It’s been over two years since the last site redesign here at Upgrade: Travel Better, and it’s about time for a new look. (That is, unless you were one of the masochists who really liked the orange links… what was I thinking?!)

The site is still a work in progress. The upgrade broke a few things that were working before, and which sandbox-testing didn’t uncover. So there will be more tinkering in days and weeks to come.

In any case, I hope you’ll like the new layout, and I welcome your feedback. Feel free to hit the comments with your thoughts.

Finally, let me take this opportunity to thank you for reading the site, and for the comments, e-mails, backlinks, and support. Readers have left 5007 comments on the site over the last three+ years (not counting the literally hundreds of thousands of spam comments, of course…) And, in keeping up the numbers game, this is my 1018th post. I look forward to writing thousands more, and hope you’ll stick around for them. Thanks again for reading U:TB.

Back to regular posting soon.

Renting an apartment in lieu of a hotel room is hardly new, but the idea is starting to take off, especially with businesses. Take this report from India’s Economic Times:

Already on a cost-cutting mode, a number of corporates have preferred tying up with operators of service apartments which are 20-40% cheaper compared to hotels. According to global real estate consultant, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj (JLLM), there has been a 7% increase in such tie-ups in the last six months, when recession took root in the country. Eyeing the future potential, some of the organised players in this segment like Royal Orchid and Signature Crest have also chalked out expansion plans.
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“There can be between 20-40% saving, especially with corporate discounts. Moreover, service apartments offer business travellers facilities such as fully-equipped kitchen with self-catering facilities, various bedroom choices, lounge and relaxation areas, etc. Another cost-effective factor is that in service apartments, occupants save on the bar bills, inflated internet and telephone charges as well as restaurant bills that typify most hotels in the 4-5 star category,” [JLLM managing director (west) Pawan] Swamy remarked.

Few chain hotels have made this a top priority yet. Sure, there’s the Residence Inn and the Extended StayAmerica family, and on the classier end of the spectrum, Starwood’s Element.

But the majority of apartments are still small operations, unaffiliated with major chains. And the problem, if we can call it that, is that quality of apartments can vary greatly, and that the majority of rental apartments are targeted to tourists, not business. The market still focuses on “vacation rentals,” instead of business rentals. And what’s good for a tourist isn’t necessarily business-friendly. If you scan the offerings at websites devoted to apartment rentals — such as VRBO.com, HomeAway.com, Zonder.com, VacationHomeRentals.com, EVRentals.com, and Rentalo.com, to name just a few — you’ll be hard-pressed to find business-centric properties.

Instead, the short term business-oriented apartment rental market remains highly localized, with small operators working out arrangements with large firms’ local offices. But perhaps a confluence of factors will lead to consolidation of apartments designed for business travelers: Combine an increase in recession-era demand from companies hoping to lower lodging expenses with a decline in hotel investment, and 2009 could be the year of the business apartment.

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Pretty neat graphical representation of global flight traffic in 24 hours, using data from Flightstats.com. Take a look:

Upgraded: Political mayhem that leads to free travel
The recent political turmoil in Thailand has left travelers wary of visiting, so Air Asia is offering 100,000 free tickets to Thailand from other Asian destinations. Air Asia seems to offer free tickets rather frequently. The drop in Thai tourism isn’t just because of the financial crisis. It’s largely a function of the political struggle between the existing government and the monarchists. (Some decent background on the crisis, which led to airport shutdowns, is here.)

Upgraded: Bugatti rentals
I never knew this: The cars at many ultra-luxury car rental operations (the places that rent out Lamborghinis and Bugattis, not the stuff Hertz has on offer) are loaners from cash-strapped owners. Jalopnik has the primer on renting an uber-luxury car.

Downgraded: Canadian pet mobility
Upgraded: JetBlue pet mobility and frequent flyer miles
Canada’s top airlines — Air Canada and Westjet — aren’t transporting pets during the holiday season. They stopped accepting animals for travel on December 15. The ban runs through January 6 on Westjet, and January 7 on Air Canada. Why? They’re blaming fuller planes and fuller cargo holds. In contrast: JetBlue isn’t just transporting animals, they’re giving their owner bonus miles.

Downgraded: Being a flying bartender
Angling for a lawsuit, anyone? “A husband and wife are suing United Airlines for “negligently” overserving alcohol during a flight from Osaka, Japan, to San Francisco, saying the carrier’s drinks fueled the domestic violence involving the two shortly after their plane landed.” The couple contends they got served wine every twenty minutes. Whom do I have to threaten to sue to get that kind of service on UA?

Upgraded: Car sharing
The car-sharing phenomenon in major cities was launched by small operators. Now that the model has proven itself viable, the big firms are stepping in. Enterprise and Hertz are both entering the space, with Hertz launching in Paris, London, and New York this week. “Connect by Hertz” will be a membership program much like Zipcar, but with far fewer locations (Hertz starts in NYC with 10 sites, vs. Zipcar’s 300). But Parisian entrepreneurs are plotting to be one step ahead: electric short-term mini-rental cars, much like one finds public-use bicycles.

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The finance blog Calculated Risk posted some numbers on how much hotel construction has been going on in the U.S. over the past few years, and how revenue projections are dropping like a rock.

The chart of hotel investment as a % of GDP is graphically impressive, with a recent spike that puts investment in hotels going back to 1970 to shame. That’s a lot of building.

And when oversupply meets a recession, hotels brace for declining revenue:

U.S. hotels have entered the initial stages of one of the deepest and longest recessions in the history of the domestic lodging industry according to a new report issued today by PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR). The 7.8 percent drop in RevPAR [revenue per available room] that the hospitality research firm is now forecasting for 2009 will be the fifth largest annual decline in this important measure since 1930.

To help fill those rooms, and to pay the bills, hotels will be offering discounts in coming months. This means more inventory on Hotwire, Priceline, and Lastminute.com; more package discounts; and maybe even lower rates overall.

Prepare for bargains!

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A couple weeks ago, Rick Seaney wrote about bargain rates for holiday travel to Europe in business class. Slower seasonal demand for business class seats, plus the financial crisis and recession, have left a number of seats open, especially between business centers in the US and Europe.

Many of those seats are still available. Economy class fares are creeping up for those folks who waited until the last minute to book their tickets, but business class (and premium economy) are still comparatively low.

If you’re doing a search for fares, run a separate search for business class fares. The economy search that is the default on most booking sites won’t necessarily capture business or first class fares, even if they’re lower than coach.

The best deal I’ve seen for last-minute 2008 holiday travel has to be on L’Avion, the all-business class carrier flying between Newark and Paris. $1479 plus taxes ($1,581.79 all-in) pays for the round-trip. The coach fare on Air France is $1623 for the same holiday dates. L’Avion isn’t the top-of-the-line business class seat — it’s a cradle, not a flat bed — but it’s $50 less than the cramped coach seat. No contest. (Plus, you can earn miles in British Airways’ Executive Club, as of December 2, 2008.)

Some of those flights may be operated by OpenSkies, the British Airways subsidiary that sells premium-economy (cradle) and business class (flat-bed) seats. A L’Avion seat in business is considered equivalent to an Open Skies Prem+. Check both sites, but I found the fares lower on the L’Avion side — even for the OpenSkies operated flights.

Related:
- Booking flights on L’Avion just got less risky
- Inside L’Avion, part un: a good seat but a shortage of fluids and information
- Inside L’Avion, part deux: the airline that is betwixt and between
- L’Avion (aff)

I’m both pleased and amused to report that Upgrade: Travel Better is now available as a subscription on the Kindle. If you loved it for free on your laptop, you’ll love it even more when you’re paying $1.99 a month for it! And did I mention the 14-day free trial?…

Of course, it’s hard to actually read it that way if you don’t have a Kindle, and those are on backorder into the new year, should you wish to drop $359 for a unit.

Personally, I have never actually read anything on a Kindle, or even seen a Kindle, and I don’t know anyone who owns one yet. So I have no idea what this blog will look like on that reader. The content gets delivered wirelessly to the device (via the Sprint network), so it’s always up to date as long as you’ve got a signal.

Anyone out there actually have a Kindle?

Upgraded: Dirty hotels
I’ve stayed in filthy hotels. One “hotelier,” and I use the term loosely, asked me and the (then-future) missus upon check-in, “You gonna need it the whole night?” You knew it would a good night’s rest. It built character. So, yes, I prefer my hotels clean, but if I’m going to stay at a roach motel, it might as well be for my long term health, right? Right?

Upgraded: Great reviews of awful hotels
Speaking of lousy hotels… how about this gem in Huntsville, Arkansas? Your room may have security cameras trained on your bed. Fantastic! (Thanks, Kim!)

Downgraded: Honesty, and eventually, safety
American and Delta are pulling out of a voluntary pilot-error reporting program with the FAA. The program was designed to allow pilots to admit to mistakes without fear of punishment, in order to improve how the air traffic control system functions. Guess what: The pilots say they’re being penalized by the airlines anyway, so they’re refusing to report errors. Which harms the system in the long run. Less data means the FAA will have a less accurate sense of the problems — however minor — which plague air travel. Management-labor relations, doing damage once again.

Downgraded: Advantage Rent-a-Car
Upgraded: My mood
Advantage Rent-a-Car, my least favorite car rental company in the United States of America, filed Chapter 11, with plans to close nearly 70% of their locations. Good riddance. My experiences with them were uniformly unpleasant, and downright insulting. I’m sure there were good people who work(ed) for the firm, and for those people, I’m sorry. I’m also sorry that I never actually met any of those people at an Advantage Rent-a-Car counter.

Upgraded: EU and Canada strike open-skies deals
The EU and Canada have liberalized the possibilities for air traffic between one another. “Under the deal, which is expected to come into force in the first half of 2009, airlines based in the 27-nation bloc will be able to operate direct flights to Canada from anywhere in Europe.” More competition for routes across the Atlantic should ensue.

Upgraded: Hartford
Northwest canceled the Hartford-Amsterdam flight, but post-merger Delta resumes it. Service is on a 757. Let’s see if they can make it work.

Upgraded: Algae fuel!
Yes, it’s just in the experimental phase, but Boeing is testing jet fuel derived from algae.

Upgraded: Your Merrill Lynch stock
Elite Island Resorts, with several properties in the Caribbean, are accepting stock as payment for your holiday stays. Better yet, they’re valuing the stock at July 1, 2008 levels. Merrill Lynch stock is down nearly 60% from that level. So, a 60% discount off the room rate! And at these levels, it might even be a good long-term investment for the resort. (via NYT)

Dollar/Thrifty has announced that they are abandoning their rollout of check-in kiosks at car rental locations across America. While kiosks are part and parcel of airlines, hotels, and some car rental agencies, they’re not working out for Dollar/Thrifty. From their press release:

“While we were pleased with some aspects of the pilot program that we implemented in April 2008 at our Houston location, we have concluded that the use of kiosks in the customer service experience reduced our interaction with the customer, detracting from the high level of personal service that our customers have come to expect from us. Additionally, the pilot project did not satisfy our minimum return on invested capital, thus we concluded that continued full-scale development of self-service kiosk was not in our shareholders’ best interest,” said Scott L. Thompson, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Hmm. There are two arguments there. 1) Kiosks hurt the customer experience. 2) Kiosks cost too much.

I am skeptical about #1. Unless the person behind the counter refuses to handle any requests and insists on sending all customers to the kiosk, there’s no reason why kiosks wouldn’t supplement the rental experience. Frequent travelers are comfortable using a kiosk, after all.

The cost issue is plausible. Especially in the current credit environment. Machines aren’t cheap, after all.

But here’s another possible financial reason which they’re not fleshing out: It’s easier for a customer to avoid an upsell when they’re interacting with a kiosk, than when they’re dealing with a person. So the kiosk might cause the company to lose out on revenue.

The person behind the counter can try to scare or convince an easily manipulable customer into spending more of their money. A kiosk is less convincing.

My own experience with car-rental kiosks (albeit not with Dollar or Thrifty) has been pleasant, quick, and efficient. The effort to upsell is minimal, and it’s easy to decline coverages without any hassle. Maybe that’s the problem.

Related:
- In defense of kiosks
- Five ways to get an edge over other air travelers
- Alamo and National speed up rental car checkout

United Airlines, intent on proving that anything — anything — is for sale, is starting to sell a package of elite-esque services for $25 a pop.

“Premier Line” is the latest in the “Travel Options by United” series of a la carte services available for purchase. Premier Line, starting at $25 per passenger each way, will let passengers:

• check in at the (generally shorter) business class line;
• use the (generally shorter) elite/first class security line;
• board in Seating Area 1, earlier than non-elite coach passengers.

Notably not included: Economy Plus seating.

Once again, United proves that it is willing to sell its lower-level elites down the river. Fly 25,000 miles, and you’ll still have to compete with those willing to pay a handful of bucks. Awesome.

There’s nothing that was once only available through loyalty which can’t be bought for one-shot cash payments. Nothing. They’ll sell you Economy Plus. They’ll sell you early boarding. They’ll sell you bonus miles. It’s all for sale.

On the flip side, United is offering infrequent travelers the opportunity to pay a little extra to get a little more service. Is it worth $25?

So, is this a slap in the face of lower-tier elite members, or a brilliant business decision? Hit the comments. Weigh in.

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