Jaunted

On what destinations are seeing the most booking action now:
Lauren stressed the breadth of travel research done at LMT, and the cities coming out strongest for the end of this year are (in order of popularlty): Las Vegas, New York, Orlando, and Chicago. For the first quarter of 2010 however, the cold town of Chicago completely drops away to be replaced by Los Angeles and Miami. We'd like to think that our exhaustive and awesome coverage of Chicago helped it reach the tops, but then we can't forget about Jaunted's sister site, VegasChatter.

In terms of international hotspots, Lauren divulged that San Juan was leading the pack, followed by Toronto, Rome, and then the good old standbys of London and Paris.

On the state of the cruise industry:
Although we are occasionally alarmed at the low-low prices on package cruises, LastMinuteTravel's Lauren assured us that the cruise industry "isn't as affected by the economy" as other travel sectors; "add-ons are the clincher." And even though megaships continue to roll out, like Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, it's mainly the travel media that freaks out about the massive load of passengers, not the cruising demographic. Those who use their vacations to go on cruises care less about how many are onboard with them, and instead focus on the amenities available to themselves. Hence, the hype of Oasis of the Seas, a floating theme park of sorts.

On where LastMinuteTravel's strengths lie:
Sure they've got a toolbar for booking everything from airfare to vacation packages, but Lauren tells that LMT is strongest for hotel bookings. Since they switched earlier this year over to the opague model, meaning that you book a hotel knowing everything but the hotel's name until after purchase so that wholesale prices can be relayed to you, LMT has focused on this.

Still, and Lauren stressed this—the name "LastMInuteTravel" doesn't mean they're only to be used for split-second vacation decision-making or that they only give great rates for last-minute trips. They'll offer deals and book "whether three months or three weeks out," since everyone has a different definition of "last minute." This we understand, since last-minute to us is about 5 days beforehand, while our mother firmly believes that 5 months in advance is calling it too close.

On future developments:
Just like Travelzoo before them, LastMinuteTravel is expanding into booking event and performance tickets. This is the newly-launched Activites page, and it's not just passes to Walt Disney World and tickets to the Blue Man Group; they've got "2,300 attractions in 85 countries" up on there.

So perhaps this is the general future of travel booking sites—making everything that's bookable available? Perhaps we'll soon start seeing sports ticket vacations independent of travel agencies and package tour sites. But first let's just get all booking sites to agree to no booking fees for a start, okay?

Related Stories:
· LastMinuteTravel [Official Website]
· Hong Kong or Bust, Thanks to LastMinuteTravel's 'World for $1' [HotelChatter]
· Hotel Rooms For A Dolla Dolla Bill, Ya'll? [HotelChatter]
· Jaunted Interviews series [Jaunted]