Orbitz is launching RSS feeds online for travel deals and fare information for flights, hotel, vacation packages, rental cars and cruises.RSS, which means “really simple syndication,” is a technology that allows consumers to create personalized information platforms via multiple RSS Reader services online.

This includes My Yahoo! (my.yahoo.com), the leading personal start page. First made popular by blogs and online news portals, RSS Readers allow Web surfers to gather content from a variety of online sources to be displayed in one location.

Orbitz.com is the first, out of beta testing, to launch this service among the top online travel agencies. Consumers can choose Orbitz RSS feeds, updated daily, for deals and lowest prices related to air, hotel, packaging (flight + hotel), car rental and cruises. By April 2006, most of these feeds will be updated regularly throughout the day.

“We’re proud not only to continue the Orbitz tradition of being first to market with innovations like RSS but also making technology easier to use and designed to deliver benefits consumers tell us are most relevant,” said Mitch Truwit, president and CEO of Orbitz and Cendant TDS’ global online travel businesses.

“That is one reason why Orbitz continues to earn award after award this year from our most important audience—customers—for delivering the highest levels of satisfaction,” added Truwit.

Orbitz, in 2005, was the recipient of J.D. Power & Associates Award for highest customer satisfaction for booking a hotel on an independent travel web site. Orbitz’ air booking and car rental service were also recognized by Keynote Systems studies for having the highest marks for customer satisfaction.

The RSS enabled feeds on the Orbitz Web site will highlight the following sources of information:

—AIR:  Airline deals from the top 30 origin cities in the United States
    to the top 15 seasonal destinations.  For example, locals in Chicago
    can have daily updated deals out of local airports to a variety of warm
    weather destinations this winter, like Cancun.

—HOTEL: Hotel room rates for the top 15 seasonal destinations.  New
    Yorkers can find the perfect room rate this winter in Miami to go and
    visit relatives.

—PACKAGE: Packaged offers (flight + hotel) from the top 30 origin cities
    to the top 15 seasonal destinations.  Finding a family trip from
    Seattle to Las Vegas just got easier.

—CAR RENTAL and CRUISE: Different from flight, hotel and trip package
    information, car and cruise feeds are offered to top seasonal
    destinations - and include nationally offered deals, rates and select
    inventory from Orbitz.

 

The RSS feeds work with all syndication reader technologies and services; however, Orbitz features a simple way for consumers to add Orbitz deals directly to their My Yahoo! personalized Web page by clicking on the “Add to My Yahoo!” buttons at http://www.orbitz.com/ .

“Like Yahoo!, Orbitz knows that the latest technology is only as good as the benefits it delivers—and we are delighted to present the Web’s most popular personalized web page as a destination for our syndicated travel information,” added Truwit.
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