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Hopper app uses predictive pricing tech to find NYC hotels
You always hear about the best time to book your travels for big savings, but do you ever follow up? Hint: You're better off nabbing Thanksgiving flights now. That's according to Hopper, a startup that relies on big data to help you purchase cheap airfares through its app. Now, it's applying its predictive smarts to hotels, starting in NYC.
Amazon's Alexa can book hotels through Kayak with your voice
Kayak introduced an Alexa skill a year ago, which lets you search for flights, hotels and rental cars with your voice. Useful, but not that useful -- you still need to hop on your computer or fire up a phone to book them. Might as well do either from the start and use emoji to search for travel deals. Now, Kayak has upgraded its skill, so that you can book a hotel with just your voice. Simple say, "Alexa, book a hotel room in [the location you're going to]," and it will give you a list of available rooms that you can reserve right then and there. The service will make your reservation through its partners Booking and Priceline, but you only need a Kayak account to take advantage of the feature.
Amazon Destinations handpicks hotels in LA, NY and Seattle
Amazon's rumored new travel site has appeared and it's well, exactly as rumored. While the company previously sold flash-sale hotel rooms as part of Amazon Local, alongside steep discounts, Destinations is more about curated hotels. The service currently focuses on areas around LA, New York and Seattle, with the aim of selling short-term getaways that are near to those aforementioned transport hubs. There's no news on whether it'd roll-out the new service to other US areas (let alone other countries), but it wouldn't be a shocker if it did. The site is already accepting user reviews, but expanding the service will likely depend on how many people are looking to pay typical list prices - if only because it's paired with the ubiquity of Amazon.
