Move over Movember, it’s time for Dinovember
Earlier this week Loews Hotels & Resorts launched a new distribution channel via Twitter to enable guests to book their hotel stays directly via the social media network. As soon as the guest is ready to make their reservation, the Loews Travel Planner will tweet them a link to a secure chat conversation to process personal and payment information. To launch the Loews Hotels Social Reservations program in tweet-worthy fashion, Loews has offered an unbeatable deal to the first 140 Twitter users who book a reservation using the new tool and use the #BookLoews hashtag.
Ryanair revealed its new website this week, as well as announcing further plans to improve it over the coming months. The notorious airline’s site would previously sign customers up to an average of eight paid-for services automatically and took around 17 steps to confirm a booking. Customers using the new website can now book a flight in just five clicks and will soon be able to share deals on social media sites.
According to ‘travel intelligence company’ Skift, it won’t be long before Pinterest launches a section devoted to travel inspiration and planning. The image based social media platform is looking to team up with Lonely Planet and National Geographic Traveller to include destination information, and importantly, a booking site that will help complete the link between planning an purchasing. The move is likely to further strengthen Pinterest’s grip on travel, one of the three most popular categories on the site. If successful, this could prove to be a powerful move from Pinterest as it attempts to connect the dots between inspiration and conversion – the holy grail of social media marketing.
We’re ending this week on a prehistoric note having recently discovered ‘Dinovember’ – an idea thought up by some rather creative parents. Refe Tuma and his wife dedicate the month of November to convincing their children that, while they sleep, their plastic dinosaur figures come to life. Art classes, pool parties (in the sink), and ravaging the cereal supplies, no one can deny that these dinosaurs live it up, igniting imaginations of both the very young and old.
In other November news, don’t forget to support the Siren Mo Bros, Ed and Matt and TravelMole’s Graham McKenzie in their quest for total Movember domination. Donate here and here.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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