trips
Latest
Airbnb is taking its travel experiences online using Zoom
What do you when people can't travel? When you're Airbnb, the answer it turns out is to allow people to connect online.
Google shuts down its Trips travel planning app
Google is killing yet another app, although you might not mind quite as much with this one. The company is shutting down its Trips travel app as of August 5th (that's today, if you're reading in time) in favor of steering users to both its reworked travel search as well as Google Maps. Your information and tools aren't going away -- you will, however, need to look for them in other places.
Airbnb makes it easier to find a place to stay on business trips
Airbnb wants to make it easier to find work-friendly listings, and its solution is fairly simple. Before, the company would ask if you were traveling for business at checkout. Now, it's offering a work trip toggle that you can select at the beginning of your search. The feature will bring up listings that are more relevant for business trips.
Uber drivers have completed more than 10 billion trips
Uber announced today that on June 10th, 173 trips and deliveries that began simultaneously pushed the company past a record of 10 billion completed trips. Uber hit its 10 billionth trip just over a year after it completed its five billionth and the company said that the 173 trips occurred in more than 21 countries and five continents.
Lonely Planet's Trips app is Instagram for travel junkies
If you've ever planned a vacation abroad, you've probably spent some time with Lonely Planet. The company is the largest travel book publisher in the world and offers plenty of free resources on its website and in the Lonely Planet Guides app. The latter provided the inspiration for the latest Lonely Planet project, a new iPhone app called Trips (also coming to Android this fall). At its core, it's a crowdsourced version of the Guides app. But instead of featuring contributions from Lonely Planet experts and contributors, it's all about what regular users have to say and the sights they see on their vacations.
Google Trips is now more helpful for anyone afraid to fly
Last year, Google released Trips, an app for iOS and Android that helps you keep track of your itinerary while traveling. It automatically collects information from your Gmail inbox, organizes it and makes it available offline. It even offers suggestions on things to see and do. Now, it's getting some new features that will make it an even better vacation guide.
Browse Airbnb's vacation add-ons from your desktop
When Airbnb launched "Experiences" and "Immersions" last year, the company made it clear it was expanding beyond spare room rentals and into more general travel planning. Until now, however, users could only browse and search for those side trips through Airbnb's official mobile apps. Over the past few weeks, Airbnb has been steadily adding new trips in even more cities around the world, and starting today Experiences are now available on the desktop and mobile web so you can daydream about your next vacation or business trip from the comfort of your work computer.
Airbnb goes beyond spare rooms with 'experiences' and 'places'
It's no secret that Airbnb has ambitions beyond renting out spare rooms. Not least because local authorities keep throwing water on its core business model. The company has already made some acquisitions in the "experience" space, and run trials offering local guides and excursions to match your local accommodation. Today CEO Brian Chesky finally gave us a concrete idea of exactly what Airbnb's holistic future, and on-demand travel in general, will look like.
Google Flights adds price-tracking notifications
Booking the cheapest flight can be daunting. Should you book from an airline's site or go with something like Expedia? Plus, there's the trick of using Chrome in Incognito Mode can usually save you a few bucks. Of course none of those tell you when is the best time to buy tickets. That's what Google Flights is hoping to do.
Rand McNally GPS Navigator sports pre-planned vacations
Sure, your navigation unit might sport a 7-inch LCD, support Bluetooth calling, or track your roaming pet around the neighborhood, but can it make vacation planning decisions for you? Rand McNally's latest GPS handheld boasts "door-to-door" routing in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but the 26 preloaded "best of the road" trip itineraries steal the show. These top-notch American road trips were selected by the company's own award-winning editorial staff, and include tourist-friendly attractions, eateries, and fuel stations to stop at along the way. Aside from prepackaged journeys, the nav sports a 3.5-inch QVGA color touchscreen, 20-channel SiRF Star III receiver, MP3 player, obligatory robotic voice prompts, multistop route planning / mileage calculator, and a (self-explanatory) "Go Home" button. If you've got a full tank of gas and nowhere to be -- or you'd rather not spend half your vacation figuring out where to go -- the $499.99 GPS Navigator can queue up your next fun-filled excursion with the simple press of a button.[Via GPSLodge]
