Airbnb hosts pull a Swiftie
Pop icon Taylor Swift’s appearances in Melbourne and Sydney in coming days have seen hotels in the two cities booked out – even with room rates going through the roof – while some Airbnb customers feel they been left in the lurch by landlords.
Swifties travelling to Melbourne and Sydney for The Eras tour say their Airbnb bookings were cancelled, only to find the properties re-listed on the site at a much higher price.
One fan told Nine Entertainment she had booked accommodation near the concert venue for A$630. A week before the concert, the host told her the property was no longer available as the carpets had to be cleaned.
Two days later, the fan noticed the property had been relisted for A$1347 for the same four nights – $717 dollars more than the original cost.
Another Swiftie had her accommodation cancelled for “family reasons” only to see it relisted on Airbnb for hundreds more dollars than she originally paid.
STB onboard with Traveloka
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has renewed its partnership with travel platform, Traveloka, through a one-year Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC).
Deepening collaboration between STB and Traveloka will move beyond marketing campaigns to focus on knowledge-sharing and insights discovery for improved engagement with travellers.
Caesar Indra, president of Traveloka, said, “Singapore holds a significant position as a top outbound destination. In 2023, we observed an almost 80% surge in searches and transactions for products from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines compared to the previous year.”
Ask Penny for her thoughts
Priceline is upgrading Penny, its AI-powered chatbot, expanding its capabilities from sharing information about hotels to flights, car rentals and vacation packages.
Penny can also suggest hotels and packages for travellers when they search for vacation options, modify itineraries, connect travellers with an agent and check on refund status.
The chatbot can be found on Priceline’s homepage.
Priceline CEO Brett Keller said in a release, “We began fully integrating generative AI early last year, and our tools and features will only get better as customers and partners engage with them more and more.”
Virgin Australia baggage app on track
Virgin Australia has expanded its in-app baggage tracking tool to cover most of its domestic and international departures.
Push notifications via the Virgin Australia app alert flyers once luggage is on the plane, and again if it is transferred to an international partner airline, and finally when the bag is ready for collection.
Virgin Australia joins Emirates, United, Qatar Airways and Air New Zealand in offering baggage tracking.
One key quote
Mike Coletta, manager of research and innovation at Phocuswright, responding to the question, “Gen-AI in travel in 2024: game-changer or hype?
“As the industry moves beyond the initial hype, 2024 will be all about leveraging what has been learned so far to focus on the most beneficial use cases – and avoid wasting resources on those without a clear ROI.
“Travel companies in 2024 are expected to accelerate investment in generative AI applications. But separating the winning use cases from the losers will be an ongoing process of trial and error. At this juncture, a results-based approach is needed to highlight the most relevant and impactful use cases in travel.”
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES, People Magazine