Here are some quick notes from the Dealbase presentation:

“The best place to find great travel deals for consumers and for hotels to market their specials.”

10,000 deals in one place with 2500 sources makes them the largest collection of deals today.

Dealbase optimizes selection for the customer by offering filters and removing the ambiguity out of the process.  They have created a structure that makes it easy to compare favorites and make a decision.

If a customer is just looking for a great deal they can search for  best deal, by type of hotel, savings and timing of trip.

Hotels can directly post deals on the site and it is quite easy to submit, just a few minutes and it is posted live.

Next year, they will be launching deals from across the world, developing new categories and the ability for hotels to promote their deals.

TravelTV for online video

TripTelevision provides solutions to assist with online video needs. They provide custom players, production, post production, distribution and advertising for businesses.  The service allows viewers to manage their experience through profiling and video keyword search tools. The video explains it in detail.  Worth considering if you need an online video.

Things to do in Hollywood, CA as recommended by UpTake

Our company, UpTake is one of the “innovators” chosen to present at the summit.  We are a travel search engine that helps travelers make informed decisions about their trip with ease. We collect, organize and sift the web’s travel information, including 750,000 products and 20 million opinions.  We then deliver the information in one nice summarized package based on a traveler’s specific trip preferences–more about that here.

VacationRoost offers a variety of vacation rental properties

VacationRoost is the “the largest marketplace for professionally-managed vacation rentals.” I was slightly disappointed they didn’t have a rooster for their logo, but the site does have a great name and offers a wide variety of vacation rentals and other handy services.  I searched for Tahoe ski vacations and the results ranged from expensive to down scale, prices for everyone. But, I didn’t like that the advertised price was buried in the results, $500/night is very different than $124 a night, don’t you think?  I realize they are workin’ the upsell, but it feels a bit like a bait and switch to me.  I still will consider using the site to book a vacation rental.  By the way, you may know them by their other names: Ski West, Inc, then Otravel.com and then Mountain Reservations.  I personally like this name and hope they keep it.

Wandrian is a train travel resource

Wandrian, “the travel train catalyst,” has connected global train companies together to serve the train traveler. This helps train companies deliver their product in new ways, lowers their cost, increase sales and helps consumers book train journeys more readily. They are working to improve train ‘connections’ worldwide. I like this concept.

MyWorklight.com software insures sites offering 2.0 technologies remain secure

MyWorklight is a little more technical, “it is a secure and scalable server software product that creates a bridge between the traditional IT environment and numerous consumer-oriented services and technologies.”  In other words, they allow companies to offer Web 2.0 technologies in a secure environments including helpful tools like personalized homepages, gadgets, IM, and social networks.

Worldmate Live offers itinerary management

WorldMate Live is ” the only service that serves your needs both before and during travel by automatically assembling an entire itinerary, including meetings, in one place.”  It also syncs up your personal web site, calendar and mobile device.  WorldMate Live roams with you in real time to help avoid the daily problems a complex itinerary can present.

I am going to compare TripIt and WorldmateLive in another post during my next trip.  I will let you know which service I prefer.  I just don’t think a trip to my sister’s needs an itinerary planner.  I wonder, Is the market large enough for a number of these services?

Yapta helps you find a better price

In the current climate often described as a global economic meltdown, Yapta is in the perfect position to serve the rising numbers of cost-conscious consumers. Yapta tracks prices before you buy. Better yet, if the price drops after the purchase is made, they help you get refund travel credits from the airlines. The latter part of the deal doesn’t sound easy, but I like the concept of someone telling me to buy now!  If only I had the same service with equivalent reliablility in the stock market. Worth a look.

Your Tour is an itinerary planner

Your Tour offers dynamic algorithmic based itinerary planning.  The site is not yet ready for review.

And that brings us to the last of the innovators.  In just a few days, I will be able to see the best they have to offer during their presentations.  Look for details here next week.

Detailed product information collected from across thousands of sources

UpTake announced yesterday that we increased our total number of indexed sources from 1,000 to 5,000 making our database of individual travel sites nearly 10 times greater than any other travel search engine. The sources indexed by us include trusted sites like Expedia, Fodor’s, goCityKids, TripAdvisor, Virtual Tourist, and Yahoo! Travel.

Our database now delivers summarized information about more than 775,000 U.S. products.

Take a minute and understand the enormity of that number…

It is a great many places to stay and things to do. It includes 600,000 U.S. attractions (landmarks, parks, beaches, etc.) and more than 175,000 hotels, B&Bs, resorts and campgrounds and well “alternative” lodging. Yurt, anyone?

We also collected more than 20 million opinions from across the 5,000 web sites, an unmatched breadth of understanding about travel.

Why does this matter?

By doing all of this data gathering, we are decreasing the amount of time a travel planner has to search for information. We gather, organize and  sift the information and then deliver it to you in a succinct summary.  All the information you need to decide on your trips–in one place.  We want you to be able to make a swifter, better decision about your precious vacation time.  I like to think of of us as the most helpful, obsessive, compulsive travel search engine around.

I hope you do too.

Here are eight more innovative firms selected by PhocusWright to present during the Travel Innovation Summit:

View from a featured property on The Society

The Society of Leisure Enthusiasts has the “largest online network of hand-selected vacation rental homes around the globe.” A quick search revealed beautiful homes for rent, the starting price was $500 or more per night but the homes appeared well worth the price. The homes ranged from beautiful to outright fantastic. They examine each property to ensure a quality experience and promise you can rent a vacation rental home in confidence from them. If you are looking for a unique and impressive vacation rental, search here.

Travelbeen Home Page

Travelbeen™ is “a social search engine for travel.”  They are collating  and indexing travel websites.   Users can determine how popular a site is based on the number of bookmarks it received. Bookmarking can be done within the site or or on travel websites that have signed up for the service.  Over 15,000 travel companies are already included and our next target is 200,000.  Officially launched on November 11th November, 2008 by Ed Whiting and Gene Campbell, both from New Zealand, the site is still in beta.

TravelMuse

TravelMuse “combines original editorial content and destination city guides with powerful planning tools.”We reviewed TravelMuse when it launched, you can find more information about it here.

Itinerary Sample

TripChill bills themselves as an automated travel agent and offer an itinerary management feature, a gadget to find out about travel conditions and allows you to tell contacts your travel plans have changed.  It seems designed for the road warrior rather than a mom going to take her kids to meet Grandma. If you are planning a long trip with several stops, hotels, flights etc it may be worth a try.

An itinerary management service

TripIt launched to great fanfare a year ago. It offers assistance with managing itineraries.  It is easy to use, and efficient.  Once again, a good choice for complex trips.

TripJane --not available for viewing

TripJane was not available for review.  I registered for a beta invitation and i hope they let me have a sneak peek.

Triporati--

Triporati offers “a personalized recommendation powered by expert travel advice.” I entered a number of options and it returned many possible trips around the world to consider.  They offer expert advice, a wide selection, are experienced travelers, good writers with a good travel blog, too. Take a look.

Itinerary Planner

TripSketch, “makes strategic recommendations for any journey.” They have reviewed the attractions and services in major destinations and  collected logistical details–allowing you to create the ideal itinerary (e.g. make sure that restaurant is open on Monday).  I really liked the San Francisco recommendations, but they had nothing for Hollywood, I was hoping for a restaurant recommendation while at PhocusWright. Cool planning tool, they just need data.