Expedia
Who? A flight, hotel and package holiday booking site, which claims to be the worlds leading online travel company. What do they do? In 1996, a small division within Microsoft launched online travel booking site Expedia.com, giving Internet users a new way to research and book travel by creating their own dynamic packages (flight+hotel). The work of the travel agent was now in the consumers hands. Number of customers? More than 146 million hotel room nights were sold on Expedia Inc (Expedia.co.uks parent company) sites. Quirky fact: Expedia Inc sells enough tickets to fill more than five hundred 737s every day. Last summer more than 1 in 10 Europeans booking on Expedias mobile channels (mobile web and apps) booked travel between midnight and 5am.
Who? An online travel agent. Founded in 1998, it went Internet-only in 2006, when it closed its Dublin store, with the loss of 20 jobs - although there were no compulsory redundancies. It is part of Orbitz Worldwide, whose brands include holiday search engine Orbitz and CheapTickets. What do they do? Sell pretty much everything you might need for a holiday, including flights, accommodation, car hire, cruises, packages, and rail tickets. Number of users? ebookers.com receives 14.2 million monthly unique users. Quirky fact: The company says that 80 per cent of its audience graduated from university.
Who? A last-minute holiday, flight and hotel booking site, co-founded by Martha Lane Fox in 1998. What do they do? The name says it all. They sell holidays, flights and accommodation still available right before departure date. Number of customers? lastminute.com has sold 750,000 airline tickets to 1300 destinations worldwide in the past year. Every 60 seconds someone sleeps in a hotel bed booked on lastminute.com. Company low: The fastest selling show on lastminute.com was Robbie Williams in 2005, when 12,000 tickets sold in 9 minutes.
Who? Travel price comparison site, part of the moneysupermarket.com giant What do they do? Allow users to compare holiday deals on everything from holidays to travel insurance and car hire. Company low: In 2012, it was reported that Simon Nixon, founder of parent company moneysupermarket.com, was moving to Jersey for tax reasons
Who? Flight comparison search engine site, which has also more recently branched out into hotels and car hire. Launched in Edinburgh in 2001. What do they do? If you want to know who flies where, when, for how much - and book the flight - Skyscanner is your go to. The site provides useful information on relevant airlines, flight times and airport codes. It gives live price information for direct and indirect routes and users can browse prices across a whole month, or even a year, allowing you to see when flights are cheapest. Number of users? Skyscanner receives 25 million unique visitors every month. Quirky fact: Gareth Williams, Skyscanners CEO, and co-founders Bonamy Grimes and Barry Smith bonded over music and computer code.
Who? Online reservation service for hotels, b&bs, apartments and more. What do they do? Founded in 1996, this Amsterdam based company, part of Priceline.com, says it guarantees the lowest rates, no reservation fees, and a secure booking service. Number of users? Each day, over 625,000 room nights are reserved on booking.com Quirky fact: Bookings on mobile devices are big business - such reservations grew by 160 per cent in 2013, up to a value of more than $8 billion.
Who? An accommodation bookings site that offers more than 240,000 accommodation options, running the gamut from high-end to basic, self-catering to full five-star service. Hotels.com LP is an affiliate of Expedia Inc. What do they do? Offer places to stay. Lots of them. It also claims it can secure accommodation in otherwise sold-out periods. Number of users? Expedia Incs sites have 55 million unique users each month. Quirky fact: In a social media move that might appear excessive, Hotels.com has 18 Facebook pages and 13 Twitter feeds around the world.
Who? A hotel reservations website providing discounted accommodation throughout the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. Set up in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 1999 as a site offering unsold rooms on the day of travel, Laterooms.com was bought by First Choice (which later merged with TUI, the travel firm) in 2006. What do they do? Offer you the chance to secure accommodation when youve left it till the last minute (or didnt know you were travelling until very late in the day). Rooms can be booked from up to a year in advance, to the day of the stay. Number of users? By 2010, one million genuine user hotel reviews had been posted on Laterooms.com. Quirky fact: the company has its own Youtube channel, showing digital city guides.
Who? Lowcosttravelgroup was founded in 2004 and has grown in the last 10 years with 350 staff based across 47 countries. What do they do? Sell holidays, ranging from two-star basics to five-star luxury. For not much money. Number of customers? Two million customers travel with the Lowcosttravelgroup to a range of beach, city and ski destinations Quirky fact: over 100,000 people will travel to the tiny island of Malta (122 square miles) this year with lowcostholidays.
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Online travel companies celebrating 25 years of the World Wide Web