Yandex. Travel

2024: The launch of a smart camera that talks about the sights

Yandex has launched a technology that displays information about the attraction when you point a smartphone camera at it. This function is implemented in the Yandex.Travel service, the company's press service said on January 31, 2024.

The novelty is available in the Yandex.Travel application on iOS and Android and uses computer vision technologies, and such a solution, as noted in the Yandex press service, is used for the first time in the travel segment. In order to find out information about the attraction, you need to point the camera at it and press the shooting button, and the result will appear in real time.

source = Yandex.Travel

The camera highlights objects in the image and recognizes that in front of it: a building, a monument or, for example, a houseplant. For this, neural networks trained on a huge number of examples are used. Yandex gave examples of using the technology. If you like an oriental-style lamp, "Zhostovskaya painting" on a tray or a set of dishes in Dagestan, a smart camera will tell you where similar goods are sold. And if a traveler points his camera at an exotic fruit at a market in Thailand, he will see its name.

According to the developers, you can use the function in your hometown to see what cultural monuments are nearby, learn something new about the neighboring house, or see the little things that have not come across before.

We believe that the travel service should help not only when planning a vacation, but also on the trip itself. After all, when you see an interesting building, arch or unusual sculpture, you want to know more about them. Like with music - you hear a cool song and look for the name, artist, text. We want to be close to users at such moments and tell them more about the places they travel to as tourists and about their own cities, "said Evgeny Abramzon, Product Director of Yandex Travel.[1]

2023

Possibility of booking hotels with deferred payment

On November 20, 2023, Yandex Travel launched the possibility of a deferred payment for hotels. The option allows users to pre-book a room at the cost of the booking date, and pay closer to the check-in date. The proposed function will allow travelers to fix accommodation costs in advance. To do this, it is enough to make a minimum amount of 1 ruble, and repay the rest of the amount online on the service before starting the trip.

A flexible approach to planning travel costs is crucial. And after the pandemic, the need for such tools has grown significantly, said Evgeny Abramzon, product director at Yandex Travel. - A deferred payment when booking a hotel will help you plan a trip for a long time in advance - up to a year. Including in tariffs with the possibility of free cancellation.

According to preliminary data, the option is in high demand when booking hotels in popular destinations - for example, in Sochi or St. Petersburg. Also, the function is in demand among families with children who are not suitable for all accommodation options - they can choose a convenient room in advance and not face unpleasant surprises when checking in. This option will allow hotels to receive more reservations with the same payment conditions without additional actions and risks.

Auto-write will help you not to miss booking payments before traveling - if the user forgets to pay the balance, the required amount will be charged automatically from the specified card. Before that, notifications will come in the application and a message to the phone number with a warning about the future operation. This will allow you to control the availability of money on the card and in the future complete the payment of accommodation. You can book hotels on the website and in the mobile application. A card of any Russian bank is suitable for payment . Yandex Travel users receive cashback up to 20% of the booking amount with Yandex Plus points - they can be spent in other Yandex services.

Yandex Travel helps you plan trips around Russia and the world. Here you can book a hotel, find a train, bus or plane ticket. The service allows you to compare prices on different sites and choose the most profitable option. More than 20 million people use Yandex Travel every month.

Launch of railway ticket sales

mobile application Yandex In Travel there were tickets for long-distance trains in Russia to the countries and near abroad. Yandex announced this on October 3, 2023.

To buy a ticket, just choose the place of departure and arrival and the date - the system will show all the available options. The results can be filtered by price, departure and arrival times, station and car type. There are also filters for high-speed trains, such as Lastochka and Sapsana to St. Petersburg.

Next, the user selects places in a convenient diagram, where the upper, lower and side shelves or seating are reflected. It will also indicate whether the car has air conditioners and biological toilets, where luggage shelves and sockets are located, whether power is included, whether there are men's and women's coupes. If you specify the details of the Russian Railways Bonus card at the checkout, then points for the purchase will be awarded automatically.

In just seven months, more than five million users have installed our mobile app. For hundreds of thousands of people, we helped plan holidays and business trips. The ability to purchase train tickets where you book a hotel and look for flights allows you to travel even more conveniently, "said Evgeny Abramzon, Product Director of Yandex Travel. - For example, you can compare the prices of air and railway tickets from St. Petersburg to Moscow and choose a cheaper option. Or not to fly with a transfer if it is more convenient to overcome part of the journey by train.

Most often, Yandex Travel users travel by train to, Moscow St. Petersburg,,, Krasnodar Rostov-on-Don Adler and. Sochi In the fall of 2023, the average price of a railway ticket from Moscow St. Petersburg is 3700, to rubles Krasnodar - 5410 rubles, to Rostov-on-Don - 5330 rubles, to Adler and Sochi - 6100 rubles.

As before, in the mobile application you can book hotels with Yandex Plus cashback and find flights around Russia and the world.

Integration with Kontur. Hotel

with Contour. Hotel it was integrated Yandex the Travel platform. This was SKB Kontur announced on July 13, 2023. More. here

Product Launch

Yandex has launched a service for finding air tickets and booking hotels around the world. The company announced this on February 28, 2023. Application created as part of the Yandex. Travel, "available on Google Play and the App Store.

It is reported that by the end of February 2023, more than 1 million hotel rooms with real photos and user reviews, as well as routes from hundreds of airlines, are available in the new service.

Yandex application interface. Travel

The app offers bargain hotel prices and provides 24-hour chat support for users. For subscribers "Yandex. Plus "there is a cashback for booking - up to 10% of the total order price, which can be spent on future travel or in other Yandex services.

You can search for suitable hotels by filters - for example, a map search and a choice of accommodation with free cancellation. The "Trips" tab contains travel information, a "Weather" forecast for the desired dates and recommendations of interesting events from Yandex. Posters. "

If the user has not yet decided where he wants to relax, "Travel" can give advice. To do this, you need to take a selfie and upload it to the application - it will assess the "level of fatigue" and suggest where it will be better to go.

Yandex "has always tried to give users the best services for life. Now the need for a reliable tool for booking hotels has grown more than ever: only in 2022 the number of such orders in our country directly increased 10 times, says Yandex Product Director. Travel "Eugene Abramzon. - Therefore, we launched a convenient application with cashback points "Yandex. Plus "for paying for hotels. Cheap flights can also be found in it.

Yandex launched a service for searching for air tickets and booking hotels around the world almost a year after Booking and Airbnb announced the termination of work in Russia.[2]

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