NOWADAYS, travelers rely heavily on online reviews contributed by other travelers to make purchase decision about hotels and lodging. Often the choice between two hotels can come down to the number of 5-star or 1-star reviews one hotel has over another or sometimes it’s a genuine, authentic and well balanced review that a traveler identifies with that sways their decision. Because of this, the stakes are high and there is quite an incentive for companies to cheat in order to gain an advantage in the online travel review space. To game the system, companies often write fake positive travel reviews for themselves or even commission third parties to write glowing fake reviews on their behalf (also known as ‘touts’ or the practice of ‘touting’). On the other hand, even the good actors that follow the rules can be sabotaged by fake reviews that are written or created by their competitors.

To help combat this situation Traxo has launched the industry’s first ‘verified reviews’ platform for hotels and flights that ensures reviews are written by real travelers who have stayed at the hotel or flown the flight they are reviewing. All travel reviews that are written by a traveler with a confirmed travel booking are labeled as ‘verified’ by Traxo. Traxo automatically detect bookings made on major travel websites. Users can also forward their confirmation emails to Traxo to have their trip information collected and stored. Once the user returns from their trip, they are prompted by Traxo to write a ‘verified’ review.

Other industries have turned to purchase verification-type systems like Amazon’s Verified Purchase program. Even in the travel space, other companies have taken similar approaches to address this problem. For instance Expedia and USA Today’s new HotelMe, have started to make progress to address the fake review dilemma, but their solutions are highly limited. Expedia offers verified reviews through only the companies they own, but if travelers book other parts of their trips on other sites like Priceline or Orbitz, they would have to hopscotch around the Web to try to find those reviews. AlsoHotelMe’s verified reviews only come from a handful of participating hotels, and only when booked directly on the hotels’ websites. In comparison, Traxo recognizes bookings from most major travel websites.

You can search for and read Traxo verified reviews at: https://traxo.com/reviews.

Our Newly Added Websites:

Brussels Airlines
Montenegro Airlines (Vision Team)
Royal Air Maroc (Safar Flyer)
Air Nigeria (EagleFlier)
Era Alaska (FlyAway Rewards)
Jet2.com (My Jet2)
Ural Airlines (Wings)
Air Italy (Hi-Fly)
Disney Cruise Line (Castaway Club)
Carnival Cruises (VIFP Club)
Azamara Cruises
OneTwoTrip
RIU Hotels & Resorts (Club RIU)
CLUBHOTEL
Trump Card (Privileges Program)
SNCF (Voyageur)
RBC Rewards
Royal Caribbean Visa Card (Rewards)
Maximiles
AIRMILES Opinions Panel by Research Now

If you have a website that you would like us to add, please contact us with the name of the website.

“We are excited about integrating the unique capabilities of GoMiles into Traxo, and are committed to serving GoMiles users with the high level of service that they have come to expect,” said Andres Fabris, CEO of Traxo.

“We know this is an opportunity to deliver even greater value to GoMiles users” said Michael Komarnitsky, CEO of GoMiles. “Traxo’s trip-organization capabilities are unmatched in the industry, and GoMiles users will be able to leverage these features to take more control of their trips and their frequent flyer miles.”

To get started, GoMiles members can obtain a new Traxo password by following this link and entering the same email address that they used to log into GoMiles in the past. All data should be updated within 24 hours after their first login to Traxo.

To the thousands of GoMiles members, who have reaped the benefits of taking control over their frequent flyer miles, WELCOME to the expanded Traxo family! You can count on us to listen to your needs and providing you with awesome trip organization features that will help simplify your life and plan better trips.

Part of our job building one of the largest social, networked platforms for travel is that as developers, we are continuously evaluating and re-evaluating the user experience. And part of this process involves constant reinventing of the tools we use in a way that best facilitates a certain “richness of interaction” within the community.

Introductions of features such as Loyalty tracker, Traxo travel score, and worldwide Travel Leaderboards have been some of the natural results of this process.

Perched atop the rankings on this tenth of October is Leith Stevens, a twenty-something Boulder-based travel entrepreneur. Mr. Stevens maintains a busy schedule flying around the world meeting clients and business partners as CEO of Flextrip, and by the time we had a chance to catch up with the smooth-talking Aussie, he was already making final preparations to fly to Singapore for an industry conference.

Leith has logged over two hundred seven trips and over six hundred thousand miles over the past three years alone. A quick glance at his travel record reveals that he typically spends over half of his time travelling and on the road. You might consider him a true road warrior.

A well-seasoned veteran of both business and leisure travel, he considers his native Australia–more specifically, the sunny North Coast–as among his favorite destinations, along with the idyllic Maldives. As CEO, business travel typically takes him across continents, from Sydney to Hong Kong to Boulder. Yet despite living a nomadic lifestyle on the road, there is still one place, sub-Saharan Africa, that remains a to-be-realized goal for him, as an as-of-yet unexplored dream destination.

Spending a majority of the time travelling however is never without its share of travel-related follies. With a bit of after-the-fact bemusement, Leith recounts to us a bizarre holiday incident. Due to a surprise holiday blizzard last year, what should have been a routine connection in Frankfurt, Germany on a trip back to Australia nearly turned into a season without gifts for the family.

“There were about one hundred fifty people in line to report their lost bags, which I declined to wait in. I was finally able to get through on the phone about a week later to report the lost bag, and by that time they located the bag, I was already on my way back to Boston. I ended up using FedEx to send the gifts back home, but they first took a nice little vacation in Frankfurt for two weeks.”

An extremely organized traveler, Leith takes these setbacks in stride. He uses Traxo because it combines a lot of the best features from travel organization sites, but integrates it in a way that doesn’t require the extra effort involved in forwarding or scanning emails. This allows him to be as efficient as possible and devote the maximum amount of time to work or leisure, rather than organization.

As for tips for less experienced travelers, Leith offers this tidbit, “Concentrate your bookings on one airline, one alliance, and make sure you get rewarded for it. Even if it means paying a little bit more or going out of your way in your routes. And never go to the same place again and again.”

“See new and different things each time and you’ll experience things that are amazing. For example, I love visiting the Philippines. On paper, considering their history and struggles, you’d be hard-pressed to understand how they can remain a functioning society, but once you get there, you realize that it just works.”

Upon being told of his position atop the Traxo rankings, Leith is unfazed. “Well, I actually hope someone overtakes my position. That way I can work hard to take it back.” We too, hope that someone else as passionate about travel as Leith Stevens is up to the task.

Since the introduction of the travel score, we’ve been enthusiastically gauging the reactions of our members. One comment that we’ve received from our users is that while it was easy to see the scores of your existing buddies on Traxo, there didn’t exist one place to go where you could see the top travelers across the entire network.

We’ve addressed these comments and now allow you to see the top scoring travelers in the world through our new Traxo Leaderboard feature. There are four new travel leaderboards we are announcing today: highest travel score, total countries visited, total states visited, and total number of travel loyalty accounts linked.

The debut of the Traxo leaderboard is truly a milestone, because for the first time ever, you can see how you stack up against virtually, the most-seasoned travelers in the world. Our data-harvesting technology allows us to verify each metric according to actual, confirmed travel reservations rather than self-reported claims. Our top travelers are the real deal, and are backed by real travel credentials.

So what exactly is a top traveler? Well, we see from the top of the Leaderboards that our top nine travelers have already each made validated visits to 20 different countries, seven of our travelers have traveled to more than half the U.S. states, and 34 of our travelers have linked more than 20 of their travel accounts. In fact the most experienced travelers on Traxo have already taken verified trips to 30 different countries, have visited 34 different states, and have linked 34 different travel loyalty accounts. We encourage you to peruse the Leaderboard and see if you or any of your buddies rank among the top ranked travelers.

Still don’t see your name yet? Here’s one simple thing you can do to increase your travel metrics and improve you chances of making it onto the Leaderboards. Simply linking your travel accounts – it’s the easiest way to increase your tallies. Just make sure all the sites you use to book your travel are linked via the “Connect New Site” tab.

Just a reminder that only public profiles are shown, so if you think you deserve a spot on the leaderboard, but don’t see yourself up there, just flip your trophy and profile settings to “public” and boom! You should appear. Rankings are updated daily so you’ll always know where you currently stand.

Our top travelers are admittedly a motley bunch. Represented within this group are self-starting entrepreneurs, corporate road warriors, weekend revelers, well-traveled expats, among others. However, the one thing they have in common is a true passion for travel, and this is why we are committed to building the most valuable and trusted community of travelers on the Internet .

We’ve all asked the same question. Everyone knows you need to stay organized in today’s busy, busy world. How to do it? That’s the million dollar question.

On top of meetings, appointments, chores, and everything else organized in your calendar, keeping track of your trips can be a time-consuming, if unpleasant task.

After a while, things turn into a unappealing mess of itineraries, trip confirmations, confirmation numbers, rescheduled dates, and email after email after email. And it’s your job to separate the few useful emails from the ones touting your favorite carrier’s new fall getaways to the Caribbean.

And in the end, you’re still always doing the same search of your email inbox twelve hours before your flight to confirm flight times and grab that flight confirmation number that you failed to jot down the first time.

So take a deep breath. Relax. We have a solution for you. And if you already have a Traxo account, it will take less than a minute of your time.

You can now automatically keep your Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, iPhone calendar, Lotus Notes, or iCal calendars up to date by subscribing to the iCal feed by clicking the ‘Add to Calendar’ link next to any of your upcoming trips.

Just paste the feed URL into the subscription window of the calendar program of choice–OSX’s iCal and Google Calendar being my two personal favorites—and let Traxo do the rest.

Your itinerary information, including flight number, departure and arrival times, airport info, and confirmation numbers are displayed right on your calendar. It’s such a simple, yet brilliant tool.

You no longer have to go searching through your email inbox in a desperate search for this information before your flight. Or if you’re already organizationally inclined, you no longer have to enter your flight information manually every time you book a new trip.

Just keep in mind that only trips made on accounts linked to Traxo will be displayed and updated automatically using the iCal feed, so in order to get all of your trips organized, be sure to take a minute and link all the travel accounts that you regularly use to book your travels to your Traxo account using the “Connect New Site” link on your home page.

Besides additional perks, such as increasing your Travel Score, and sharing with friends over Facebook or Twitter, linking your accounts to Traxo is the best way to keep all your trip and travel account information organized, in one place. We are all busy enough already, even without the hassle of searching for and saving email after email.

It’s all done automatically. And the best part is that your travel info is always with you, easily accessible on your smartphone or computer, at home or on the road.

We’ve all been in this situation before. Regular office-cooler chit chat with a friend turns to the popular subject of travels and the conversation typically goes something like this:

“Oh wow, when are you going to Barcelona?”
“Next week with my husband. We’re both so excited, it’s our two year wedding anniversary.”
“That’s so awesome. You know, I was just there last year with Alice. There’s a really beautiful place right on the beach that has the best paella I’ve ever tasted.”
“The best?”
“The best.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
“Remember the name of the place?”
“I forget, but I do remember there’s a cool leaning, tower type of sculpture on the beach nearby. Hold on, let me find it for you real quick on my phone”

**Fumbles with phone for a good minute.**

“…”
“Tell you what, just text me the place when you find it”

——-
Of course, we all have that one friend, with the near photographic memory of every place she’s ever been and the names of the people who were with her at every one of those places over the last ten years. But for most of us, whose minds are filled with other things, like school stuff, work stuff, or inane sports or pop culture trivia, keeping a mental note of all the places we’ve been is a taxing enough job for our brains to handle.

That’s why Traxo, by integrating with foursquare and Gowalla, has now made it easy to keep track of the places you’ve been, organized automatically trip by trip, date by date. You can throw that old tattered moleskin with jotted travel notes out the window (or in my case, crumpled receipts and cocktail napkins). More after the break.

It’s widely known that the check-in features that foursquare and Gowalla offer are pretty amazing. . . especially when you’re on vacation. There’s no better way to let your cronies at the office know what a great time you’re having in sunny Rio, while they sit in on the weekly ten AM TPS review call with Carl in Atlanta.

“Andrew just checked into the Awesomely Sunny Brunch Shop on the Beach in Rio de Janeiro and earned the ‘Haha suckas! My life rules!” badge on foursquare”

And now, by linking your Traxo account to foursquare or Gowalla on the connect new site page, Traxo will automatically start logging these awesomely fun trips on the fly, and sort them by time and itinerary.

You can see the travels our Traxo marketing VP Nelson documented here, as he logged his recent trips to Spain and France through foursquare, compiling a sorted date-by-date record of his travels on Traxo in the process, and most importantly of all, showed us other plebes sitting in the office how really un-awesome it is to not be platinum.

“Past and future check-ins from Gowalla and Foursquare . . .”

“. . . are organized neatly and automatically on Traxo”

In addition to Gowalla and foursquare integration, Traxo also now lets you import trip details from TripIt. It’s the same process for linking your accounts to Traxo, just go to the connect new site page and click on the TripIt link to start importing your TripIt itineraries.

Lastly, there’s still no better way to figure out that who that office person we love to hate (sorry Nelson, still love ya) is than from his or her Travel Score. Log-ins from foursquare and Gowalla, and imported trips from TripIt all count towards increasing your score. So in addition to the tips we’ve provided in the past, this is a whole new way to increase your score, get some perks, and get some bragging rights.

A lot of our users have been clamoring for new and faster ways to increase their travel score as quickly as possible. We’re really excited to announce that you can now get credit for your past trips by linking your Gowalla, foursquare, and TripIt accounts to your Traxo account. We’re big fans of all three services and have dedicated users of all three right here at Traxo.

What this means is that perhaps you took a trip to San Diego and San Francisco last year, with your itinerary stored on the immensely useful travel organizer TripIt. Along the way, you checked-in at a few different stops on your smartphone using foursquare or Gowalla. After linking to Tripit, foursquare, or Gowalla in the connect new site page in the Travel Sites dropdown, Traxo will now pull data from your linked accounts and add these past trips to your history. This will then give you a boost in score that more accurately represents your own travel experience.

In addition, Traxo will organize and log these trips by date and time, so that you will always have a handy record of your past travels. . . even if you forget about them yourself.

And since you’ve already linked these accounts, you’ll receive credit automatically and your Travel Score will change accordingly for any future check-ins on foursquare and Gowalla, or for any trips stored on TripIt.

And keep in mind that the higher the Traxo Travel Score you earn, the more perks you may receive, among a host of other reasons for striving toward a higher score. Judging from the activity on my Facebook feed, there are many of you who aren’t shy at all about announcing your been-to locations using the foursquare and Gowalla check-in services. Finally, there’s a way for you gain credit for these hard-earned experiences within your score. Remember that every check-in gets you just a little bit closer to most accurately representing your overall travel expertise and increasing your travel score.

Yes it’s hot out. In fact it’s been sweltering hot in Dallas since Memorial Day. Yet ever since the slowly moving right arm of the current heat monster enveloping practically all of the U.S. south has now slinked its way up the eastern seaboard, dropping our nation’s capital into yet another type of gridlock we call “CLIMATE SHOCK!”, we have been watching the reaction of the myriad news outlets reporting on the sudden weather change with a certain bit of bemusement.

And of course, obviously, the media has been predictably—and laughably—blustery with their pronouncements of late. Pressure cooker! Extreme heat! Heatmageddon! In 54 point red caps and bookended by rotating sirens!

So, back to Dallas, a quick perusal of the recent online status updates of friends in the area indicates business as usual—your normal number of “looking forward to the weekend, doing so-and-so can’t get any better than this”-type posts. However, checking up on my suddenly unlucky friends in the northeast and it appears that all hell has broken loose. “Booking flight to chilie [sic] ASAP!!!!!can’t take this heat anymore!”

And while most of us, are unwilling to go to extremes like my friend Mr. Chilie [sic], there are still a few places outside of the super-searing, life-threatening, amoeba of humidity and death, that we can safely seek refuge at, in these doggiest of all dog days. In fact, just to make it easier, I’ve made a handy list right after the jump, of North American destinations that are currently sitting at below their historic July average temperatures. And just to be fair to everyone, I’ve chosen cities that are easily accessible by those sitting in “extreme heat!” in the Midwest, South, as well as Northeast.

Seattle, Washington
Home of the 78-minute summer. Yes you heard that correctly. This is the city that has only been above eighty degrees for a grand total of 78 minutes since May according to their local meteorologist Scott Sistek. But what Seattle fails to bring in terms of balmy summer warmth, it does bring in terms of rainfall. Lots of it in fact, with rainfall totals 4.55 inches above the average for the year thus far. There’s no better place in America right now to cool off, but be sure to pack an umbrella.

Bozeman, Montana
While the denizens of the Twin Cities, sitting at approximately the same latitude, have been getting steamed right out of their long johns, the lucky few in Bozeman, a couple states west, have been relaxing at a steady 75 degrees over the past week, a good 8 degrees below it’s historical average for July. With spectacular mountain vistas and a certain well known National Park just a short 45 minute drive away, there is no better time to cool down in the company of our nation’s finest natural formations, flora and wildlife.

Guadalajara, Mexico
Go south grasshopper. A concept clearly understood by my friend Mr. Chilie [sic] is that despite prevailing wisdom, it is possible to cool off by going south. But why go all the way down to Chilie [sic] when Guadalajara is just a short two hour plane ride for those of us smack dab in the middle of the heart of the heat cap of horror. Due to its 5200 ft altitude, Guadalajara typically has mild summers. But currently, Guadalajara has been enjoying 70-75 degree temperatures well below its 80 degree norm. With a thriving arts scene, the best historic downtown, and the best pozole preparation in all of Mexico, Guadalajara is an ideal off the beaten track, yet still accessible place to beat the heat.

Quebec, Canada
It’s downright chilly these days in Paris. As in sixty degrees chilly. And while autumn temperatures in Paris are the stuff that dreams are made of, the closest we can get to those tingly old-world sensations here in North America are the slightly-above average temperatures currently being enjoyed in Canada’s francophone capital, Quebec City. Temperatures currently are just slightly above the summer average of 77 degrees, but for people like Mr. Chilie [sic], just being able to open a window in the historic city and hear the sweet language of romance effortlessly bouncing through the affable summer breeze is well worth the quick jaunt up from the baked concrete of the Northeast.

Rudy Maxa is a journalist, blogger, and radio host who has a great syndicated show mostly about travel, travel deals, and basically how to get the most out of a limited travel budget. But Rudy Maxa also often has truly informative segments highlighting the beautiful national parks of our jolly good neighbors up north, and highlighting a proposed homeland security initiative outting known child burglars at the checkpoint.

And then sometimes, tucked away, sandwiched in between these two educational segments is an interview with our very own Andres Fabris, CEO. Here he talks a little bit about how Traxo generally works, the technology involved in pulling and aggregating data (“trips are automatically detected and saved”), and what the new Travel Score means for users.

The interview in its entirety can be found here, and the full transcript for the interview can be found after the jump.

Rudy Maxa July 09, 2011

AF: All right, thanks Rudy.