What Business Travel News is saying about ontheroad.com

Business Travel News – July 19, 1999

A Bookmarker's Delight: The Best Travel Web Sites

By Mary Ann McNulty

With travel among the hottest commodities on the World Wide Web, a search using the word "travel" or "business travel" will inevitably produce tens of thousands--and occasionally millions--of hits. To help travel decision makers identify the sites they really need to do their jobs, Business Travel News has narrowed the list considerably to highlight just 15 sites--in honor of our 15th anniversary--that every travel manager should bookmark. Some we have recommended before, but their value to travel decision makers keeps them on this short list. Some previous mentions have become so cluttered with advertising messages that we fail to find the value in sorting through the mess.

Not surprisingly, the sites that offer the most value to travel decision makers are those featuring time-saving resources: currency converters, weather forecasts, mapping, business tips, low-fare searchers or reams of government data such as on-time airline performance.

While vendor Web sites have improved considerably since our last comprehensive review of sites two years ago--especially for those who belong to the site owners' loyalty program--most still are designed to sell product, rather than provide a resource to travel buyers. Consequently, none are listed here. Of course, if the site is one of your preferred vendors, you're going to want to keep it bookmarked so that you can monitor the latest Web promotions and news.

Although a number of sites are positioning themselves as "portals" for travel purchasers, the content on the sites currently is too sparse to consider them of enormous benefit to time-sensitive decision makers who need one-stop shopping.

As before, BTN confined the search to home pages that are open to all. Consequently, the National Business Travel Association (www.nbta.org) and Association of Corporate Travel Executives (www.acte.org) were excluded, despite their valuable chat rooms and sample requests for proposals.

Destination Content

ontheroad.com

Besides checking out the hot restaurants, business events and opening performances at the destinations, members of ontheroad.com now can use the virtual concierge to secure restaurant reservations and event tickets in the latest upgrade of this "tactical destination guide." Although access to the full site costs $99.95 annually, enough portions are available free to make it worthwhile.

The site currently features 500 restaurants, 6,500 events and hundreds of insider tips for more than 10 North American cities and London, with others to be added soon, said Malcolm Kaufman, CEO of the San Francisco-based firm. Ontheroad.com also this year began distributing its Snapshots--two-page briefings of a handful of top restaurants, business events, major trade shows, entertainment options, sporting events and museum offerings--through a number of consumer Web sites.

Why It's A Bookmark: A few corporations, including Charles Schwab, are private labeling the offering and including it on their travel home pages. Thirty-day free trial corporate memberships are available.

Unlike many city-specific content Web sites, this one is designed for the business traveler or manager and presents data in a format he or she can readily print or download and stick in a briefcase.