Agoda.com offers great Tokyo hotel deals for the colorful sakura season

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is listing some of the most stylish designer hotels in Tokyo to help celebrate the sakura season – known commonly outside of Japan as the cherry blossom season – one of the most beautiful times to visit the Land of the Rising Sun.

The hundreds of varieties of the Prunus tree spread across Japan are quite unremarkable for most of the year. However, come Spring the trees erupt in colorful waves of blossoms, in various shades of red, pink and white, blanketing parks and temples across the country in billions of tiny flowers. In Japanese culture the blossoms are highly symbolic, representing the fragility of life, the power of beauty, and the strength of a unified culture.

As the season approaches, the Japanese Meteorological Agency starts providing updates on the sakura zensen, roughly translated as the “cherry blossom front”, as it moves from the southern island of Kyushu in late March to the northern island of Hokkaido in mid-May. Once the season has finished, the flowers wither and die, and the countdown begins for a new season.

Click to read more ...

Agoda.com showcases ten exciting rebranded & refurbished hotels in Paris

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is showcasing ten fantastic hotels in Paris that have undergone recent renovations or rebrandings to offer a new style of convenience and ensure the very best experience during a stay in the City of Lights.

Paris, of course, has been one of the world’s great cities since the 1^st century AD. Through wars and disaster and empires big and small the city has never lost its unique personality, emerging as a true 21^st-century metropolis whilst still retaining its centuries-old charm. Known for fine food, cutting-edge fashion and trend-setting design, there’s very rarely anyone who comes away unimpressed.

And when it comes to hotels, the selection in Paris is one of the world’s best, from tiny slivers of boutique hospitality to opulent palaces that redefine the word ‘luxury’. To celebrate the best that Paris has to offer, Agoda.com is featuring ten outstanding properties that have recently renovated or rebranded to modernize, update or redecorate in the name of classic French hospitality. Take a look at the hotels below and see which one is the best fit for a great Parisian holiday!

Click to read more ...

Agoda.com celebrates Sinhalese New Year with great Sri Lanka deals

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is offering new deals on the striking island of Sri Lanka to celebrate the Sinhalese New Year, a major event for the ethnic population and the biggest holiday of the year.

Similar to other astrologically-determined New Year celebrations in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand’s Songkran or Vietnam’s Tết, New Year celebrations in Sri Lanka are boisterous and noisy, full of color and commotion and a perfect time to see the best that the island has to offer. This year, the holiday takes place on April 14.

Click to read more ...

Agoda.com gets ready for Songkran with hotel specials in Bangkok and Chiang Mai

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is offering fantastic hotel deals in Bangkok and Chiang Mai to celebrate Songkran, the Thai New Year.

The celebration is the biggest holiday of the year in Thailand – Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve all rolled into one. This year the official celebration days are April 13-15, with a few days tagged on to either end to compensate for the holiday falling on a weekend. It also might be a bit longer or shorter, depending on where you are – for instance, celebrations in Chiang Mai often go for a full week. Songkran is truly one of those events on a scale that has to be seen to be believed, and it’s hard to imagine that it came from such humble beginnings.

Click to read more ...

Agoda.com lists early bird specials just in time for the Canton Fair

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq: PCLN), has announced early bird hotel deals in Guangzhou, China in the lead up to the 113^th China Import and Export Fair, the largest trade fair in the region and a major event for importers, exporters, and manufacturers worldwide.

Also known as the Canton Fair, the twice-yearly event has been growing steadily since it first began in 1957, and has thrived with support by China’s Ministry of Commerce. In the decades since, China has emerged as a top tourist destination and a key component in the global trade engine, underlying the importance of the show to a vast number of industries.

The event will take place over three 5-day phases at Guangzhou’s huge Pazhou Complex: April 15-19, April 23-27, and May 1-5. The previous session boasted 58,714 standard booths from 24,213 exhibitors and enjoyed a turnover of more than USD 37.9 billion. But the Canton Fair is only a small part of what visitors can expect to see.

Click to read more ...

Agoda.com announces colorful new hotel deals for India’s vibrant Holi Festival

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), has announced great deals on Indian hotels in the leadup to the annual Holi Festival, India’s famously raucous and cheerful celebration of color.

As with many festivals in Asia, the Holi celebration is a mix of astrological rituals, religious traditions, and unique cultural characteristics. In this case, Holi is a Hindu festival that celebrates the story of Hiranyakashipu and his son, Prahlada. After being blessed with near-immortality by the god Brahma, Hiranyakashipu grew arrogant and demanded that people worship him. Prahlada, however, was a devotee of the god Vishnu, which angered his father, who tried to kill him. However, after surviving several attempts on his life, Prahlada submitted to fate and allowed himself to be set on fire with his aunt Holika, an immortal demon. He prayed to Vishnu for protection and to everyone’s surprise, Prahlada survived while Holika was consumed by flame.

Click to read more ...

Agoda.com partners with Philippine Airlines to bring great hotel deals to airline customers

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), has teamed up with Philippine Airlines (PAL) to offer customers of the Philippines’ flagship carrier access to Agoda.com’s inventory of over 100,000 hotels worldwide.

As the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia, Philippine Airlines has been carrying people to and from the Philippines since 1941. Now, in a world that’s more connected and engaged than ever before, the airline is pushing the limits of its online and digital capabilities. The partnership with Agoda.com further strengthens its international competitiveness, after the San Miguel Corporation joined the PAL management team in 2012.

As part of the new campaign, the partnership will allow Philippine Airlines customers to access fantastic hotel deals for both domestic Philippine and international destinations through a customized hotel booking page linked to PAL’s website at www.agoda.com/PAL. The deals will mirror PAL’s global network of destinations so customers can book flights and hotels in one easy step.

Click to read more ...

Agoda.com offers hotel deals in buzzing, beautiful Penang

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), is offering up great hotel deals in Penang, an important destination for tourists heading to Malaysia’s and one of Asia’s most dynamic and historic cultural melting pots.

Penang has been a major hub in the development of Southeast Asia for hundreds of years, with a wide variety of traditions and customs that are woven into the very fabric of its modern culture. Centuries ago, its strategic location in the Malacca Strait – still one of the busiest and most important maritime passageways in the world – ensured that merchants from China to Persia to Africa traded and mingled on their years-long expeditions to acquire spice, fabric, wood, ivory, perfume, gems and other valuables. Many of them merely passed through on their journeys, but many settled here, adding to the vibrant mix of backgrounds and skills that the locals possessed.

Click to read more ...

Agoda.com brings New Year deals to Vietnam’s Tết Festival

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq: PCLN), has selected a list of hotels offering big savings in the leadup for the colorful and raucous Vietnamese Tet Festival.

The festival’s full name is Tết Nguyên Đán, and it falls on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, which this year is on February 10. By far the most important celebration in the Vietnamese year, Tet is a national holiday that marks the arrival of spring, traditionally seen as a time of renewal and preparation for the year ahead. Although there are many general customs and traditions that everyone follows, an interesting aspect of the holiday is that it is celebrated differently in various regions throughout the country. Some regions celebrate longer, some observe customs that others do not, while others prefer certain types of food not eaten elsewhere.

But no matter where in Vietnam one ends up, Tet is a time of high spirits and active communities. Temples and houses are decorated with trees, flowers, and calligraphy, many to welcome those that have sometimes traveled great distances to see their families.

Click to read more ...

Agoda.com offers specials in Rome and Paris, and lists top destinations for couples

Agoda.com, Asia’s leading hotel booking site and part of Nasdaq-listed Priceline Group (Nasdaq:PCLN), has announced lists of its most popular destinations as chosen by couples from various regions, as well as amazing hotel deals in Paris and Rome, two of the perennial favorite romantic cities.

But as Agoda.com looked into preferred travel habits, there were some interesting differences between Asian and European couples and where they preferred to go. While Asian couples on vacation in Europe preferred to head to Venice and Amsterdam, European couples chose Barcelona and Budapest. Similar differences were seen in Asia; while Asian couples set their sights on Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan didn’t even place for Europeans, who preferred Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Singapore.

Click to read more ...