Moreover results can be easily narrowed by “agony” - that is a combination of price, duration and stops - and other key elements.

It’s an US site, and in this moment it drives you to Orbitz only to purchase. However you can select the flights in Hipmunk and buy them directly from the airline’s site.

Already a success in France, it is ready to take its Urban Guide mix of social network and city guide to the rest of the world. The application not only knows where you are in the world, but couples this with a personal search engine looking at what places nearby your friends or locals think are cool.

You can search for restaurants, hotels, banks, hairdressers, bars, shopping addresses and many more.

Download free iphone application here.

(via BBC news)

Also you can visit boarding.fr to see a map with airports and users who are there.

Another service for Twitter fans is Ezeer: you can send a review or a picture @eezeer #flightnumber while on board. They are also going to launch 2 applications for iPhone and Androids to enable real time reviews from mobiles via Twitter.

The company blog explains: “The next time your flight attendant gives you the cold shoulder when you ask for an extra bag of pretzels, whip out your phone and tell everyone! These are the types of applications that will show which companies are taking care of their customers and which are hiding behind slick advertising.”

(via Springwise)

The system offers a way for female travelers to be matched only with other female travelers; it also protects all personal details.

You have the chance to bid on an around the world trip to visit the eight wonders of the world. Itinerary is amazing, lasting 3 weeks for 2 people, flights are on business class and package includes hotels, private tours and airports’ transfers. Bid ends Dec, 9th and current highest bid is 755,000 miles. Unfortunately is open to USA residents only. Bid here.

The 2010 edition, which was shot at Ryanair’s Alicante base in
September, will raise about £100,0000 through the sale of 11,000
calendars on Ryanair flights and from www.ryanaircalendar.com for £10. Proceeds will go to charity.

Thanks to this article on Times, I discovered this great group on Facebook, “You know you’ve worked in hotels when…” where hoteliers share stories about their guests. Some of the topics discussed: “Funniest thing you have ever seen, that no one would believe unless they worked in a hotel?” - “Dumbest question ever” - “Best Guest Names of All Time” -” What do people leave behind in hotel rooms?” - “What famous people have you served and were they as you expected to find them or totally different?”.  A very entertaining reading, highly recommended! Some of their hilarious stories:

“room 1209 calls down at 10:45 pm frantically asking if the gift shop is closed because he needs ‘protection’ ASAP!”

“It’s soooo nice of guests to call you at 3am (when reception closes at 10.30 pm and opens at 7am ) to tell you that they are now awake and no longer require thier 3.30am wake up call.”

“The other day, I had a guest who couldn’t fit all of her CLOTHES into her gigantic closet. So she paid for a second room for her CLOTHES!!!! Yep. $250, to hang stuff up. For a 4-night stay.”

“There was this guy who came with his wife and 2 kids and the ended up sleeping in their car, because apparently there was a ghost in their room…uuups sir I am sorry I forgot to metioned that the hotel is haunted!!!”

“we had a well known celeb staying with us who had a string of ladies in and out of his room all night at one point 2 of them came to reception wearing just there underwear they had got locked out and he had fallen asleep and wouldnt answer the door , we had to let them have an ajoining room for the night and we put the cost on his bill he didnt even ask us what it was for ?”

“While working at the Contemporary Resort in Walt Disney World, a guest walked up to me and asked, “What time is the three o’clock parade?”

“I have been asked where is the Power button on the remote.”

“Today we had a guest complain at check out and she wanted a refund for her stay. She was mad because her computer got a virus or some sort of spyware on it. It was our fault because one of our amenities is free internet.”

US Travel Association has commissioned a study to evaluate the return on investment of business travel. According to their findings: “For every dollar invested in business travel, businesses experience an average $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits”.

Business travel in US accounts for 2.4 millions jobs and 1 million realted to meetings and events.

―Tough times are a great time to renew trust.  When customers and employees see the leadership team standing frontand center and delivering the message, it demonstrates that management cares about them and considers them essential to weathering the storm.  Cancelling such meetings, except when there are no other alternatives, sends the message that employees and even vendors and customers are expendable. ―
- John Baldoni, author and publisher on Harvard Business Publishing’s Leadership blog Leadership Matter

Sir Branson wants to replicate the success of these course with an iphone application and he does  a personal introduction on the app. The app is not for free (4.99$ at Apple Store) and it has even a “fear attack button” for emergencies with breathing exercise and quick tips, together with personalized program with daily advice and exercises, preparing you for your next flight.

Virgin has also published a book “Flying Without Fear 101 questions answered“. Considering that according to Boeing study, one of every three adult Americans is either anxious or afraid to fly, does airlines need to invest on these tools to revert falling revenues trend?