While most affordable air tickets are non-refundable, consumers are entitled to reclaim the tax and (fuel) charges on an air ticket that they didn't use. Authorities charge airlines based on the number of passengers who fly, not the numbers that book tickets. Unfortunately, airlines don't make it easy for consumers to claim the refunds they're lawfully entitled to.
The beauty of free enterprise? If something is difficult, a smart entrepreneur will surely jump in to ease the pain. For a fee, of course. And that's exactly what newly-launched Miss Refund does: claim taxes and charges on flights passengers didn't take, in return for a flat rate of EUR 25. Customers fill in their personal and flight details on the company's website, and Miss Refund contacts the airline to claim airport taxes and other refundable surcharges. Since refunds are paid directly to the customer (usually refunded to the credit card that was used when booking), Miss Refund requires an advance deposit of its EUR 25 fee. If the claim is unsuccessful, the deposit is returned.
Miss Refund, which is based in the Netherlands, was created by Iwan van Geelen, the founder of an equally useful life hack for travellers: Check Me In, a service that takes care of online check-ins on behalf of airline passengers. Miss Refund received nearly 300 reclaim requests in the few weeks since it launched, and the amounts claimed vary from EUR 80 to EUR 600. The speediest refund was processed by the airline in question in just two days, and others are still in transit.
The service reminds us of EUclaim, which claims compensation for flight delays on behalf of stranded travellers. It's all about convenience! One to bring to other countries or industries? (Related: Property tax advocates.)
Website: www.missrefund.com
Contact: www.missrefund.com/contact_miss_refund_en.html
Spotted by: RK
Earlier this summer we wrote about San Francisco-based AirBed & Breakfast and its matching service for paid bed-sharing arrangements, and now a similar venture has launched in New York, with plans to expand to Boston and Toronto soon.
Roomorama aims to provide a quick and easy way to arrange short-term stays by matching hosts who have space to share with travellers planning a visit to their city. Potential hosts begin by listing the details of the room they have, including when it's available and the per-night price they'd like to be paid. Listing is free, and Roomorama's search filters and "shoutout" system ensure that hosts see only relevant results. Guests, meanwhile, can either search through the listed accommodations or create a shoutout ad specifying what they're hoping to find. Once they find something they like, they pay Roomorama via Paypal for their stay, along with an 8 percent transaction fee. In exchange, they get a payment code to be used upon checkin. Only when they've checked in and approved the accommodations does the guest give that payment code to the host, thereby releasing the transfer of the funds to the host via check or Paypal. User profiles, feedback history and post-stay reviews on the site create a transparent environment for both hosts and guests.
Indeed, it's beginning to look like transparency, financial motivation and Paypal-level security might be just what was needed to make bed-sharing a mainstream alternative to expensive hotels. One to partner with in high-rent cities around the world....? (Related: Soccer fans to share beds at Euro 2008.)
Website: www.roomorama.com
Contact: help@roomorama.com
Spotted by: John Tan
Earlier this year we wrote about the use of interactive surface technology in New York's Adour wine bar, and now guests at Sheraton Hotels can use similar technology to access local information.
Deployed just last week in Sheraton's Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle hotels, Microsoft's Surface technology provides instant access to local tourist highlights. With a 30-inch display in a tablelike form that several guests can use at once, Surface features an intuitive user interface that works without a traditional mouse or keyboard to let people interact with content and information in a natural and familiar way. Hotel guests can use their hands and gestures to access entertainment and information about local attractions, including CityTips, which provides 360-degree satellite maps and tools to search for local restaurants and bars, entertainment, recreation, shopping, transportation and services; Sounds of Sheraton, a lobby-based digital jukebox enabling guests to create personal music playlists from Sony BMG artists including John Legend, Kenny Chesney and Lauryn Hill; and Sheraton Snapshots, giving guests a way to explore Sheraton hotels and resorts throughout the world by simply browsing the Surface photo library. Placement of the Surface units in Sheraton lobbies is designed to enable guests to leverage and experience the offerings in a social way, Sheraton says.
Sheraton is the first hotel to offer Microsoft Surface in its lobby, it says, but it surely won't be the last to feature such technology. Following hard on the heels of the hotel chain's recently cobranded Link @ Sheraton experienced with Microsoft effort to turn deserted hotel lobbies into technology-enabled brand spaces, the new lobby experience promises to keep consumers engaged and coming back for more. So far, just scratching the "surface" on this one ... other hotels, airports, restaurants—what about you? ;-)
Website: www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton
Contact: www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/support/contact
Spotted by: RK
We've featured several companies that appeal to a growing appreciation of the benefits of napping, from a New York sleep salon to napping cocoons at airports. So we were intrigued by news that a hotel in Barcelona—the Hilton Diagonal Mar—has set aside 40 of its 433 rooms this summer for anyone who'd like to take a siesta. For EUR 75, customers get a barbecue lunch and a guest room from 1–5 PM, plus access to the hotel's gym and rooftop pool.
According to an article in Het Parool, luxury hotels in Catalonia are battling low occupancy rates, mainly due to a record construction boom that created more rooms than visitors can fill. Moreover, the Diagonal Mar is located in Barcelona's financial district and relies on a steady stream of business travellers, which slows down in summer. The hotel's napping angle should help recoup some of its fixed costs. And it's definitely a more creative approach to boosting occupancy than simply slashing room rates. One to sleep on ;-)
Website: diagonalmarbarcelona.hilton.com
Contact: res.diagonalmar@hilton.com
Spotted by: Het Parool, via RK
Electronics retailer Best Buy has installed vending machines at 8 major US airports. It's a pilot program for the company's new Best Buy Express kiosks, which are large vending machines that carry cell phone and computer accessories, digital cameras, flash drives, MP3 players, headphones, gaming devices, travel adapters, and other items that are likely to appeal to customers on the go. Prices are similar to those in Best Buy stores.
Best Buy is targeting travellers in search of last-minute gifts, as well as those who need a replacement for a gadget or accessory they forgot to pack or lost along the way. The kiosks can currently be found at airports in Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), Dallas (DFW), Houston (IAH), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX), Minneapolis (MSP) and San Francisco (SFO). Four more will follow over the next few weeks.
It's an interesting move by Best Buy. The convenience factor is an obvious draw for travellers in a hurry, especially at airports with limited shopping options. But the branding on a vending machine by a well-known retailer is also a clear visual signal, instantly recognizable by consumers, which is a real advantage at busy and cluttered airports. One for other retailers to experiment with, too? How about a vending machine by Target, carrying their top 20 small items? Or one by Whole Foods, offering organic snacks?
Website: www.bestbuy.com
Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
Roughly 17 million air passengers travel through Paris during the summer, presenting the city's airports with a significant logistical challenge. To keep tempers cool and spirits high this year, the Aeroports de Paris implemented an unconventional plan: free dance lessons for passengers.
Much like the free light therapy the airports offered over the winter holidays—which we covered back in January—summertime passengers can use their wait time at the airport to learn any one of 15 dances offered by the airport's resident trainers from "L'Ecole des Vacances," including Afro Jazz, Disco, Hip Hop, Mambo, Modern Jazz, Rock & Roll, Salsa, Samba, Tango, Cha-Cha and more. Music and trainer instructions are broadcast through cordless headsets so as to minimize the disturbance to other passengers, and lessons last 10 to 15 minutes each. At Paris-Orly, they take place on a dance floor in terminal South at boarding gate 17, with roving workshops also available in the boarding area at Paris-Orly West. At Paris-Charles de Gaulle, the dance floor is located in terminal 2E, gate E51, with itinerant workshops in Terminals 3 and 2F. Dance floors were designed by the Aeroports de Paris boutiques. Classes are available each summer weekend between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. through August 17th.
There's nothing quite like free love to elevate consumers' moods, particularly when it includes a dash of sympvertising to relieve the stress of travelling and provides some status skills to boot. No doubt the airport boutiques will benefit, but another possible scenario could involve the sponsorship of such an effort by a local dance studio chain. Either way, one to emulate in any travel or hotel context!
Website: www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/Adp/fr-FR/Passagers/Departs/Evenement
Contact: www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/Adp/en-GB/Passagers/Contact/contact.htm
Spotted by: RK
Visitors to many of Europe's cities can now get elaborate walking tours for free, thanks to Sandeman's New Europe Tours.
Available in London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Paris and Madrid, each tour begins at a central meeting place and lasts two to four hours as it provides an overview of the city's sights. In London, for example, two free tours are available—one focusing on the Old City of London, and the other concentrating on Royal London. In Berlin, meanwhile New Europe Tours offers both walking and bicycle tours for free. Tours are often available in multiple languages, and Sandeman's New Europe also publishes a free line of English language New Europe magazines, as well as offering hostel booking on its site. The company got started in Berlin in 2004, and has been expanding ever since. As the euro continues to be painfully expensive for tourists from outside the EU, New Europe Tours are no doubt more popular than ever. Recession-proof tourism, anyone...?
While participants on the tours don't have to pay to attend, tips are expected—roughly EUR 10 a head is reportedly standard, which could be viewed as pay what you want rather than strictly free. Besides providing guides with decent income from tips, the tours also advertise the company's range of private and paid tours, including the Red Berlin Tour, the New Paris Tour of Versailles and pub crawls. Indeed, a full 46 percent of visitors who take the company's free Berlin tour end up taking one of the paid tours as well, the company states. Which, of course, is yet another testament to the (marketing) power of free love. Make it fun, make it informative, but most of all, make it free! Consumers will return your love with interest. ;-)
(Related: Blind guides take sighted on sensorial tours of Lisbon.)
Website: www.neweuropetours.eu
Contact: info@neweuropetours.eu
Spotted by: Maarten Munster
So-called dark restaurants, where sighted customers are literally thrown into utter darkness and served by blind waiters, have been around for nearly a decade. Since a seated meal goes only so far in giving people a sense of what it's like to live without vision, Lisboa Sensorial organizes blindfolded walking tours of Lisbon.
Developed by Cabracega, a new local creative agency, the walking tours take place in Alfama, which is Lisbon's oldest district. After being securely blindfolded, participants are steered through Alfama's narrow streets by a blind guide from the ACAPO (Portuguese Association for the Visually Impaired). The guide shares how he experiences his surroundings, and encourages participants to fully explore their altered perception of "the narrow streets, the smell of grilled sardines, the sound of a Fado that can be heard from afar." A guide with historical knowledge of the area also accompanies each group.
Cabracega explain that their project has two main goals: to provide participants with a new sensorial experience of their surroundings through the stimuli of smell, touch, taste and hearing, and the absence of vision. Secondly, they aim to make sighted people more aware of how the visually impaired experience the world, from a decidedly positive angle. Instead of focusing on perceived limitations, the tours allow blind people to take the visually unimpaired on an exploration of their alternate domains of stimuli, codes and references. Tours cost EUR 20 per person, all of which goes to ACAPO. The first tours took place earlier this month and were fully booked, and Lisboa Sensorial will be back with new sessions in September. Like the aforementioned dark restaurants—which spread from Zurich to London, Amsterdam, Montreal and beyond—this seems like a concept that's worth copying to other cities.
Website: www.cabracega.org/lisboa-sensorial
Contact: info@cabracega.org
