Online Travel Booking Services are Stepping Up

Remember when it was really, really cool to be able to book your flight, hotel and rental car all on one website? Even for a relatively tech-savvy person like me, it’s amazing how fast things that used to be really cool become as mundane as the iPod mini after the launch of the iPod nano.

According to Newsweek, Internet based travel companies like Expedia and Orbitz have found it necessary to step up their efforts to attract business travelers. Cendant Corporate Travel Solutions, which owns both Orbitz and TravelPort, has created new features for its websites. Travelers can now order medical insurance for travel, private security services and overnight delivery of cell phones. And when a flight is canceled, Cendant automatically moves travelers to new flights and notifies them via SMS.

Expedia has a new feature that takes the value of your time into account when it books your flight. For example, if you get paid $300 an hour, it’s not going to bother trying to save you $50 with a three-hour layover. They’ve also got a corporate travel desk with agents who will look for special hotel amenities like wireless and recreational opportunities like play tickets.

Again, I have to say how glad I am that we’re not all communists. Competition among various companies is the mother of innovation.