Backed by AirAsia Expedia, backick.com takes hotel booking social
A new website, backed by AirAsia Expedia, is being touted as the world's first hotel booking site where friends help pay for each other's travel. Conceptualised in Singapore and launched across 11 Asia Pacific countries, backick.com is, as its developers put it, the ‘first-of-its-kind online v [...]
From flash sales to flesh sales? Survey exposes hottest bodies
Have flash sales become flesh sales?A new Hotels.com survey of Singaporeans exposes the fact that they think Jessica Alba and David Beckham (left) have the hottest beach bodies in the world, a sentiment echoed by 17% and 22% of Singaporeans respectively.Among local celebrities, actors Fiona Xie [...]
Cheap and cheerful’s working so far for Scoot
Six weeks after Scoot first’s flight and CEO Campbell Wilson is looking a tad more relaxed than when I first interviewed him in March.That time, he was fretting about making sure he got the AOC and his airline up in the air in time for the school holidays for both Australia and Singapore. This [...]
Red Planet takes stake in Tune as low cost brand expands
Red Planet Hotels has invested a 16.05% stake in Tune Hotels, making it the third largest investor in the Malaysia-based hotel chain, which is spreading its wings in ASEAN and around the world.Bangkok-based Red Planet Hotels, a major franchisee of Tune Hotels in South-east Asia, said the deal rep [...]
Bad news, mass stupefaction of content. Good news, more efficiencies
“Do you mind? I just have to respond to this,” said Richard Quest as I prepared to sit down and ask him my first question.So I waited. It’s not an unusual occurrence these days – for face-to-face meetings to be interrupted by phone calls and instant messages. It seems to be the thing to do [...]
Next stop for daily deals – global and personal, says Living Social’s Nazar Musa
To be honest (everybody starts their sentence with these three words these days so I might as well do it too), I had stopped thinking about daily deals until this week when I found myself dining on curry fish head at Samy’s at Dempsey, thanks to a Groupon coupon someone had bought.And then this s [...]
Fun before trust for Singapore travellers
Who do you like to travel with? Someone like you or someone totally unlike you? Well, a new survey by hotels.com reveals insights into Singapore travellers that may or may not surprise you.Firstly, Singapore travellers prefer to flock with the same-feathered birds - 61% indicated that having simila [...]
From couches to flats, Hankins on quest to change the world
While other kids in his class were probably asking how can I pass my exam, Weston Hankins was asking, how can I change the world?It’s a question the 29-year-old Mexican is still asking. Currently the chief technical officer for 9flats.com, Hankins was the third employee for CouchSurfing.org an [...]
Mining boom leads WA to focus on events and new developments to spread visitation
Western Australia is enjoying an unprecedented mining boom and it's hard to find an empty hotel room these days in Perth. The driver who picked me up at Perth International Airport was gushing at how the boom was benefitting most people in the state, most of all the hotels.Rooms are not only hard t [...]
What happens when a tech addict goes cold turkey
So I am currently undertaking it (WIT's experiment in survival). Using the same processes that existed 20 years ago – well sort of… and most of the same tools here is what I am experiencing in a location in Portugal. I have gone cold turkey from Sunday to Thursday morning.For 20 years ago when [...]
