Lastminute.Com
The website lastminute.com is an online travel agency that caters to travelers with the latest information and deals about tour packages mostly around Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa. It provides various leisure options such as short weekend city excursion breaks in select EU cities and offers useful travel guides on spas, information on cinemas and theater events, as well as the best restaurants, hotels and car hire deals that fit any budget needs.
A Short History
The site was created as a publicly listed company by Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox back in 1998 at the height of the dot com craze. Needless to say, a lot of people lost money on its share price slump when the bubble inevitably burst a few months after. But lastminute weathered the crisis as it had real service to offer its markets, not just an e-prefix or a dot com appended to its name.
It came out of it to become a sort of a travel icon among UK travelers. Its success attracted Travelocity, another online travel portal that had made a global mark as one of the pioneers in internet-based travel services. In 2000, lastminute.com changed ownership for the first time when Travelocity bought if for a cool ₤577 million.
In 2007, another change of hands took place when Sabre Holdings which owned Travelocity was acquired by a couple of private equity companies, the Silver Lake Partners and the Texas Pacific Group. This ended lastminute’s presence in the stock exchanges.
Amidst the various ownership changes, the site has managed leave a unique subversive though a bit quirky pop culture that includes creating Release 41, a rock group named after its website application release and made up of company staff from its European offices. It had no qualms dubbing their online customers as “fearless Funmongerers” that have entered local lexicon.
It launched promotional campaigns like the Karmarama-created “Do More Good Stuff” early in 2009 and other TV ads that caught the fancy of UK viewers to give lastminute a top of the mind presence in the public perception. At about the same time, it launched NRU or near you, a search application using GPS information for Android mobile phones in the UK. It created a following and is expected to have a US release in May to come with an online restaurant ratings and review guide called Zagat.
Shopping Incentives for New Vodafone Mobile Broadband Subscribers
With the increase in popularity of mobile broadband services in the United Kingdom, broadband service providers have unleashed a slew of attractive packages and deals that may entice new subscribers into their customer base. Telecommunications giant Vodafone has introduced a new incentive program for their new customers.
Recent announcements have revealed that Vodafone will now include incentives, in the form of thirty pound vouchers from lastminute.com, to their new subscribers. The voucher itself can be used to purchase a multitude of products and features from simple show tickets to holiday retreats and theater breaks.
The voucher is available to new subscribers to selected mobile broadband service packages. Interested customers enter a promotional code on the Vodafone website to qualify for the voucher. Vodafone offers mobile broadband in twenty four month packages priced at fifteen pounds a month. Other than the voucher the package come with a data rate of up to 7.2Mbps, a free usb modem dongle, and a 3GB data allowance. Greater data allowance capacity of 5GB is available with the twenty five pound mobile broadband package.
Mobile broadband services in the United Kingdom are experiencing rapid growth and with that, increased competition. Other than competitive prices, most of the companies now offer promotional discounts, incentives, freebies, among other additional service to encourage new customers. It is wise to check out these great deals before making a decision on which carrier to go with.
Network congestion and customer service has also become a key factor in user carrier preference especially when concerning mobile broadband. Newer technologies such as the mobile broadband ready netbooks, WiMax and instant-on mobile broadband access modems has changed and is continuously influencing the mobile broadband market.
