THE BUSINESS OF TRAVELLING FOR WORK: J OAN SCALES
Rent a car with an app
AVIS HAS launched an app for Android and other smartphones that will allow users to book rental cars in real time throughout the United States and Canada in airport and downtown locations.
Negotiated corporate rates will be available through the app – and it is the first one to support all four major mobile platforms.
The app will also allow you to manage your reservation, view past rentals, email receipts and find Avis locations ( avis.com).
The only way is up
THE RACE to be the tallest hotel in the world will see the Rose Rayhan by Rotana in Dubai displaced by the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai in the last quarter of this year.
The Rose Rayhan is the tallest hotel, at 333m, but will be topped by the Marriott at 355m.
There are taller hotels, such as the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong at 484m, but the building is not completely a hotel – just from the 102nd to the 118th floors.
Heathrow handles over 70m passengers
IN MARCH London’s Heathrow airport broke through the 70 million passenger mark for a 12-month period for the first time. LHR is operating at 99 per cent capacity and the campaign for a third runway is gaining ground. Traffic to Brazil was up 62.3 per cent.
Transatlantic traffic was also strong – up 13.6 per cent. Paris CDG, with four runways, handled almost 61 million passengers in 2011, and Amsterdam Schiphol, with six runways, handled almost 50 million.
With fewer than 100 days to the Olympics, PWC is estimating that London hotels will achieve 92 per cent occupancy for the third quarter of 2012, at an average rate of £156 (€190).
Research company Euromonitor says that no clear picture is yet emerging about the impact of the Olympics on inbound and outbound travel.