The battle for online hotel booking revenue continues to heat up with today’s launch of Room Key, a hotel search engine created by the joint venture of six leading hotel companies: Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotel Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotel Group.

On the surface, there’s not much that differentiates this search engine from others, except that naturally the inventory featured is only for the partners’ various brands. Room Key’s announcement also stressed the promise of “confidence” when using the site, given that customers will be booking directly from the hotel companies and not a third party.

Currently, users can only make bookings, however the company indicated that it soon will add independent reviews and the ability to compare, plan and share information.

Room Key is being led by CEO John F. Davis III, founder of Pegasus, a hotel distribution switch technology which streamlined GDS and Internet connectivity for hotels worldwide and was an early pioneer in online hotel bookings. Most recently he served as CEO of BirchStreet, a provider of e-procurement and purchasing solutions to hotel companies.

The company acquired its technology platform from hotelicopter, which also has an affiliate platform for destination marketing organizations, now under the Room Key Solutions brand.

The launch comes just months after Google introduced its Hotel Finder service and two weeks after several online travel agents (OTAs) voiced concerns about the mega search site listing its own results above competitor sites.

As noted by Tnooz, this isn’t the first time hotel companies have joined forced to compete on OTAs’ turf. In April 2001, European companies Hilton, Accor and the Forte Group partnered to launch AndBook, and in the United States in the early 2000s, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott and Starwood introduced Travelweb.

Photo: Courtesy of Room Key

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China Southern and other big Chinese carriers refuse to pay the EU's carbon emissions tax.

The European Union’s plan to impose a carbon tax on flights in and out of the region has drawn criticism from around the world, but Chinese airlines have now become the first to flat-out refuse to pay the tax.

Part of the European Union’s emission trading scheme (ETS), the tariff went into effect at the start of the year and is tallied based on the entire route of a flight, not just the portion that uses European air space. Uncooperative airlines could face fines of 100 euros per ton of emissions, and eventually be banned from European airports.

“China will not cooperate with the European Union on the ETS, so Chinese airlines will not impose surcharges on customers relating to the emissions tax,” said Cai Haibo, deputy secretary-general of the China Air Transport Association (CATA), according to Reuters.

China is far from alone in its opposition to the new tax. The Air Transport Association, along with three U.S. carriers, filed suit in Europe last year to have the tax blocked, arguing that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN agency, is the appropriate body to impose such a tax. Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would formalize U.S. opposition. India’s civil aviation ministry has reportedly told airlines not to submit the data that the EU requires under the ETS. And Australia’s Qantas Airlines has threatened a lawsuit.

Although airlines would not actually pay until March of 2013, the ETS began affecting flights January 1, so passengers could begin to see fare increases soon.

Estimates differ on how much the tax will cost airlines, and how much airlines would pass on to passengers. The European Commission puts the cost at two to 12 euros (about $2.50 to $15) per passenger per flight, but aviation analysts have come up with other figures. One told Dubai’s Gulf News that he believed the cost would come to $20 to $30 per trip, just for short hauls within Europe. A spokesperson for Cathay Pacific told Reuters that the ETS would add about $6.44 to a ticket from Hong Kong to Europe. And Tony Tyler, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), estimates the ETS’ cost to airlines in 2012 will reach 1.2 billion euros ($1.53 billion).

Photo: Heurik Manuel Pajer, Wikimedia Commons

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Where would you like to travel in 2012? For people in the travel industry, it’s often easier to come up with a list of where they wouldn’t like to travel. So many destinations, so little time.

This time of year, travel lists abound, with each, naturally, subjective in its own way. Looking for top luxury spots? Budget destinations? Off-the-beaten-path spots? How about top ethical places in the developing world? There’s a list for you.

Mayan ruins at Tulum, Mexico.

Without reading a single one, a destination gambler’s best odds for this year would be to include London and its surroundings, home of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Not far behind should be locales in Mexico and Central America that were part of the Mayan world. That culture, after all, predicts that the world as we know it will transition into its next phase on December 21, 2012.

Many of the current 2012 travel lists do indeed mention one or both of these destinations/regions, namely CNN’s World’s Top Destinations for 2012 (the first four of which also include Chicago and Myanmar and happen to align with my personal list of where I’m likely heading this year) and Frommer’s Best Destinations for 2012.

The Frommer’s list is particularly interesting as it’s geared toward the hard-to-define traveler who simply loves to explore the world and runs the gamut from budget to luxury. Destination choices are all over the map, literally and figuratively, from Canada’s Bay of Fundy to Japan’s Fukuoka, Ghana to Girona, Spain, with Beirut, Curacao, Kansas City and Chongqing, China, rounding out the list.

Uptake’s own Yen Lee harnessed the social media power of Facebook’s friend graph to capture the most buzzed about places, based on more than 200 million comments, status updates, photo descriptions and check-ins. The list published on Huffington Post includes some classic Southeast Asian gems, including Hoi An, Vietnam, and Luang Prabang, Laos, along with Copacabana, Bolivia, and Portland, Oregon, stateside.

Lonely Planet has expanded its audience significantly beyond intrepid backpackers during the past decade, so its annual lists now seem to include more places that make one wonder “why there” as opposed to “where is there.” There remain, however, some great picks. For top U.S. destinations, LP editors recommend the always-enjoyable Chicago, the Four Corners region of the Southwest, California’s Gold Country and, perhaps more surprisingly than the other spots, Cincinnati. Ever hear of Culebra? No? It’s an island 17 miles off the coast of Puerto Rico. The Caribbean tropics can be yours, no passport required.

Luxury lovers who turn first to picks from Travel & Leisure‘s Hottest Destinations of 2012 will find a variety of remote resort destinations from which to choose, including Sri Lanka, Xishuangbanna in China’s Yunnan Province, and Mozambique’s Northern Coast, along with Bentonville, Arkansas. That’s right—Arkansas, which made the list thanks to the Moshe Safdie-designed Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, opened in November.

Budget Travel magazine has a terrific list of value destinations, including Egypt—surely a bargain these days and desperately trying to rebuild its tourism industry; Atlantic Canada, which also appears on a variety of lists; and Taipei, a personal favorite, for its culinary scene and diverse topography. Stateside San Diego and San Antonio are the places to stretch your dollars.

Conscientious and green travelers can thank Ethical Traveler for its newly released list of the Developing Worlds 10 Best Ethical Destinations (press release), based on their accomplishments in the areas of environmental protection, social welfare, and human rights. The winners, in alphabetical order, are: Argentina, The Bahamas, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, Latvia, Mauritius, Palau, Serbia and Uruguay.

The editors at The New York Times haven’t yet published their list for 2012, but they recommended 41 places to go in 2011. That probably was inclusive enough to last most people a good few years, or even a decade.

Photo: D.M. Airoldi