I am currently sitting opposite my boss who is on an online panel inside the TimesOnline travel section answering questions from the general public.

I thought it was worth a mention to comment on the engagement online and angle the paper is taking as experts in travel and the place for experts to discuss travel.

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of users (I am sure they are not all staged questions from their PRs!) and the use of inline polls on topics to gauge the participants opinions.

This I think could be the future for ‘experts’ to host the discussion.  Little shocked though on how little onsite promotion they had.  Maybe they are warming up.  Well done – Matt – you look tired after all that typing!!

Tags: Hotels.com, TimesOnline

Hotels.com Nanobreaks new trend

Did you know the new thing in travel if you don’t have time for a weekend break? Try a  ”Nanobreak”.

In a recent press release from Hotels.com they explain from their extensive data that people are not cancelling their holidays, but instead are changing where they go, and for how long for.  In the Nanobreaks release they talk about a 29% Year on Year increase in people looking for a single night stay. Previously people would go Friday and come back on a Sunday.  Now people are going early Saturday til late on Sunday to squeeze the most out of their trip.

From a UK perspective, the winners are cities like Bournemouth, Brighton, Edingburgh and London.  But also people are taking advantage of some great airfares and travelling to Marrekesch, Venice, Rome, Copenhagen and Nice.

So much so, Hotels.com are currently running a social media campaign around “Nanobreaks” and their onsite page explains it here.

Nanobreaks – the Nanolog campaign from Hotels.com >>

It seems that people are resilent and wont give up on holidays, but will just change where and when they go.

Tags: General Comment, Nanobreaks, Travel, Travel Industry