I’m looking forward to
the next phase of the travel world as the buying process begins to start a
little like the Amazon/s, Google’s and eBay’s of this world – when our buying
habits become logged, referred to and offered back to us.
One of my favourites is
certainly EasyJet – they really know how to give you what you want – even if
budget airlines sometimes get a bad reputation. Airlines on the whole are doing
very clever things with online digital marketing and is inspiring us to travel,
but then again they do have the budget for it – unlike the independent hotels, but
what does this mean for our hotel selection and preferences and how we might
have better access in the future?
As hotels catch-up with
the digital act, they too are compiling the huge sums of data that we, as
travelers, are providing to them. Caching our Facebook likes and interests,
chasing our tweets, and recording our online purchase journey can only mean we
start to see products that we like, that we want.
Yet we will too much be
sold the big brands at this point, as they begin to become savvy on how we look
for our travel bargains. Afterall, how can a business in the travel industry
offer customer centric services and products if they don’t know what we like?
One interesting statement
that Bob Barker, consultant from social technology, mentioned is the future of Google Glasses, can you imagine them
on all service staff in a hotel. The staff member asks its “GGlasses” to
“Recognise” us as we walk in the hotel (soon they will already know we are
approaching because of our facebook habits and use of their location-serviced
mobile applications). The service would be phenomenol; they know what we look
like, they know why I am traveling, they know what I like, and they will know
how to go the extra mile.
It would also mean that
prior to booking we would have found a full hotel package that is fully
tailored to our needs: a double deluxe bedroom, with full body power-shower, English
breakfast, vodka and redbull in the mini bar and a map pointing to all the gay
venues in the city. They know me, and they are going to give me one hell of a “stay
experience”.
Obviously our biggest
concern will be over Data Privacy, how will we know our data is being sensitively,
that this is no Big Brother? Yet, it will be argued that we are all our own
guards of our destiny – how we all look after our own personal data will be
paramount. Managing your access settings across social media and with
retailers. I personally clear my Cookies every few weeks, and edit my public
profiles on an ongoing basis to ensure that I am keeping myself protected.
Therefore, it is
important that as consumers we fully know this is the case with companies using
our data. Especially that which is provided privately i.e address, credit card,
passport details etc.
So watch this space – it looks
like socially intelligent travel buying is coming this way.
