One of the most widely used booking engines for independent hotels receives enhancements, Asia holds its largest travel fair, and more items in our rundown of the stories that are making news and driving opinion on 19 September.

Paris’s FastBooking becomes more powerful

A 200-person company in Paris, FastBooking provides online merchandising for 7,000 hotels worldwide.

It has upgraded its FastBooking Engine Lux, which the company claims has the industry’s highest conversion rate of any online hotel booking engine.

New changes to FastBooking’s Engine Lux include unique “flexible offer displays,” which let users display inventory either by price or room type, “improving purchasing decisions without changing the existing booking flow”.

Hipmunk nabs Bob Crandall, ex-CEO of AA, as a board member

Today travel tech innovator, Bob Crandall, joins Hipmunk as its fifth board member. Crandall is, of course, the pioneer who kickstarted the GDS project that became Sabre, American Airline’s advance purchase fares, and the world’s first airline loyalty program.

Crandall joins other board members, such as Brad Silverberg of Ignition Partners and Todd Chaffee of Institution Venture Partners.

Asia’s largest travel show starts today

The JATA Tourism Forum & Travel Showcase 2012 will take place between 20-23 September 2012 at Tokyo Big Sight.

Expect news today on IFE

APEX 2012 EXPO, the global market for airline-related products, wraps up today in Long Beach, Calif., with awards for the best in-flight entertainment innovations. For example, see the next item:

Today: Thales teams up with Honeywell to “get in on the Global Xpress action”

Thales and Honeywell will collaborate on broadband aircraft connectivity. Honeywell has developed GX satcom avionics and antenna systems, which will be integrated with Thales’ cabin network solutions.

All parties are eyeing an early 2015 launch of Inmarsat’s Ka-band satellite-powered Global Xpress (GX) service on commercial aircraft.

London set to host the first Hospitality Technology Expo

Hospitality Technology Expo will take place at Earls Court, London on 5- 6 February, with European representatives from Hilton, Kempinski, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, andThistle/Guoman.

It’ll be a meeting of minds for Europe’s leading technology professionals focused on hospitality technology.

NB: Image of cartoon tour operator courtesy of FastBooking.