<B> Web Cites</B>
By Deborah Mora
<B>Interim Housing Options Featured Online</B>
When hotel rooms are sold out, corporate travel managers can check out corporatechoices.com, a list of interim apartment and housing options, housing providers and extended-stay hotels in more than 125 global markets. The site lists amenities and prices for each property, and is an online version of NCI's Corporate Choices Interim Housing Directory.
<a name="2"><B>Link Up With Meeting, Convention Bookings</B>
With a link to a supplier directory that covers everything from conference centers to visitors' bureaus, MeetingCity has a handy tool for meeting, event and travel planners. By accessing a hotel-events directory at MeetingCity.com, travel decision makers can review meeting space, search for event sites and find the latest hotel deals. By clicking an icon, users can submit requests for proposals in which they can enter food and beverage budget, attendance, event type and other decision factors. They also can conduct a custom event planning search or find group travel and hotel promotions.
<a name="3"><B>Budget Relaunches, Discounts Reservations</B>
Budget Rent a Car Corp.'s Web site, drivebudget.com, has been relaunched with features that provide more convenience for travelers. The site now offers online booking, deals and a preview of rates in selected cities. A simple click on a state on the map elicits rates, rental periods, vehicle classes and restrictions at Budget locations in that city.
<a name="4"><B>Access Local, Worldwide Hotel Directories</B>
An arsenal of hotel reservation systems and directories is at your fingertips at Localhotels.com. On the site, travelers can do comparison lodging shopping by searching countrywide directories, such as US Hotels and HotelAmerica.com, or regional directories such as the Oregon Coast Travel Guide and NYC Hotels Online. Room rates, hotel addresses, phone numbers and restrictions are listed. Some of the linked directories also contain hotel features, maps and pictures of the interior and exterior of the hotels. A virtual view can be seen through Swissotel's Web site. By downloading IPIX plug-in software at no cost, meeting planners and business travelers can take a look at the inside of a conference room or executive suite at Swissotel Brussels, or check out the meeting room at Swissotel Atlanta.
<a name="5"><B>Navigate Magellan For Step-By-Step Directions</B>
One of the newest free services offered through Magellan Geo-graphix's site, maps.com, is door-to-door driving directions. Direction seekers can type in origin and destination addresses to get an instant map, complete with estimated distance and travel time. A chart under the map provides step-by-step directions.
<a name="6"><B>Airlines And Sabre Keep Sites Up To Date</B>
Heeding marketers' advice to keep it current, American and Northwest Airlines, along with Sabre's Travelocity.com, have overhauled their sites, with the latter again offering bonus frequent flyer miles for online bookings.
<a name="7"><b>Name The Price Battle Intensifies</b>
Two consumer sites are luring travelers with advertising that promises to match airline tickets with requested bargain prices. Priceline.com's "name your own price" application and the competing Cheapfares.com site have said they are targeting unmanaged business and leisure travelers, but the advertising campaigns are likely to attract the attention of all travelers. Cheapfares.com, a live auction for travel that began operating last month, is battling Priceline.com over which site should hold the landmark patent for pricing technology.
Priceline matches users' ticket price bids with 18 major and domestic airlines; offers inventory for more than 300 major and secondary cities; and has sold more than 1,500 tickets a week since its April launch, said Brian Ek, vice president of corporate communications. Travelers cannot pick flight times or the airlines they want, nor can they earn frequent flyer miles on tickets purchased online. One of the criticisms of the site is that the airlines participating in the ticket program often reject the fares that users request, and Ek acknowledged that only about one ticket is sold for every three or four "reasonable" offers. He defined a reasonable offer as the approximate price of a ticket for a 21-day advance fare.
Meanwhile, Cheapfares.com began operations last month, offering distressed airline seats, cruises and vacations. Customers can view bid history and see, for example, that two roundtrip tickets from Chicago to London were sold in late February for $125.