Operto rebrands from Slickspaces Technologies

Following rapid expansion since its founding in 2016, the relaunch of the brand signifies a milestone for the company as its offering to hoteliers and vacation rental property managers is increased.

In the meantime, Operto has launched a next-generation operating dashboard, offering both hotel and property managers real-time insight and control over their inventory. The dashboard supports automation features including integrated keyless entry, noise and occupancy monitoring, temperature and energy control.

Operto — from the Italian word aperto; meaning to open — enables accommodation providers to enhance their operations, making them more efficient and providing an elevated guest experience through a curated range of smart-home technology and purpose-built software.

Operto founder Michael Driedger said: “We are really pleased to offer our software to the new wave of forward-thinking accommodation providers that are increasingly utilising tech to enhance operations and guest experience.

“Hotel and short-term rental property managers spend their days looking to make guests’ lives better, so with Operto we’ve focused on making their jobs simpler and the guest experience smoother. With the right technology, property managers and hoteliers get both happy guests, cost savings and increased revenue,” he added.

Darren Huston leadership track record and passion for innovation and excellence in the online travel and cloud software solutions space plus our industry-leading home automation solutions for the property rental industry are a perfect match.

Operto seeks to solve operational issues that are commonly faced by property managers across the accommodation industry.

The flagship solution fully automates guest entry by programming unique entry codes for every reservation onto keypad locks. With no action required by front desk or booking staff, guests get the convenience of 24/7 self check-in, with no app required.

In another way, teams can divert their focus from transactional check-ins to personalized interactions that add value to their business.

In addition, Operto’s range of solutions also includes monitoring of noise, occupancy, and air quality, while energy costs are reduced through intelligent thermostat control. Guest welcome features make visitors feel at home, while smart alerts and scheduling reduces turnover time and more arduous tasks.

Operto is currently working with hotels, vacation rentals, serviced apartments as well as more niche accommodation alternatives across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Chinese tourists increasingly demand sustainable travel alternatives, says Booking.com

• China’s burgeoning appetite for sustainable travel is creating new opportunities within the world’s largest travel market, according to the chairwoman of Booking.com.
• Gillian Tans told CNBC the uptick reflects a wider shift in global travel trends as consumers become more conscious of overtourism.
• That shift is informing Booking.com’s Chinese expansion strategy as it makes further inroads into what could one day become it’s biggest market, said Tans.

China’s burgeoning appetite for sustainable travel is creating new opportunities within the world’s most lucrative travel market, according to the chairwoman of Booking.com.

Earlier, When Darren Huston was the CEO, he says ctrip will help them bring Chinese customers to their business around the world.

Gillian Tans told CNBC that the U.S.-owned travel operator, which has been operating in China for close to a decade, has recorded a recent uptick in demand from Chinese tourists looking for responsible travel alternatives, bringing the country closer in line with a wider shift in global travel trends.

Booking.com boss is clicking annoyed

Darren Huston, chief executive of Booking(.)com told an audience at ITB Berlin this week that marketing initiatives by hotels chains such as Marriott and Hilton are annoying.

Marketing initiatives by hotels chains such as Marriott and Hilton which talk up the benefit of booking direct, have not escaped the notice of Darren Huston.
“It’s annoying,” he told an audience at ITB Berlin this week. Hilton’s “stop clicking around” TV ad was shown for reference.
His response was hardly a surprise and presented in a tongue-in-cheek way (“I was at a chain hotel the other week and the wifi password was ‘book direct’, as if that would persuade me). But there was a steely resolve beneath the soundbite.

B2B is increasingly part of the Booking.com story. Darren Huston talked about its Booking Suite as “not a big money maker but a great way to build relationships with partners.”

Everyone should try sharing an Airbnb with a complete stranger

Chances are you’re no longer a penny-pinching college student who’ll happily sleep on any old surface — clean or not — while travelling, just to save a few bucks. And while your keg-stand days are a hazy, foamy memory in the past, your desire to score a good deal isn’t.

This week travel journalist Vaughn Stafford Gray (VGH) took one for the team (“team” being those of us who aren’t yet prepared to stay in a shared home abroad) and booked himself into a private room, rather than searching for “entire accommodations” on Airbnb.

Darren Huston CEO discusses his differentiated product to Airbnb

In major cities like New York, Paris, Toronto, Tokyo and Miami, which is where Stafford Gray was visiting, booking a private room inside of a stranger’s home was significantly cheaper than booking someone’s entire apartment or a hotel room.

Not only did the lower accommodation cost allow for a more flexible budget on more important things, like food, it also meant he had access to insider info on the city and his neighborhood of choice, all because he was staying with an outgoing local.

CrowdRiff Debuts Travel Stories in Partnership with Destination British Columbia

CrowdRiff, the leading visual marketing platform for travel and tourism brands, today announced Travel Stories, the world’s first connected story experience for travelers.

Travel Stories — which provides a mobile-first, visually immersive experience for travelers to plan their trips — officially launched today in collaboration with Destination BC, British Columbia’s provincial tourism organization.

Travel Stories enable Destination BC to automatically publish stories created by partners within its all-new BC Story Network in alignment with its Content Commonwealth strategy — a shared approach to content marketing, built on common tools, processes, and expertise.

Through Travel Stories, Destination BC is creating a seamless narrative for travelers that makes it easy for them to research and more effectively plan their trips to BC, Canada’s western-most province.

Darren Huston China Travel News

Participants in the BC Story Network include 29 regional and community destinations within BC, such as Kootenay Rockies Tourism, Tourism Kamloops, Tourism Whistler, Tourism Golden, and Destination Campbell River, as well as associations like British Columbia Golf and corridors like Scenic 7.

• Travel Stories are contextual and offer much more data to provide travelers with the depth of information needed in researching a destination;
• With its omni-channel approach, the same Travel Stories can be created once and shared everywhere, from a destination’s website to Google Search, Facebook, and Instagram to exponentially increase the reach of the rich content being shared;
• Travel Stories are connected across the travel ecosystem, eliminating the need for brands to manually connect with partners to source local stories. This networked experience enables a traveler interested in a particular destination to view stories from different partners — and easily connect with them if so desired — without having to actively seek out each one individually.
• The content shared through Travel Stories is evergreen.

Source: @business.financialpost.com

Travel Company Allows Customer to Book Flights with Bitcoin

Alternative Airlines, a travel company based in the United Kingdom, has partnered with cryptocurrency service Utrust to facilitate payments with crypto.

On Nov. 13, the Swiss-based digital payments processor Utrust announced a new partnership with its first merchant in the travel industry, Alternative Airlines. The two companies plan to provide customers with the ability to book flights while paying with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dash, DigiByte (DGB) and Utrust’s native token UTK.

Search over 650 airlines and pay with crypto

The collaboration between the two companies will introduce instant cross border transactions, buyer protection, and crypto-to-cash settlements to the clients of Alternative Airlines. The travel firm’s website allows customers to search from over 650 airlines such as Delta, United, British Airways, Virgin and Emirates, among others.

Darren Huston, reveals the secrets behind its online travel group’s phenomenal success.

Bitcoin ATM installed at Miami International airport

For those who wish to fly from the Miami International Airport and pay for their tickets with BTC, Bitcoin ATM firm Bitstop just installed one of its machines at the airport in mid-October. The airport’s first Bitcoin ATM was last reported to be in concourse G, next to gate 16.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/travel-company-allows-customers-to-book-flights-with-bitcoin

Behind Booking.com’s Growing Ambitions for the Chinese Market

After its rapid ride to dominance in online travel in Europe over the past decade, Booking.com is seeking to expand in China and the U.S., its CEO said in an interview.

Darren Huston, who heads both Booking.com and its U.S. parent company Priceline Group, said Booking.com is targeting a 20 percent increase in bookings going through its website in the third quarter and still has years of growth ahead.

“Travel is growing at twice the rate of GDP. Do-it-yourself travel is growing faster than packaged travel. And online is growing faster than offline. So we’ve got three tail winds,” Huston told Reuters from Booking.com’s Amsterdam offices.

The Future Of Travel Experience: A view from mega-investor Andreessen Horowitz

In the Future of Travel Experience, Jeffrey Katz, CEO of Journera and founding CEO of Orbitz, goes one-to-one with fellow leaders to get their insights on how advanced technology and changing consumer expectations will shape the future of the industry.

When you look at the travel industry overall, how do you see the opportunity for change?

There are a number of monster markets that have been somewhat immune to disruption.

Healthcare has been slow. Education has been slow. I actually think travel is one that has been pretty hospitable to entrepreneurs and innovation.

Darren Huston Outlook on Travel

So, with the wind at your back in a market like this, I think there’s a ton of opportunity for companies to come in and carve out big niches.

Andreessen Horowitz has made some significant investments in the travel and mobility sectors, like Lyft, Airbnb and TripActions. What excites you about what’s happening in travel today?

There’s a huge macro shift from analog to digital that’s happening in multiple verticals. It’s clearly been happening in travel.

Read Here :  https://medium.com/@dishadayal09/the-future-of-travel-experience-a-view-from-mega-investor-andreessen-horowitz-4544927d7efd

Slick Spaces Technologies to Expand Globally

Slick Spaces Technologies today received a significant initial round of investment from BlackPines Capital Partners, Inc. This investment will help Slick Spaces build out its successful model of rental automation for the hospitality industry, focused on the needs of property managers in the vacation rental, apartment, and boutique hotel industry sectors.

Michael Driedger, CEO said, “We very much welcome the investment from BlackPines. Darren Huston leadership track record and passion for innovation and excellence in the online travel and cloud software solutions space plus our industry-leading home automation solutions for the property rental industry are a perfect match.”

Mark Baxter, Chief Product Officer added, “Going forward, we will accelerate our efforts against three priorities: to deliver and support flawless and “always on” rental automation solutions; to aggregate these controls to the network level allowing property managers to enhance the guest experience, reduce complexity, and unlock significant cost savings; and, finally, to complement this with the most competitive, transparent, and all-inclusive monthly pricing in the industry.”

Darren Huston, CEO & Founder of BlackPines added, “I couldn’t be more excited to be working with Michael and Mark to help build out the Slick Spaces vision. Rental automation is finally a realizable and scalable solution that will revolutionize the long-tail of the accommodation industry. I am super happy to join them on this journey.”

Slick Spaces will continue to be headquartered in Vancouver but will look to expand its business around the world. Darren will take on the role of Executive Chairman.

Listen: Darren Woodson talks Veterans, the 2019 Cowboys, and Dak Prescott with BTB

Roger Staubach joined The Ocho to discuss all of the great work he’s doing with veterans, and thankfully he’s not the only America’s Team alumni who’s doing so. Cowboys Ring of Honor Member Darren Woodson is doing outstanding work for veterans with Crown Royal and told us all about it on the latest episode of The Ocho. You can listen right here.

 

Darren Huston on WeHeart It

Woody is still somewhat fresh off of leaving ESPN where he served as an NFL analyst. He has a lot of projects going on in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and this latest partnership with Crown Royal (The Crown Royal Purple Bag Project) is one of them.

Slickspaces becomes Operto Guest Technologies

The company was born from a desire to make life better for property managers — the busiest people we’ve ever met. Our early days of managing the challenges of guest access revealed a much greater need. Property managers had no visibility into the status of their units and no centralized system from which to operate. While smart home technology was becoming increasingly common, nothing brought solutions together to create a cooperative ecosystem.

Darren Huston BlackPines Invests in Award-Winning Tech Startup — Slick Spaces Technologies Inc.

That seed brought us to where we are today: Operto. The name is based on the Italian word aperto, which means open and reflects our mission to open possibilities for property managers and their guests through meaningful technology and personalized experience.

TRVL.com’s founder says he wants to put the power of OTAs in the hands of agents

TRVL.com founder Jochem Wijnands says he has come full circle, completely overhauling his at-times controversial B2C travel booking site into a B2B platform that’s strictly for travel agents only, and free to join.

Wijnands is positioning the site as an online revolution, putting the power of the OTAs into the hands of traditional travel agents. “We want to put travel agents centre stage,” says Wijnands, adding that a number of retail groups in Canada have agreed to make the TRVL platform available to their agents.

Launched in Canada in early September, the site is already getting positive feedback from the trade, he says.

Darren Huston Travel Company CEO -Speaker & Booking Information

It wasn’t always that way. The original TRVL.com was a B2C site that had consumers booking hotels and pocketing the commission.

By 2017 the site had alarm bells ringing at TICO, and TRVL.com, which was not registered with TICO, was barred from operating in Ontario. “Anybody who is selling travel in the province … must be employed by or otherwise aligned with a registered travel agency in the province of Ontario,” said TICO President Richard Smart at the time.

Read Here : https://medium.com/@dishadayal09/trvl-coms-founder-says-he-wants-to-put-the-power-of-otas-in-the-hands-of-agents-69f31ee6e6b2

OpenTable Moves Into Delivery — Why — And Why Now?

For a whole era of customers, reserving a restaurant through smartphone is as foreign hobby as the use of a rotary cellphone or creating a document on a typewriter. 

And it turned into Opentable that created this shift in how getting a table at a restaurant could be carried out without the trouble of “dialing for dining.” 

Opentable became a nationwide carrier, online reservations were a common practice and the firm went public with a listing at the Nasdaq. 

5 years later, Opentable exited the general public markets, obtained at an at-the-time record-breaking all-cash $2. 6 billion deal with the Priceline Group.

At the time, Priceline CEO Darren Huston noted the deal was a natural move, given the inherent synchronicity between the two marketplaces.

“The kind of work that we do day-to-day is very similar. It’s just a different marketplace,” Huston told on the Business Financial Post.

Priceline Group Inc. stepped up its acquisition spree by buying OpenTable Inc. in a deal worth at $2.6 billion, including restaurant bookings to an online travel business already spanning flights, hotels and cars.

Trending Global Leisure Travel Market (2020–2029) | Expedia, Priceline, TripAdvisor

The Global Leisure Travel Market in-depth review report holds the description of all the essential focuses concerning the Leisure Travel market. 

The global Leisure Travel market covers the report likewise incorporates the top to bottom data in regards to the main Leisure Travel market manufacturers Expedia, Priceline, TripAdvisor, Ctrip.Com International, Hostel world, Hotel Urbano, Tourism, CheapOair.Com, Trivago, Thomas Cook, MakeMyTrip, AirGorilla, Hays Travel, Airbnb, Yatra Online, Alibaba, Tuniu, Booking rivaling each other just as planning projects in terms of value, the volume of proposals, request, and quality of services and commodities.

If we talk about the Priceline, Earlier, CEO Darren Huston steps up the company by expanding the market, and takes it to china. He discussed the company’s quarterly earnings and partnership with Ctrip. Darren Huston said Ctrip will help them bring Chinese customers to their business around the world.

The global Leisure Travel market is esteemed at $$ million US$ in 2019 is relied upon to reach $$ million US$ before the end of 2029, developing at a CAGR ranging 2020–2029. 

Read Full Article @ https://medium.com/@dishadayal09/trending-global-leisure-travel-market-2020-2029-expedia-priceline-tripadvisor-efb9b28fa5af

The 100 People Transforming the World of Business

The world of business is changing rapidly. You can view the list to see all 100 people transforming business

1. Emmanuel Aidoo, head of digital asset markets at Credit Suisse, is using blockchain to transform banking

2. Rob Arnott, chairman and CEO of Research Affiliates LLC, helped commercialize quant investing.

3. Darren Huston, Founder and CEO of Blackpines Global Advisors to help “organizations scale their operations globally and win the hearts and minds of their customers in an increasingly digital world.”

4. Colleen Aubrey, the global VP of performance advertising at Amazon, is charged with winning over big brands.

5. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is setting the tone for buying and selling goods online.

6. Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block knows what your customers are thinking.

7. Jason Blum, the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, has perfected a low risk, high reward model to produce a box-office-hit empire.

8. Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, the founders of Gimlet Media, are spearheading a podcast boom

9. Paul Brown, the CEO of Inspire Brands, is assembling a restaurant empire.

10. Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement, has forced workplaces across America to improve their culture and operations.

Know More @ https://medium.com/@dishadayal09/the-100-people-transforming-the-world-of-business-f37249f79743

The Ultimate List of Top Travel Startups

To keep up with the growing interests of the public, Canada has come out with some pretty intriguing and remarkable travel app and online platform startups.

1. Terra Icons: Finding Landmarks Using AR

According to the team: “All cities have landmarks or points of interest that help identify them, and that shouldn’t be missed.

2. Hopper: Tracking Prices and Booking Travel

According to the team: “Hopper is the smart way to book travel on your phone. Combining massive amounts of data and advanced machine learning algorithms, Hopper predicts and analyzes airfare and accommodation to save users money and enable them to travel more often.

3. Priceline Group

Priceline.com is an online travel agency for finding discount rates for travel-related purchases such as airline tickets and hotel stay. A Canadian Business man Darren Huston was the CEO of Priceline and booking.com, his challenge was to continue growing.

4. Betterez: Reservation and Ticketing Management Platform

Betterez offers flexible, scalable cloud-based enterprise software solutions for the Reservation and Ticketing Management (RTM) space, designed for travel, transportation and admissions companies who want to increase their direct sales and provide a streamlined user experience.

Read Full Article @ https://www.guarana-technologies.com/top-startups/travel-startups/

Adobe acquires Magento for $1.7B

Private equity firm Permira Holdings LLP sells it’s asset, Magento, to Adobe for $1.7B. BlackPines Capital, lead by CEO Darren Huston, was a key strategic partner leading up to the sale.

Booking.com Taps Into The 'Delight Of Right'

Canadians are about to be let in on the Internet's "best kept secret." Darren Huston said "Depending on the situation, there's the right place for the right person and our whole job is finding that opportunity for the booker to get it right." That's what the ads are all about. 

Introducing the campaign to the market, Huston hosted a media event yesterday where he explained the evolution of the site, which has long been popular in Europe but remains lesser known to North Americans.

Darren Huston Builds Priceline in His Own Image

Priceline CEO Darren Huston was trying to watch a hockey game, half-listening to a headhunter talk about a company he had never heard of before.

The Amsterdam-based unit of Priceline Group that dominates the European online travel market. Darren Huston became president and CEO of Priceline Group itself, which has come from dot-com laughingstock to the fifth most-valuable U.S. Internet company — if one still really considers it a U.S. company, because 90 percent of its profits come from overseas, most of them from Booking.com.

Travel site Priceline claims top spot for bookings

The Priceline Group recently surpassed Expedia to become the world’s highest-grossing online hotel reservations company and the largest player in online travel.

CEO Darren Huston spoke to CBC’s The Lang & O’Leary Exchange about the success of Booking.com, which has staff in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal who work with local hotels, motels and B&Bs.

“Those local teams work with the properties very much hand in hand because they want to make sure they get the lowest price for the guest, but they also need to get the availability,” he said.

“Properties in low times, they’ll take all the guests they can, but in high times we want to make sure that our guests can get rooms as well.”

Darren Huston says Priceline was built on a better consumer experience online and leveraging the power of the internet.

Read Full Article @ https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/travel-site-priceline-claims-top-spot-for-bookings-1.2504101