AR is often touted to be the next big thing not just in travel but many other industries as well. Many promises have been made in that direction but they are far from their finished form yet. We are hungry for innovations in Augmented Reality space and that is something ixigo picked to pull off an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke this year.

Meet ixigo Glass, ixigo’s latest innovation. ixigo shared a video of the new ‘product’ which showcases how a pair of seemingly simple looking spectacles with a camera in middle can provide information about almost anything travel, from flights passing over your head to the tourist attraction in front of you and everything in between. Founder Aloke Bajpai shared the video on his Twitter as well with some more details for a dash of authenticity. There is a dedicated website accepting preorders as well. Check out the video below:

Ola had something brilliant cooking as well. For the past few days, they have been teasing something called ‘Ola Wheels’. ‘We are not just a transportation company, we are a movements company’ is what they say in the video. It features the team talking about how corporate estabilishments are growing in size so they have made a transportation option for the same. People can use it to go from their cubicle to the roadside to get their Ola without having to steer the Segway like thing. The Ola Play content has been tailored for short, across the office rides. And don’t forget to check their LinkedIn because they are hiring “A female with a thick voice” and “A male with a soft voice” to provide voice for the AI. More ‘details’ at olawheels.com. Check out the video below

Car rental company Alamo took driverless cars a step further. Enough of the trip planning startups, their vacation cars can plan the trip and then do the job of a reliable chauffeur as well. Video below:

But before driverless cars arrive, we have to do all the driving and some road users can be a bit annoying at times. Lexus’ lane valet system promises to clear off the fast lanes by moving out slow moving vehicles. Extra points for making the video almost as serious as their other product videos.

Waving in front of cabs to get a ride from roadside is old school with the entry of Uber and Lyft. However, Lyft seems to be bringing back the same with Mono glove to hail rides. Stick out your thumb and a Lyft will be on its way. Weird fact here is that they went overboard with the idea and actually built something like that to pull off an elaborate prank. But hey, their video has got lasers.

The post These travel brands are raising the bar for April Fool’s Day pranks appeared first on TravHQ.

Today is exactly the kind of day when we take everything with a pinch of salt. You can’t blame us. Over the years, some of the biggest brands have been scaling up their pranks and tech companies often take the lead. The fast paced tech industry has surprised us with seemingly impossible results in the past and they try to pass off impossible ideas as real today. Here are some of our favourite pranks that travel brands tried to pull this year:

1- Ola Rooms

No, the transportation company isn’t planning to come up with a budget hotel chain, at least not yet. However they did offer budget accommodation this April Fool’s Day with Ola Rooms. The idea was that you can order your hotel room on the go for INR 249 per night. Staffed with a front desk manager, housekeeping attendant and room service attendant rolled into the driver, Ola Rooms offer dining with options spread across the whole city. For the added theatricals, they even added the option in their mobile app and got some influencers on Twitter to appreciate the Ola Rooms experience.

@Olacabs beautiful morning view after night out with #olaRooms . It was an amazing stay! pic.twitter.com/lyOPNFe85F

— Balagopal (@balagopalks) April 1, 2016

2- ixigo coolie

Porters or coolies are a common sight on railway station in India and this April Fool’s day, ixigo announced a new app that would allow travellers to easily book a coolie. With features like ETA, coolie type, price guide and GPS tracking, the app would save you from the hassle of dealing with unreliable porters. This was accompanied by a new page on their website with the download link for Android and iOS apps.

2- 8 bit KAYAK

KAYAK is the reason this story is going live hours later than originally should have. The travel search engine didn’t pull a prank but certainly delayed many bookings. Their home page adopted an 8 bit videogame style theme today and offered some excellent arcade games from back in the day. Some music from the same decade was also thrown into the mix. Topping that up were the KAYAK logos redone to resemble Nintendo and SEGA logos. You can enjoy the games here.

4- Virgin Australia Kids Class

Judging by the responses on Facebook, a large number of travellers really wanted this one to be true. A 100% adult free cabin for the junior flyers. Seats that they can kick on the back, edible items in cabin, teddy bears to choose from a menu and soap bubbles on demand were some of the ‘key features’ highlighted in the video. Some really disappointed responses were received when Virgin Australia announced it to be a prank.

5- Skyscanner’s airport news

Along with inspirational content, Skyscanner India often uses its social media accounts to share travel news & information. Today the flight search engine shared an update that the immensely popular marble mausoleum, Taj Mahal will get its own airport and runway soon. To make it more convincing, they also published a detailed story on their website which included specifics of the upcoming ‘project’. However at the end of the story, they did add a reminder of the date.

6- Contiki’s free virtual travel

With the increasing number of apps offering excellent virtual reality travel experiences, this one was pretty convincing. Contiki announced Virtually Unlimited, a virtual reality experience that would allow travellers to get the high without the heavy investment on international trips. However the hilarious video they released along with the announcement had enough evidences to suggest that it was indeed an April Fool’s Day joke.

What was your favourite April Fool’s Day joke by a travel brand this year? Do share with us

The post From Coolie Finder to Cab Rooms, here are some of the coolest pranks played by travel brands on April Fool’s Day appeared first on TravHQ.