Today Japanese operator au announced the launch of a new travel reservation service – au Travel, and once again, the operator has come up with a well thought out site which works in harmony together with some of its other mobile services.

Au teamed up with the Japan National Tourist Organisation to provide the service which currently has a database of 7,000 hotels and resorts and plans to increase that to 10,000 by the end of the year. The site looks designed with plenty of pictures and various options for searching. Naturally, consumers can browse and make reservations using the service but au have also tied the service into its loyalty point scheme and satnav services for extra value.

1% of every reservation made using au Travel is returned to the consumer as au Points – reward points which you can either redeem as direct discounts to your phone bill or use to buy various products. Using au’s satnav services, consumers’ handsets can direct a driver or pedestrian to the hotel they have just made a reservation for. The service will launch on the 5th October.

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 9:11 am