August 6, 2009

Official Press Release – Voyij.com Travel Site Dedicated to Sales & Deals, Adds Digital Rich Photos, Virtual Tours and Videos from VFM Leonardo

Posted by Paul under Launch, Press
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Enhanced Digital-Rich Content Adds Visually Enriching Experience for Travelers Exploring Hotel Deals & Sales on Voyij.com

Cupertino, Calif., – August 6, 2009 - From the creators of SideStep, Voyij.com, the most comprehensive site on the web for travel sales and deals, announced a partnership with VFM Leonardo, the leader in online visual content distribution for hotels. VFM Leonardo will provide hotel digital-rich visual content to the Voyij.com site, including photos, virtual tours and videos.

Voyij customers will now have an even richer experience when they are searching for hotel deals. “As a new site, providing a great user experience is important and critical to our success,” said Brent Stewart, CEO and Co-Founder of Voyij. “We chose to work with VFM Leonardo because they are a trusted provider of visual content that offers a large selection, as well as easy integration and a great way for travelers to view photos and videos of hotels they find through our system.”

For VFM Leonardo’s customers who have access to VNetwork – the largest online visual content distribution network for the global travel industry, through VScape or VBrochure, this means that they will now be able to further enhance their online presence with photos and rich media (virtual tours, videos) on Voyij.com in the industry’s leading multimedia viewer.

“By partnering with Voyij.com, we enable our hotel property customers to better merchandise their properties to a larger audience of in-market shoppers looking for hotel accommodations online. Our multimedia viewer on Voyij.com, provides these travel shoppers with the best experience viewing hotel photos, virtual tours and videos and increases their likelihood of booking,” Paolo Boni, President and CEO of VFM Leonardo.

About Voyij, Inc.

Voyij, Inc. was founded by former founders and employees of SideStep (which sold to Kayak for nearly $200 million in 2007) who wanted to develop a means for searching the ‘best-of-the-best’ travel bargains, offers and sales on the web. Voyij.com is the first site of its kind to search hundreds of offers and aggregate “deal” content across the web, resulting in the most comprehensive number of travel specials and sales under one roof at a given time. Voyij allows travel discovery while also offering comprehensive filtering so consumers can choose the criteria most important to them. Come visit us at www.voyij.com and onTwitter at @voyij_travel.

About VFM Leonardo
VFM Leonardo is the world’s largest provider and distributor of online visual content for the hotel and travel industry. VFM Leonardo’s content library includes more than one million digital photographs, videos and 360° virtual tours for over 80,000 hotels and resorts worldwide. Through VScape, VFM Leonardo distributes this content to its online media network of all fourGlobal Distribution Systems, Pegasus, and 30,000 plus travel-related channels including online travel agencies, travel research and supplier web sites, search portals and major travel intermediaries. VFM Leonardo’s online media network includes industry leaders such as Sabre, Galileo, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Tripadvisor, Yahoo! Travel, Kayak, Google and many more. For more information, visit www.vfmleonardo.com.

Media Contacts:
Renee Blodgett
For Voyij
617.620.9664
renee at blodgettcomm dot com

Julie Vieth
VFM Leonardo
877.593.6634
press@vfmleonardo.com

 

August 3, 2009

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain – Magic Wonderland

Posted by voyij under Europe
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Considering a trip to Europe? From the desk of our NY writer, who returned recently from her Barcelona, Catalonia trip to Spain:

Entrance to the Park

Entrance to the Parc Guell

What started off as a stormy trip with me stomping around rain-soaked Barcelona in search of my hotel, quickly turned into a relaxing and entertaining week filled with warm Mediterranean breezes.  Barcelona, the capital of Catelonia, sits along the northeast coast of Spain.  This beautiful city draws visitors from all over the world and in the short week that I spent there, I became friends with a few visitors from London, a Broadway actress from New York, and a few locals who had moved to Barcelona from Mexico and other parts of Europe.  This cosmopolitan city seemed to be bursting of young vibrant energy and yet, it has somehow maintained its old world charm.

The amazing architecture of Antoni Gaudi can be seen throughout the city and tours of his great works – Parc Guell, La Padrera, Casa Batllo, Segrada Familia – are well worth the price of admission.  My favorite was the Parc Guell, a magical wonderland that overlooks the city.  Interesting tile work and sculptures can be discovered throughout the park and the walk up the steep hill to get there somehow added to its allure.  Another cultural highlight was the Picasso Museum, which exhibits the artist’s progression.

Barcelona also boasts a fun, easy-going beach scene.  It seems that on Sundays, the entire city population can be found lounging on the beach or in one of the many bistros and bars that line it.  Be aware that many women on the beach may go topless – this is Europe after all.

If you’re still bursting with energy after a day of sun, sand, and site seeing, you can stay up all night in one of the many clubs located along the city’s main street, Las Ramblas, or in the Olympic Village area.  As for me, enjoying delicious seafood dinners in Barcelona’s many excellent restaurants, followed by long strolls around the city and through its squares, were more my speed.   The king crab at Botafumeira is a crab lover’s dream and Siete Portes, one of the city’s oldest restaurants dating back to the 1830s, is elegant and delightful.

I could have easily spent at least another week ambling through the city and visiting nearby towns.  Then again, there’s always next time . . .

- Sophie

Interested in a trip to Spain, start your planning now with a great hotel deal on Voyij.com.

 

July 31, 2009

National Geographic Adventure Blog Gives Voyij.com 4 Stars

Posted by Paul under Voyij Buzz
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Thanks go out to Catherine and her post titled “New Travel Deal Sites: Bing and Other Contenders”. In it she states if you’re a fan of Kayak and meta-search companies scanning for the best travel prices, then the three new favorite rookies on the block to try out are Bing, Voyij and Optifly. Voyij received a 4 star rating and Bing and Optifly received a 3 star rating. wow! We don’t have a $100 million Microsoft ad budget or a team of Farecast engineers to make a lot of noise, just a small, scrappy team of ex-SideStep employees who love working together to save you and me money!

She says we were “the most comprehensive deal finder yet…” – check out the article.

 

July 30, 2009

Voyij Chosen As A Top 100 Web Site of 2009 by PC Magazine – Yay!

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The team is pretty excited Voyij made it on the list. We’re in pretty good company too. You’ll see the likes of Amazon, Yelp, TechCrunch, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, and my favorite, Ugliest Tattoos (ewwww).

We were very surprised by the news, and most flattered by how we made the cut:

“Deciding upon our list of 100 sites is a months-long process. We solicited Web site nominations from every corner of the Web—PCMag and AppScout readers, Twitter followers, Facebook friends, our own staff, and more. A small committee of our own experts then evaluated each nominated site one by one, judging it according to its content quality, design, and originality, to arrive at our two lists of 50 Web sites.”

Ya, pretty awesome! Our team has been cranking away into the wee hours of the morning building the best travel deals website we’d be proud to send our family and friends to and since our June launch, there’s been nothing but love for our little up and coming site. Thanks everyone for your support and big props to the team at PC Magazine for your vote of confidence! Check out the full list of the other 99 web sites that made the cut.

 

July 23, 2009

Official Press Release – Travel Site Voyij.com Introduces First Ever Customized “Deal Alerts”

Posted by Paul under New Feature, Press
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”Deal Alerts” Notifies You of Travel Sales & Deals that Meet your Specific Criteria the Moment They’re Available

July 23, 2009 – Cupertino, Calif., – Voyij.com, the most comprehensive site for travel deals and sales, today introduced the first full featured, customizable deal alert system that notifies you of the best travel sales based on exactly what you want as soon as they become available. For the first time ever, Voyij Deal Alerts allow you to select where, when and how much you want to pay, and Voyij will alert you of the best travel deals matching your specific requirements.  No more wondering if yet another travel newsletter will have anything relevant, Deal Alerts are created and customized by you!

Voyij fills a void in online travel that people want by answering the question: “what’s on sale today?” Imagine now being able to pre-select where and when you want to go, how much you want to pay, and what type of deal you are looking for in advance and then have these incredible deals emailed to you the moment Voyij.com finds them?

“We’re excited about offering this unique feature to people,” said Brent Stewart, CEO of Voyij.com. “People are looking to not only save money on travel, but want to be able to find the best deal on the web quickly and easily the minute it becomes available. Unlike typical travel newsletters, Voyij Deal Alerts let you define how and when you are notified based on exactly what you are looking for.”

For example, a traveler interested in seeing vacation package deals to Anaheim, CA from San Francisco would be alerted to the Holiday Inn Resort, minutes from Disneyland, for $349 per person for 4 nights including flight, saving over $220.

A traveler interested in New York hotels under $200 could be alerted of a savings of over 40% off the regular price at the beautiful Empire Hotel, or discover a vacation package to Paris for under $700 per person for four nights including hotel and flight. Imagine your filter includes Mexico and San Diego and you’re notified about a trip to Cabo San Lucas for $370 per person including flight and hotel or a Sheraton Four Star hotel in San Diego for $91?

Voyij.com provides complete filtering on what is important to each person including travel dates, hotel star ratings, location, activities, price, and more.  Unlike other sites that list random deals, with just a few clicks Voyij.com quickly finds offers that match your exact criteria. It is the only site that will help you search, explore and discover great deals and sales instantly from your home airport, taking the pain out of search while saving you both time and money.

Consumers interested in discovering incredible travel deals and saving money can sign up now for Voyij’s free “Deal Alerts” at www.voyij.com/deal-alerts You can also follow us on Twitter at @voyij_travel.

About Voyij, Inc.

Voyij, Inc. was founded by former founders and employees of SideStep (which sold to Kayak for nearly $200 million in 2007)  who wanted to develop a means for searching the ‘best-of-the-best’ travel bargains, offers and sales on the web. Voyij.com is the first site of its kind to search hundreds of offers and aggregate “deal” content across the web, resulting in the most comprehensive number of travel specials and sales under one roof at a given time. Voyij allows travel discovery while also offering comprehensive filtering so consumers can choose the criteria most important to them. Come visit us at www.voyij.com.

Press Contact:

Renee Blodgett
Blodgett Communications
617.620.9664
renee at blodgettcomm dot com

 

June 29, 2009

Official Press Release – European Destinations Added

Posted by Paul under Europe, Launch
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Most Comprehensive Travel Site for Deals & Sales Voyij.com Adds European Destinations

Explore and Discover or Refine Travel Offers to Europe’s Popular Locations

June 29, 2009 – Cupertino, Calif., – From the crew who created SideStep, newly launched Voyij.com, today announced that the free travel site to consumers has added European destinations. For the first time, travelers will have one central location where they can discover the widest variety and largest number of European travel deals and specials under one roof.

The concept behind Voyij is simple. Voyij fills a void on the web that people want: “what travel destination is on sale today?” With Voyij, you can explore and discover travel sales and deals you never knew existed independent of origin, destination or dates.
Other travel sites concentrate on real-time inventory and the few that do focus on deals have substantially less offerings, focus on one aspect of travel but not another, i.e., hotels, or do not include filters so you can narrow down what you want.

The site which was unveiled to the public in May 2009, launched with North American and Caribbean destinations only. “Adding European destinations to our site is perfectly timed for travelers looking for last minute sales and specials to European hot spots this summer,” said Brent Stewart, CEO and co-founder of Voyij. “As the site continues to grow in popularity, we will add new destinations and features to make it even easier for travelers looking for great deals.”
Travelers simply enter the city they are leaving from and Voyij does the rest. You can choose to review the deals and specials that are on sale that day, which is a compelling part of the discovery experience Voyij offers. Because the site grabs deals from hundreds of travel suppliers, you often learn about destinations and deals you never knew existed and from sites you never heard of.

Additionally, Voyij goes one step further. If you choose to narrow down your scope, a second step allows you to filter by region, time of year, popular destinations, hotel star ratings, beach hot spots and more. These features are particularly useful for European destinations where popular hot spots are often more expensive and booked up months in advance during the summer months.

“With everyone interested in saving money, cutting back on holiday expenses or stretching those vacation dollars even further, Voyij can take the pain out of online searching and booking, while saving Americans time and money,” added Stewart.

Tens of thousands of deals are brought together under the Voyij.com roof. This includes last minute specials, sales, promotional rates and excess (undersold) inventory, so travelers get the widest selection of offers from any one site.

Voyij has plans to add new international destinations later this year and in early 2010. Please visit www.voyij.com and send us your feedback to feedback@voyij.com.

About Voyij, Inc.
Voyij, Inc. was founded by former founders and employees of SideStep (which sold to Kayak for nearly $200 million in 2007) who wanted to develop a means for searching the ‘best-of-the-best’ travel bargains, offers and sales on the web. Voyij.com is the first site of its kind to search hundreds of offers and aggregate “deal” content across the web, resulting in the most comprehensive number of travel specials and sales under one roof at a given time. Voyij allows travel discovery while also offering comprehensive filtering so consumers can choose the criteria most important to them. Come visit us at www.voyij.com.  Follow us on Twitter at @voyij_travel.

Press Contact:
Renee Blodgett
Blodgett Communications
617.620.9664
renee at blodgettcomm dot com

 

May 22, 2009

View All Sales – Voyij Destination Map

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One week after our formal launch, Voyij has pushed out a new feature called our Sales Destination Map. We plan on pushing out something new and exciting EVERY week, wonder how long we can keep it up? So, check back often! We’ve got some great partnerships in the works to get you more sales, plus, Europe, here we come!

Sales Destination Map Link

If you loved us before, we think you’ll really like the ability to visually map out the possible destinations for your vacation, starting from your home origin. The yellow marker is your home origin and all the red markers are your sales destinations. If you hover over the red markers, you can see how many deals are available and the lowest price. There’s a map for flights, hotels and vacation packages.

Voyij Sales Destination Map

We know for a lot of travelers, vacation planning starts with a destination, but what if you spent hours researching and planning only to discover you couldn’t afford it? You’d put it off until the window has passed, and end up settling for a less than ideal vacation for the year, if one at all. In today’s economy, with the small window of precious time we have to vacation AND afford, getting a great price is more important than ever. Sometimes you need to be a little more flexible, just got to pick the right days and a little spontaneity never hurt no one, it is the spice of life. And now that you’ve discovered Voyij.com and can easily explore and discover just how little you have to spend to vacation to Las Vegas, Oahu, Cancun, New York, Orlando, etc…, it’s time to pack up and get out of town, NOW!

Hope you like it as much as we liked building it, I’ve booked a $97 roundtrip flight from SFO to Las Vegas myself…see you in a few days. :)

Bon Voyij!

 

May 17, 2009

Voyij North America and Caribbean Edition

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Hello Everyone, thanks for stopping by Voyij.com, we’re really glad you found us! So now that you’re here, how can we help you? Oh, wait, we should probably clarify what North America and Caribbean Edition means first. You probably know it, but are in denial. Although Voyij is currently crawling all your favorite travel websites, and some you didn’t know existed, for  sales, special offers, promotions and deals to cities in the United States, Caribbean, Canada, Mexico and Central America, the flight and vacation package deals are specifically for travelers leaving from a U.S. airport. However, if you’re booking your own flight, a la carte, we probably have a hotel deal for you. We’re currently working on adding deals to Europe by this summer, and our next big push is to add deals for Asia.

Wish we had more engineering power so we can bring you ALL the travel sales and special offers you deserve, it’s been a rough year. Our product road map does include a European Edition, so stay tuned. For the rest of ya, keep checking back, you never what’s on travel destination is on sale today.

Bon Voyij!

 

May 15, 2009

Good News for OTAs and Travel Search Engines

Posted by Paul under Uncategorized
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PhoCusWright released their Top U.S. Travel Trends and although there will be a contraction in consumer demand levels in this recessionary period of our economy, there’s also good news in there for the online travel agencies (OTAs) and the travel meta-search engines.

“Online travel agencies will fare better than other channels”

“..OTAs will outperform other channels in year over year bookings because of their consumer base.”

Meaning, there’s been a big shift in travelers moving their travel planning and purchases online. Travel is the biggest E-commerce category online and it continues to grow.

“Travel search engines are (finally) making a mainstream impact”

“Over a quarter (28%) of travelers typically turn to them[Kayak] when shopping for travel and new entrants like TripAdvisor will continue to broaden the audience.”

And the best part of the report:

“Online travel is mature but not saturated”

Dim the lights, (intro), Voyij.com – hope you find a great destination on sale, so go get shopping!

Download the full report(.PDF, requires free subscription to PhoCusWright) or read the summary on  the Travel Industry Wire.

 

May 14, 2009

We Did It – Voyij Launch Party Was a Blast!

Posted by Paul under Launch
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Celebrating w/Baskin Robins Oreo Cookie Cake, YUM!

Celebrating w/Baskin Robins Oreo Cookie Cake, YUM!

Thanks to everyone who made it out to our launch party last night at BJ’s in Cupertino, CA. Great to see good friends, family and investors make it out to support us on our own “voyij”. Sorry if you had a hard time accessing the site this morning, our press release got picked up and it was off to the races. Traffic spiked and our servers fell over momentarily until we tapped into the cloud (we’re hosted on Amazon EC2) and quickly got things back to normal. The press coverage has been remarkable, so if this is your first time coming to our site and reading our blog, WELCOME!

We hope you find what your looking for on Voyij, a great vacation! Our goal is to find sales on destinations you’ve always wanted to visit but didn’t know you could afford. We want to save you time and money, so go shopping, you know you deserve it and get going on your own “voyij”.

Thanks,

Team Voyij

 

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