Artificial intelligence-powered answer engine Perplexity has launched a feature in collaboration with Selfbook and Tripadvisor that enables users to book hotels natively on Perplexity.Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of Perplexity, shared the news on LinkedIn. Srinivas included a video showcasing the new mode selection and a short, in-platform hotel booking process powered by Selfbook— a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2023 that provides hotel booking and payment technology. “We are introducing answer modes in Perplexity to make the core search product even better for verticals: travel, shopping, places, images, videos, jobs,” Srinivas said. “The next step is to get super precise [so] that you don't have to press on these tabs.” After selecting a “mode,” users can make a natural language query with Perplexity that surfaces relevant answers based on Selfbook data and reviews from Tripadvisor. Users can then opt to book to complete the process.The feature is available currently on the web and will be available on mobile soon, according to Srinivas

It's been nearly a year since PhocusWire named its Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023, and since that time the industry has witnessed a surge in both leisure and business travel. Funding for travel startups, however, is down dramatically this year, at just $4.3 billion according to Phocuswright's Travel Startups Interactive Database compared to $8.4 billion last year at this time.As we gear up to announce our class of 2024 startups at The Phocuswright Conference on November 14, we have been checking in with all of the past classes of Hot 25 Travel Startups from 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and now 2023. A handful of the Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023 have received funding - at total of nearly $32 million since January according to Phocuswright - while many on the list have lined up new clients and won other travel industry awards in the last year. We asked the founders to tell us two things - their companies' highlights of 2023 and their priorities for 2024. We heard back from 20 of the 25. Their responses, in some cases, have been condensed and edited for clarity.AeronologyAeronology powers a point-of-sale travel booking platform. Answers from founder and CEO Russell Carstensen.2023 highlights: For Aeronology, 2023 has been "all in" for NDC [new distribution capability]. After seeing new tech companies, without any travel industry DNA rushing into the NDC marketplace, we suddenly realized that what that rush missed out on was useability for full self-service NDC on a working platform that houses all NDC, all GDS [global distribution system] and all LCC [low-cost carrier] services on one screen

Selfbook, the Tiger Global and Amex Ventures-backed technology company has released its latest flagship product, Station.Station is the first hospitality-focused platform harnessing financial technology to give hoteliers more control over their revenue, according to Khalid Meniri, cofounder/CEO, Selfbook. “[It] is a versatile booking and payment platform aimed at automating transactions and streamlining bookings without replacing existing systems,” he told Hotel Business. “Designed to simplify the hospitality industry’s labor-intensive processes, Station offers hoteliers centralized control over revenue through a user-friendly dashboard. This unique solution connects booking and payment data, enabling easier bookings management, preventing chargebacks and reducing fraud.”Station’s payment automation eliminates manual processing, allowing hotel staff to swiftly add charges, initiate refunds and trigger on-demand payouts, he added. “In addition to a seamless user experience and cost savings, Station ensures enhanced security for hotels and guests with PCI DSS compliance, two-factor authentication, card data privacy, post-arrival charge controls and no card requirements upon arrival,” he said.The product works in harmony with Selfbook’s Direct booking layer and newly released Express secure payment enablement to facilitate the hospitality journey as a whole, from the guest’s room selection to on-demand payouts for hotels.Express, the second new addition to Selfbook’s stable of products, which is also launching, offers a variation of the guest-facing seamless booking experience offered by Direct. “Crafted for hotels with custom booking engines, Express empowers hotels with plug-and-play payment blocks, streamlining the checkout experience without changing the look and feel of a hotel’s existing system,” said Meniri.“Express supports a custom combination of fast-growing payment methods including digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, global credit and debit cards, and Affirm’s ‘Buy Now, Play Later’ to create a checkout flow suited to each hotel’s preferences