QIXO Launches First Travel Comparison-Shopping Engine, Comparing Prices and Various Options from Major Web Sites
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 18 / QIXO (
QIXO (pronounced "kick-so") already searches and compares airfares from 13 top travel web sites, including Travelocity, Expedia, CheapTickets, OneTravel, Travelscape, Southwest, United and AmericaWest and expects to search more than 40 sites within the next few months. QIXO will soon compare hotel rooms and car rentals.
The online travel market is full of established players such as Travelocity and Expedia as well as newcomers such as Orbitz and Hotwire. So why another travel web site in this crowded space?
"QIXO is one simple interface through which travelers can interact with dozens and eventually hundreds of online travel web sites," said Daniel Ko, QIXO's CEO and Founder, a serial entrepreneur experienced in the travel industry and the Internet. "Because QIXO does not sell any travel products, it presents prices and airlines objectively without any hidden priorities."
According to Michael Stier, a senior VP at Lufthansa Consulting and an active advisor for QIXO, "QIXO may be the only web site a traveler or travel agent will ever need. This is a neutral site with a unique business model – creating for the first time a high degree of transparency for prices and flight options. It will be very interesting to see how this new innovative technology is going to change customer behavior and the existing distribution channels."
With QIXO's QIXCompare(TM), travelers can find much better flight times and prices than ever. Currently, many travelers who book on the Internet or travel agents booking via the GDS-systems, may be paying up to 70% more than the cheapest fare on the Internet that may also have fewer connections and better flight times.
In addition, QIXCompare will soon compare numerous other factors that can impact travelers' decisions – frequent flyer miles, restrictions, e-tickets, etc. Airline web sites offer more frequent flyer miles than online travel agency sites, whereas certain discount travel agency sites do not even offer frequent flyer miles. Certain fares have penalties for changing or canceling itineraries.
QIXO will also offer QIXBook(TM), which enables a traveler to instantly book the fare found in QIXCompare. Without this feature, the traveler would have to go to the web site that offers the fare, reenter the itinerary, wait for the results to show up and go through many more pages to complete the booking.
QIXO plans to target the small business travelers' market segment, which is expected to grow from $70 billion in 1999 to $90 billion in 2004. The small business travelers benefit from QIXO more than any other types of travelers.
They need to find competitive prices and convenient flight times but do not have the time to check numerous web sites. Instead of wasting time visiting those sites, they can use QIXO for all their travel needs.
ABOUT QIXO
QIXO is a leading provider of one simple interface for numerous travel web sites. This interface is currently made available on the web and will soon be available on wireless devices. With this single interface, travelers can quickly find the best prices and options for flights, hotel rooms or car rentals from hundreds of travel web sites and instantly make reservations. Travelers benefit from QIXO because travel web sites have drastically different prices for airfares, hotel rooms, or car rentals as well as flight times, numbers of flight connections, hotel locations and quality, etc. QIXO searches through numerous web sites in real-time and instantly presents a comparison list of flights, hotel rooms, and car rentals. QIXO compares every aspect of traveler's needs - price, flight times, number of connections, frequent flyer miles, restrictions, etc. Travel suppliers and online travel agencies benefit from QIXO because QIXO uses their existing Internet booking engines to create new distribution channels that can drastically increase their online revenues.
