-in users

Push notifications is a native functionality in an app, where data can be sent to a user’s smartphone based on their location. Even if the app is closed, these messages can pop up on the user’s home screen to alert users with targeted messages.

This provides an effective way for travel companies to notify consumers of the latest travel warnings, deals, offers, flight changes, and more.

Delta Airlines is a great example of a travel company that has not only been successful in its overall mobile presence but has also effectively used push notifications that add value to the traveler.

In the era of smartphones, Delta recognized the importance of providing their customers with up-to-the-minute travel alerts, incorporating push notifications into their native app that immediately updates travelers with relevant flight information, warnings, deals, and more.

2. Texting campaigns have a real impact

With the rapid expansion of mobile broadband and wireless technology, travel companies have found that SMS allows them to effectively communicate with consumers in both a personal and timely manner.

Consumers must opt in to receive SMS alerts, ensuring that travel brands only send messages to consumers who are receptive to receiving them. SMS is an extremely effective means for travel companies to interact with consumers on an ongoing basis to deepen brand loyalty.

The Hilton Hotel Group has successfully leveraged text messaging to increase guest numbers to its hotels and build customer loyalty. SMS enables Hilton to instantly send out important marketing messages such as on-site specials and promotions, at the most appropriate time of day.

As a result of their text messaging efforts, the hotel has seen a 10-25% increase in offer redemptions, an increase in conversion that is a direct result of putting relevant content in front of the right people.

Similarly, Delta Airlines uses text messages as a way to keep travelers up to speed on crucial flight information. Users can choose to subscribe and get updates on all flights, or receive a one-time alert on a specific flight.

Both options provide users with up-to-the minute alerts on flight cancellations, delays, and schedule changes.

3. Maximizing email notifications in mobile

With more than 20% of email marketing messages read on mobile devices, it’s essential for travel brands make sure that all links users visit from their smartphones direct them to a mobile optimized view of the site.

Additionally, deep links, which are links that bring users to a subsection of the website beyond the homepage, must also be optimized for mobile in order to maximize the traffic that is driven to the site from mobile devices.

For example, if a smartphone user follows a link from an email campaign that directs them to the standard desktop page view, they are likely to be discouraged by the slower load time and having to zoom in to properly engage with the promotion.

This reduces the change that the customer will convert and will decrease the likelihood of them engaging with the brand via mobile in the future.

US Airways is a great example of a travel company that has been leveraging the advantages of notifications. Through its flight notification system, BeNotified, travelers can sign up to receive emails with up-to-the minute departure, arrival, delay and cancellation information.

With email marketing messages increasingly read from mobile phones, all travel companies must ensure that their email notifications support links that direct readers to a version of the site properly formatted, regardless of the device they’re using at the time.

4. Use mobile to deliver timely content to travelers

Simply offering an optimized mobile site is no longer sufficient in fully engaging and retaining customers. In order to set themselves apart from competitors, travel companies must find new ways to actively engage and add value to their customers who are constantly on-the-go.

Offering an optimized mobile presence is a first step, but travel companies can build on this by actively delivering relevant information to the customer in a timely and effective manner.

Strategically incorporating tactics like push notifications, SMS, and email notifications allow travel companies to do just that.

NB: This is a guest article by Jason Taylor, head of platform strategy and innovation at Usablenet.

NB2: Image via Shutterstock.

A spokeswoman for the company, which is based in decidedly snow-deprived San Francisco, says its free  app, known as Liftopia Ski Reports, Snow Conditions and Ultimate Lift Ticket Deal Engine, “is the first, multi-resort e-commerce app in skiing.”

After downloading the app, which detects your location, you see see lift-ticket deals at nearby resorts or you can search for lift tickets, ski lessons or rentals at more than 150 resorts around the world.

In addition to locations, you can search by deals or ski conditions and can use the map to search, as well.

The resort deals can be booked within the app in several steps.

After your purchase is complete, you receive an email of your itinerary and mobile voucher, which you can show at the facility to receive your lift ticket or lessons.

Liftopia says the deals are offered at steep discounts.

But, some of the discounts weren’t exactly as advertised.

For example, Liftopia had a tab showing lift tickets at Mount Snow in Vermont for 68% off, but when you tap through and put a desired date on the calendar, the discounts were far less than 68%.

For example, for December 20, the lift tickets were selling for $41, which Liftopia says is a 45% discount.

And, there were no $24 tickets available during the rest of December for the 68% discounts.

Still, Liftopia is making mobile-enabled ski-lift ticket shopping slick and relatively easy.

The new product comes through a United-Continental partnership with TopGuest, which just got acquired by ezRez Software. The airlines implemented TopGuest’s white-label SaaS social commerce product, although it won’t be noticeable to mileage buffs as they check-in.

To get the perks, travelers visit MileagePlus.TopGuest or OnePass.TopGuest to register their frequent flyer accounts, link them with Foursquare or Facebook, and then use these social networks to check-in at Continental or United airports in the US.

Travelers will then receive notifications in their email inboxes about receiving the awards miles plus restaurant, merchant and rental car offers from Avis and Hertz, and others. The airline merchandising offers come through a partnership with Thanks Again.

United-Continental and TopGuest note that participating partners include hundreds of merchants at Denver, Houston-Bush Intercontinental, Newark Liberty and San Francisco Airports, as well as some 10,000 restaurants involved in the MileagePlus Dining program.

Obtaining 50 awards miles won’t get you from Baltimore to Beijing, but every little bit helps.

There are a ton of airports where your check-ins will count.

Travelers using the service can accrue 50 award miles once daily and it will take six to eight weeks before they post to OnePass and MileagePlus accounts, the airlines say.

Here are other terms and conditions.

United’s MileagePlus program has worked with ezRez Software for an extended period and, with the merger of United and Continental, the latter is newly affiliated.

Note: Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

CWT To Go is for clients of the global travel management company and it imports all CWT bookings for business travelers in a secure manner, the company says.

If road warriors, equipped with their smartphones, need to change a booking or add a hotel, they can always contact their CWT agent using the app’s click-to-call functionality.

For travel managers, the use of the app by their employees should increase compliance, as well.

The app features travel alerts from FlightStats, weather updates from Intellicast, restaurant reservations from OpenTable, and notifications about whether online check-in or paperless boarding is available, CWT says.

“The potential to be gained by integrating mobile devices to a managed travel program is vast — not just in terms of additional services to the traveler but also in ensuring the traveler’s safety and security,” says Pauline Quéré, CWT’s vice president of customer marketing.

Travel management companies were a bit slow to board the mobile bandwagon, as security concerns were a key inhibitor.

But, now they have built that into their mobile offerings, which are becoming must-haves for road warriors.

Download the free apps, tell Alfred where you like to go to dinner on a weeknight and where you like to dine for lunch, and then the mobile personal assistant, based on your location and whims, will make dinner and lunch recommendations locally and when you travel.

The same goes for your nightlife options and Alfred enhances his pesonalized recommendations as you go along and provide the app with more information.

Afred then shows you photos of its recommended local spots, such as Marino’s Fine Foods, replete with reviews and the reason the recommendation is there, such as “Because you like Esca.”

Clever Sense had this to say on its website today about its acquisition by Google:

“Today, we are excited to join Google and start a new chapter in curating the world around us! Together with the Google team, we will accelerate our efforts toward this shared vision. Google helps local businesses connect with potential customers, and it worldwide presence can bring the value of Clever Sense to a much larger audience

Discovering local information is extremely important to both users and businesses, and the acquisition of Clever Sense will benefit both.”

The acquisition fits nicely with Google’s mobile proclivities, emphasis on Google Local and Google Places, and evolution in the travel vertical.

A Google spokesperson says it will maintain and support the app.

“The Clever Sense team is at the forefront of developing a recommendation engine that connects the online and offline worlds by delivering personal and sophisticated information to users at the right time, the right place and within the right context,” the Google spokesperson says. “By combining their technology and expertise with our team and products, we’ll be able to provide even more people with intelligent, personalized recommendations for places to eat, visit and discover.”

Clever Sense, based in Mountain View, California, attracted this line-up of investors, and is about two years old.

The life of the multi-device travel booker is changing, offering an incredible opportunity for travel companies of all shapes and sizes.

But for me, working in the customer experience space, I’m constantly astounded by how many companies seem to forget the part they have to play in the two-way relationship between brand and consumer that is a reality today in our online, socially-connected world.

Research we have been working on clearly shows how few opportunities travel companies have to get it right when it comes to providing a good customer experience, no matter what device consumers are using.

At a general level, we find that 42% say a positive online experience when booking a holiday is important. And, on mobile, the research is even clearer; 40% mobile bookers surveyed said they would expect their experience booking or researching a holiday on a mobile device to be the same or better than on a desktop computer.

If they did struggle when using a mobile device, 46% of those with a mobile device said it would negatively affect their feelings towards the brand and 38% would be likely to book their next holiday with a different provider based on the poor mobile experience.

These are the kind of results that make a CFO or CEO suddenly sit up and see the importance of not just ‘doing mobile’, but doing it right.

The truth is, British consumers, like many others around the world, are incredibly web savvy these days.

After 15 years of ecommerce, there is zero tolerance for sites that don’t deliver a near perfect experience and, with competitors a click away, travel ebusinesses have never had to work so hard to keep our custom. So you’d be forgiven for thinking that ebookers would continue to have similarly low expectations for the latest new digital trends like mobile.

It just isn’t the case. Online bookers see online as one channel, regardless of the device they are using. While travel companies are eager to increasingly have a specific mobile strategy, consumers aren’t compartmentalising in the same way.

The bad news for businesses is that meeting these high expectations will take a lot of hard work. Developing an effective ecommerce strategy that encompasses new trends like mobile and social commerce won’t happen overnight.

And while consumers don’t need to understand that everything works in different ways across different devices or platforms, businesses must because there is a massive opportunity. And, as seen above, a big brand reputation headache is the cost of getting it wrong.

The time to act is now.

These high consumer expectations mean companies have no time to waste. Travel companies have had a long time to get it right online, but with emerging technologies they are not getting any benefit of the doubt.

And the complications aren’t decreasing any time soon. In the last two years it’s been all about smartphones, for the next two it’s going to be smartphones and tablets. And who knows what will follow after that.

We all just might be transacting on Facebook in the near future. So putting in place a platform-proofed strategy for the short and long term will be vital.

Of course, the potential rewards are plentiful, you just have to make sure that the consumer experience – no matter what device they use – is as good as it can possibly be.

NB: This is a guest article by Geoff Galat, chief marketing officer at Tealeaf.

NB2: Full report and research available from Tealeaf.

NB3: Image via Shutterstock.