lastminute.com unveils revolutionary search tool pronto

lastminute.com is revolutionising the online travel industry with its unique sentence search tool pronto.

pronto is a one box search function that allows the construction of a sentence to search for travel and leisure options, for example ‘Paris on Friday’, ‘I would like a 5 star hotel on 10 November in Gran Canaria for 3 nights’, ‘table for two in Covent Garden this evening’.

pronto is the customer-friendly alternative to the traditional drop down box search system used by all online travel providers including lastminute.com.

The lastminute.com homepage has a total of 78 search boxes across its ten travel and leisure product tabs including hotels, flights and theatre. Including the ‘advance search facility’ there are a total of 162 search boxes.

pronto, which is launching this week to co-inside with lastminute.com’s 10th birthday, allows customers to search for their leisure requirements across all categories using just the one box. The system launches covering hotels, flights and restaurants.

pronto was developed following intensive research that uncovered people newer to online travel sites do not have the patience to fill in all the different boxes.

These people find traditional online travel sites cluttered and the standard search process hard work.

Following these findings seven alternative search prototypes were developed and tested with customers.

These included a circular ‘polo search’ function with options appearing as your mouse sweeps around a circle, and a large intricate drawing showing all kinds of trips and holidays, with the ability to zoom around and choose visually.

pronto received the most positive feedback as participants found it a friendly and inspiring way to search for travel and leisure experiences by typing in what they wanted rather than filling in big forms.

lastminute.com Head of Innovation Marko Balabanovic said: “The search engines have made the one box search system the standard way to search for information online, so it makes sense that travel and leisure products should be searched for in the same way.

“Innovation has been at the heart of lastminute.com since its launch in 1998. pronto makes its even easy for the consumer to make the most of their leisure time, which is exactly what lastminute.com has stood for over the past 10 years.”

pronto has a patent pending on its search functionality.

To experience pronto visit http://www.lastminute.com/pronto

Many happy returns as lastminute.com turns ten

lastminute.com is celebrating its tenth birthday today, marking a decade at the top of the online travel industry since the dot com revolution.

Launched by entrepreneurs Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox in 1998, lastminute.com prospered where other online firms failed and is now the leading player in the travel and leisure arena.

Built on the concept of offering consumers five-star products at three star prices, lastminute.com began by selling holidays, hotels and flights and has now grown to provide a full travel and leisure offering including theatre and festival tickets, attractions, experiences, spa breaks and gifts.

lastminute.com floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2000 and acquired car broker Holiday Autos, bedbank medhotels.com and lastminute.de amongst others before being acquired by travel giant Travelocity, part of the Sabre family.

Known for its trademark bright pink branding, lastminute.com is internationally recognised and responsible for some of the most cutting edge marketing campaigns, including the well known ‘Surprise your girlfriend, take her sister to Paris’ advertising slogan.

lastminute.com Chief Executive Officer Ian McCaig said: “Celebrating ten years at the top in online travel and leisure is a fantastic achievement and one that we are all very proud of.

“It is incredible to think that only a decade ago this global brand was merely an idea dreamt up in a London flat. Now it is one of the most internationally recognised and successful online companies, helping people all over the world to make the most of their leisure time.

“Our customers have stayed with us from the beginning and I would like to say extend my thanks to them for their support. We look forward to the next ten years at the top and to see how we can continue to revolutionise the travel industry.”

£10 hotel rooms on lastminute.com and when it’s gone, it’s gone!

Here at lastminute.com to celebrate our tenth birthday - feel free to buy us a cake - we're giving away 1010 hotel rooms for £10 tomorrow morning from 10am.

The deal is for hotel rooms at four and three star properties across the UK.

The offer will run until the last room is sold out.

Good luck!

Happy birthday lastminute.com!

Online travel pioneer lastminute.com is turning ten on 21 October this year and to celebrate the retailer is having a range of offers and promotions everyday on the site to thank its loyal customers.

Ten years ago two genial entrepreneurs, Martha Lane-Fox and Brent Hoberman, decided to launch their own online travel and leisure retailer and despite doubts and people swearing that online travel was just a fad, lastminute.com has become one of the leading and most respected agencies in the industry.

To thank loyal customers special offers and promotions will appear on the site everyday throughout October and these include:

- From the actual birthday on 21 October customers will get a chance to enter a daily competition to win holidays, theatre tickets, city breaks, flights, thrilling experiences and hotel stays. Each day ten people will be randomly picked and the winners will be announced on the site everyday at 10 o’clock.

- The great hotel sale will take place throughout the month of October with great offers on hotels in Europe and the UK including up to 35% off a wide range of hotels, three nights for the price of two offers and further discounts on top secret hotels.

- Limited numbers of hotel nights, spa treatments, theatre tickets and restaurant deals at just £10 will also be available throughout October for customers to grab. More information on products, days and times for these special promotions will be posted on www.lastminute.com throughout October.

- 48 hour theatre sale – customers can lay their hands on great West End shows at up to 70% discount from 29 September to 1st October and from 13 to 15 October.

lastminute.com Managing Director John Bevan commented: “With these exciting offers we want to give something back to our customers who supported us over the last ten years. We are now looking forward to further successes in the next ten years.”

Statement from lastminute.com following the collapse of XL Airways

Flight only bookings with XL Airways
Flight-only booking on our website are eligible for a refund through ATOL, your credit card company or travel insurance. More information can be found by logging onto www.atol.org.uk & http://www.caa.co.uk/XLLeisureGroup.html

Where possible lastminute.com will try and find alternative flights for customers who still wish to travel, although this will be at their own expense and they will need to contact our Sales Team on 0871 2225969

Flight & hotel booking packaged together through our sites:
lastminute.com will try and find you alternative flights as near to your original flights as possible free of charge. Where this is not possible due to lack of availability, or customer no longer wishing to travel, lastminute.com will provide a full refund.

Package holiday bookings made on our site through 3rd party suppliers:
Customers who have booked a package on our site with another Tour Operator that contains XL Group products, should contact their Tour Operator for assistance. The name and number of your Tour Operator can be found on the bottom of your confirmation email.

Hotel bookings:
If you have booked a hotel with lastminute.com and XL flights elsewhere, we will cancel your hotel booking where possible should you not be able to travel. We will waive all our cancellation fees, however, we will not be able to waive cancellation fees imposed on us by the hotels themselves. Proof of XL Airways flights will be required at time of cancellation and this will need to be emailed to us

Car hire bookings:
Car hire customers unable to travel due to the cancellation of XL Airways flights, will be cancel and refund free of charge. Proof of XL Airways flights will be required at time of cancellation and this will need to be emailed to us.

lastminute.com and The Good Spa Guide create Spa Superpower

The Good Spa Guide’s reviews and ‘bubble’ rating implemented into lastminute.com’s spa pages

Leading online travel and leisure retailer lastminute.com has joined forces with independent UK spa bible The Good Spa Guide to provide a one-stop shop for spa-goers.

The Good Spa Guide’s reviews of UK spas and its industry standard ‘bubble ratings’ will appear in lastminute.com’s spa section to help customers choose the best spa for them.

The Good Spa Guide’s reviews are conducted by a team of Spa Spies, who rate spas using a comprehensive set of criteria covering standards of facilities, customer service and value for money. These marks translate into a ‘bubble rating’, which is a one to five grading system similar to the hotel industry’s star rating.

lastminute.com Lifestyle Director Mark Bower said: “The tie up between lastminute.com and the Good Spa Guide creates a true spa superpower.

“lastminute.com’s comprehensive spa offering coupled with the Good Spa Guide’s industry-standard ratings and reviews makes lastminute.com the leading spa booking site.”

The Good Spa Guide Managing Editor Anna McGrall said: “The Good Spa Guide is delighted to be working with lastminute.com so spa-goers can book a spa day or stay with ease and confidence.”

Roll up, roll up, it's the last week of the Cool Hotel Pools Competition

A lastminute.com online photography competition to win a night's stay at luxury five star hotel The Berkeley has been running for the past three weeks and is now into its last seven days.

The final closing date for the competition is Monday, 8th September.

To enter and win the chance to spend a weekend lounging by the hotel's roof top pool all participants need is a great hotel pool photograph, either a funky shot taken at an ordinary pool or an image of the best pool they've ever visited on holiday and upload the picture to one of the photography groups we've set-up on Flickr and Facebook.

Flickr

Facebook

The team here at lastminute.com will then dive into the massive pile of online photographs and emerge holding the winning one aloft ready to notify the victor.

If you'd like to win a night's stay in one of London's best hotels (did we mention it has a roof-top pool?) then please post your photos on either of the sites and we'll look forward to veiwing your entry.

Best of luck.