| Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Costco offer car rental savings
Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Costco Travel announced Monday a preferred provider relationship that will allow Costco members to save on car rentals at any of Enterprise's more than 7,000 locations worldwide. The Costco member special pricing is reduced from Enterprise's normal rates. Costco has more than 38 million members. There are two Costco and 15 Enterprise Rent-A-Car locations in the St. Louis area. Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco Travel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Costco Wholesale, the global giant in membership warehouse organizations. Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the largest privately held company in St. Louis with more than $9.5 billion in 2007 revenue. matthewallen@bizjournals.com .
Cubans line up for cell phones, but fewer for hotel rooms
While hundreds of Cubans have been lining up to buy cellular phone services previously available only to foreigners and certain state workers, fewer are taking advantage of the lifting of the hotel ban.
The end to what government critics have called tourism apartheid on the communist island came quietly after midnight on March 31.
The first two weeks of the lifting of the hotel ban generated about $378,000 for the state, according to a tourism official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the foreign press.
The two-week figure included 46 Cubans who spent $5,024 on hotel stays and eight who spent $1,763 on car rentals, the official said. Excursions generated $61,398 in revenue.
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TripIt raises $5.1 million
TripIt, a travel services startup, said Thursday it closed $5.1 million in a second round of funding, which it will use to expand its international presence online. New investors included Sabre Holdings and European Founders Fund, while San Francisco-based O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures matched its first round commitment of $1 million. "We're excited about our growth and plan on hiring more staff to help with our international expansion," said Gregg Brockway, TripIt co-founder and president. He said that 40 percent of TripIt's online traffic comes from overseas, mainly English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Two directors were added to the company's board, but they have not yet been named. TripIt receives more than 150,000 hits a month to its web site, where visitors can use its free "itinerator" service to combine airline, hotel and car rental information into a cell phone-ready and social networking-friendly format.
International Airfare Surged As Domestic Airfare Leveled Off In 2007 According To American Express Business Travel
American Express Business Travel today released analysis of North America based domestic and international air, hotel and car rental rates for the full year 2007. Using data from its Business Travel Monitor, the industry's pricing benchmark, international rates experienced price increases across the board while domestic airfare and hotel rates remained stable. "Tight global supply and another year of high fuel costs drove continued price growth for international business travel in 2007 even as domestic prices flattened," said Hervé Sedky, Vice President and General Manager, Global Advisory Services, American Express Business Travel. "Companies can achieve savings in this environment through a well managed, dynamic travel and entertainment program allowing the flexibility to adjust their travel policies in real-time accordance with fast-moving industry changes.
Fitch: Economic Factors More Pressing than Mergers for U.S. Airports
Fitch Ratings sees minimal immediate effects on the operations of U. S. airports stemming from the announced merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines. This reflects the likelihood of a long regulatory review regarding anti-trust and other issues, as well as a prolonged integration of the carriers following financial close of the transaction, which is expected to occur in 2009. Only after the combined airline begins to rationalize its route system will the full ramifications on domestic airports of this merger become clear, a process Fitch expects will take place over a period of two-to-three years. However, while the merger itself may not have an immediate effect on the nation's airports, the changing economics of the airline industry overall may very well begin to influence airport financial operations as the year progresses.
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