Travel and hospitality in brief

Priceline eyes adding smaller venues

Priceline.com Inc. has added 1,500 employees this year in 20 offices internationally, as the Norwalk-based travel-booking company looks to add smaller inns and vacation destinations to its website.

Priceline.com Inc. revenue rose 45 percent to $1.5 billion in the third quarter and profits more than doubled to $470 million. For the first time, Priceline”™s websites, which include Booking.com and Agoda.com, handled more than 6 billion transactions in a single quarter.

In a conference call with investment analysts, CEO Jeff Boyd said Priceline still has ample opportunity to add hotels to its menu, both in the U.S. and abroad.

“There”™s a lot of countries where we may have done a good job of developing inventory in the major cities but haven”™t really gotten out into the smaller villages and towns yet,” Boyd said. “We also have vacation rentals and bed-and-breakfast and other types of accommodations, which really opens up development to a much larger number of properties.”

 

DECD readies small-business forums

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development has scheduled information sessions in December and January to steer Fairfield County businesses to recently enacted incentive programs.

The DECD scheduled sessions for Dec. 14 at the University of Connecticut Stamford and for Jan. 12, 2012 at Matrix Corporate Center in Danbury. The agency indicated it will schedule additional sessions and webinars in coming weeks, but at deadline had yet to do so.

 

Priceline CEO Jeff Boyd, speaking at a PhoCusWright travel summit in 2009, said Priceline has added 1,500 employees this year. Credit: PhoCusWright

Come all, says PhoCusWright

For the first time, PhoCusWright is providing free online access to its annual travel conference held Nov. 15-17, with all content planned to be archived online through next May on the Sherman-based company”™s website.

In addition to showcasing new trends and services for booking travel, the Hollywood, Fla., conference”™s speakers include Jeff Boyd, CEO of Norwalk-based Priceline.com Inc. and Steve Hafner, CEO of Kayak Software Corp. in Norwalk.

 

Wonder wows at wintry fundraiser

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation raised $2.1 million from its fall gala held Oct. 29 ”“ the day the nor”™easter blanketed Connecticut in snow.

Stevie Wonder accepts an award at the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation fall gala in Greenwich. Credit: MMRF

More than 1,000 people attended the fundraiser in Greenwich sponsored by PepsiCo, which featured a performance by Stevie Wonder, Michael McDonald, Darius Rucker and Javier Colon. Deborah Norville was mistress of ceremonies. The foundation bestowed a “spirit of hope” award on Wonder, and gave its corporate leadership award to Dennis Gillings, CEO of Quintiles.

The foundation supports efforts to treat multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer afflicting more than 20,000 adults in the U.S.