Multiple booking links and new transfer information in the US

The routeRANK team has been working on updates to improve your travel planning experience. New features include:

• Multiple booking links for one flight
  We now show you the flight price information from different online travel agents. As before, we search over 700 airlines from over 100 agents, but now we also display booking links to multiple different airlines and agents. This provides you with a better overview of the different prices available for a given flight, and also with the opportunity to book your flight with your favourite travel agent. Try it out now with a search from Cambridge to Montreux.

• Airport transfer information for major airports in the US
  As was already the case with the European airports, routeRANK now gives additional public transport for travelling to and from the biggest US airports. This complements the already existing airport transfers by car and taxi. Example: the search request from Chicago to New-York now integrates schedule information for the CTA Blue Line from downtown Chicago to the airport ORD.

Swiss government becomes routeRANK’s customer

The Swiss government has contracted routeRANK for the travel planning of the Swiss administration. A customised version of routeRANK is being developed for the Confederations’ Travel Centre. This comes after a thorough analysis of the available alternatives in the course of the tender, where routeRANK was found to offer the best solution.

The Confederations’ overarching project “Best Mobility” integrates economical as well as ecological aspects into the travel management. routeRANK’s customised version takes into account the special needs of federal business trips. For example, it allows for special terms, preferential listing of contract partners and direct booking through the corresponding interfaces. The service is scheduled for introduction in April 2010. The complete customisation makes it unique in Switzerland, and the Swiss Confederation a pioneer of “Best Mobility”.

In addition to offering a global view on CO2 emissions by comparing the different means of transportation, other advantages include:
- travel cost savings: comparison of travel routes according to the overall best price
- travel time savings: comparison of travel routes according to the overall shortest time, with consideration of the net available working time
- planning time savings: comparison of travel routes in a single search on one screen, with integrated booking functionality

Further information on the Confederations’ Travel Centre can be found on their website, and further information on routeRANK customised versions with links to other integrations such as for the WWF and Nokia can be found on the Business applications page.

From your home town to the slopes: plan your skiing trips with routeRANK!

It is skiing season here in Switzerland and we are spoiled for choice of great ski stations. Whether you are a local dreaming about your next ski weekend getaway, or you are planning your skiing vacation from abroad, we want to help you find the fastest, cheapest and greenest ways to get there:

• Find and book the best route from London to Verbier.
  http://www.verbier.ch
• Find and book the best route from Zürich to Davos.
  http://www.davos.ch
• Find and book the best route from Berlin to Zermatt.
  http://www.ski-zermatt.com
• Find and book the best route from Paris to Les Diablerets.
  http://www.diablerets.ch
• Find and book the best route from Barcelona to St. Moritz.
  http://www.engadin.stmoritz.ch
• Find and book the best route from Bern to Portes du Soleil.
  http://www.portesdusoleil.com
• Find and book the best route from Geneva to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc.
  http://www.chamonix.com
• Find and book the best route from Brussels to Grindelwald.
  http://www.grindelwald.travel

Winners of the Red Herring Global 100 Awards announced

Ventures from all around the world were recognized by Red Herring’s Global 100 awards, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from around the world. routeRANK was already a finalist in the Red Herring 100 Europe last year and was also finalist for the 100 Global awards. We are proud that routeRANK’s concept and innovative technology won this support. We would like to congratulate the winners, including our Swiss neighbours KeyLemon, Kooaba and Procedural.

New localized content

The routeRANK team wishes you a Happy New Year 2010! We have been working on updates to provide a better user experience of our travel planning service.

In addition to specifying the language of the routeRANK website, the user can now also set a preferred country. The website content will then be targeted to the chosen country, as far as localized data is available. For example, if the country is set to the Netherlands, the user will be redirected to the Dutch domains of travel providers, where possible. Currently, this localized data is available to varying extents in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands. We are constantly working on expanding our coverage and bringing routeRANK right to where you live.

routeRANK is a finalist for the Red Herring 100 Global Awards

routeRANK has been selected as a finalist for Red Herring’s Global 100 award, a prestigious list honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from around the world. routeRANK was already a finalist in the Red Herring 100 Europe last year.

The Red Herring editorial team selected the most innovative companies from a pool of 1,200. The nominees are evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

“This year was especially difficult,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “Despite the global economic situation, there were many great companies producing really innovative and amazing products that we had a difficult time narrowing the pool and selecting the finalists. Now we’re faced with the arduous task of selecting the final 100 winners of the award. We know that this year’s crop will grow into some amazing companies that are sure to go far.”

The Top 100 winners will be announced at a special awards ceremony at the Red Herring Global Conference in Laguna Niguel, California on January 12-14, 2010.

Winners of the 2009 Academic Enterprise Awards announced

Academic entrepreneurs from France, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom were recognised in the second annual ACES awards, held at the Paris City Hall on 10 December. routeRANK was nominated for the Microsoft ICT Award, which rewards a successful ICT spin-off company based on ideas developed at universities and public research institutions in Europe. We are proud that routeRANK’s concept and innovative technology won the support of the outstanding panel. Congratulations to the French entrepreneur Jean-Christophe Baillie who won the award! His company Gostai has developed a platform that allows proprietary robots to use a single software.

Direct booking link now also for taxis

The routeRANK team has been working on updates to make travel planning even easier. It includes an improvement of the taxi option. As already the case with the other means of transport, routeRANK now also includes the links to book a taxi directly with the relevant provider. As before, you can use the ‘Customize Car’ menu from the ‘Options’ shown in the top right corner of the search results page to specify the airport transfers as taxi. In particular, this will change the corresponding prices. It now also displays the links that allow you to book the taxi directly with the relevant provider.

The other ‘Customize Car’ options such as specifying the fuel consumption and hence adapting the corresponding price and emissions of your own car remain as before.

routeRANK finalist at the Academic Enterprise Awards and Startup of the Day

routeRANK has been nominated for the Microsoft ICT Award as part of the Academic Enterprise Awards organised by Science Business. Rewarding successful spin-out companies based on ideas developed at universities and public research institutes in Europe, the award sponsors include Microsoft and The Economist. The winners will be announced at the Paris City Hall on the 10th of December during the Academic Enterprise Conference and Gala. Speakers including Jean-Philippe Courtois, President of Microsoft International, will be part of the event. More detailed information can be found on the event website.

Furthermore, routeRANK was named Microsoft BizSpark startup of the Day on November 19th.

routeRANK comes with a more informative progress bar and new options

The routeRANK team has been working on updates to provide a better user experience of our travel planning service. They include:

• New progress bar
  When you search a trip on the routeRANK public website, it now displays more details of the search. The progress bar now illustrates the search for train connections and car routes. It also hints at over 700 airlines and 100 online travel agencies including low-cost and regular airlines that routeRANK compares for the user.

• The routeRANK widget offers new options
  routeRANK has developed new features for its widget. You can now preselect an arrival/departure location. You can also change the default language. More detailed information can be found here. Please contact us for further customisations. Take this opportunity to add the widget on your contact page and help your visitors find their best routes to you.