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(last updated 10th October 2000)

Our cyber Monkey finds the best and the worst sites on the web, giving them a banana rating out of five. This week he has been trying to find a weekend break. (lastminute.com gets 4 bananas!)
www.lastminute.com. The original and still the best. lastminute.com gets straight down to business offering loads of trips, weekend breaks and flights. The design of the site is cool and easy to get around. Its full of great holiday ideas and is definately the best place to check out first if you've had a lousy week at work and want to escape for a while.

Daily Star, 10 October 2000

Lastminute.com to replace clicking with talking
LONDON (Reuters) - Online booking service Lastminute.com said on Thursday it is to develop a voice recognition system with Nortel Networks (NT.TO), allowing customers to order by phone without an operator and eventually talk to the company's Web site instead of clicking.
Lastminute, which sells theater tickets, holidays and other items online, said the system would enable customers to phone Lastminute.com's automated line and simply tell the phone what they wanted.
Brent Hoberman, Lastminute's chief executive, said, "Lastminute.com's speech platform will be able to break down and respond...with immediate choices, availability, prices and booking confirmation, all without resorting to time consuming touch-tone menus."
Hoberman said ultimately the group hoped voice recognition to be a big contributor to its mobile revenues. It also aims to develop a fully speech-automated version of its Web site, so customers can browse and buy by talking as well as clicking. Nortel, the Canadian telecommunications equipment maker, is a leading developers of speech recognition systems.

Reuters, October 5 2000
Unless you are looking for a cruise or something along the lines of club Med, don't waste your what little planning time you have left trawling through dozens of so-called lastminute bargain sites, let alone forking over often substantial fees for a subscription to their service. There are a few good ones, notably lastminute.com, a very readable site offering guaranteed low air fares and vacation packages originating in London and hotel bookings worldwide.

International Herald Tribune, 16 June 2000
Lastminute located by Airflash
Location services provider AirFlash has joined forces with Lastminute.com, to location-enable Lastminute.com's WAP-based reservation services.
Using the AirFlash Wireless Services platform, the deal will enable mobile users to purchase flights and other hotel and restaurant offers, based on their location.
According to the companies, the service will initially be deployed in the UK, Germany, France and Sweden, followed by the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

Net Imperative, 2 October 2000
Lastminute.com gets investor green light for £59m deal
Lastminute.com shareholders have approved the company's £58.9m takeover of France's largest online travel agency, Dégriftour. The combined company will have a total turnover of £64.1m and an estimated gross profit of £10.3m. Dégriftour has an estimated customer base of 250,000.
Lastminute.com will pay £27.1m in cash, of which £5.9m is payable after one year, as well as 19.7 million shares in lastminute.com.
Brent Hoberman, CEO of lastminute.com claimed the deal achieved the type of presence in the French market that would have taken two to three years to build up from scratch. He also said it would increase gross profit by nine times.
According to figures from Jupiter research, Degriftour has a 50 per cent share of the French online travel market and carries a 45 per cent brand awareness with French citizens.

Oracle.com, 26 September 2000
Lastminute.com to Give Amex Cardholders Exclusive Late Offers
The offers will appear on a regularly updated co-branded Web page, the companies said in a statement distributed through the U.K.'s Regulatory News Service.
"This arrangement will enable us to offer some great and exclusive offers to American Express's high-spending, Internet- savvy card members," Martha Lane Fox, Lastminute chief operating officer and co-founder, said in the statement.

Bloomberg.co.uk, 25 September 2000
Lastminute offers car rentals
Lastminute.com has partnered with car rental broker Holiday Autos, to offer last minute deals on car hire.
Initially only available in the UK, the service is expected to be rolled out into other countries where Lastminute.com has presence in, which include France, Germany and Sweden.
Lastminute.com and Holiday Autos will also embark on a number of joint promotions including on-site auctions and discount car rentals across Europe.
Holiday Autos claims to be the world’s largest car rental service and has access to over 750,000 cars worldwide.

Net Imperative, 21 September 2000
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