The future of independent booking – as hotels and online travel agents (OTAs) see it

So I was privy to a presentation from Google talking about the trends it sees in travel and the forecast for the industry – the thing with Google is that 1) it sits on huge amounts of user data from our searches, our blogs, our reviews, our thoughts, our status updates and our videos and 2) it receives billions of pounds in advertising from the travel industry – so it definitely has an interest in the market…

Interesting trends:

43% people move between devices when researching travel

Desktop saw a reduction of searches by -6%

Mobile saw an increase in searches by +71%

Tablet saw an increase in searches by +131%

Admittedly I work across all 3 devices, but my tablet is only connected to WiFi so I do tend to end up working on my mobile or Desktop - I still love my laptop.

The UK, according to Deloitte, is one of the most advanced for using mobiles, with smartphone penetration at a height of 72%.

It must people pointed out, however, that if you do a search on Google for most regular terms it is likely your results will be the big online travel agents, therefore to filter these out, you should consider long-tail key words that focus on Location, Season, Events, Interests etc…so if you’re looking for a hotel

AVOID:

-       Hotel Munich

USE

-       3star, hotel munich, boutique, special Oktoberfest events, towards the north of city

If you have interest in a particular event or location in the city, name it in your search term, this will give you an array of new results that will include independent hotels.

What the hoteliers on the panel did note, is that the OTAs do offer travelers the ‘Distressed’ inventory – this is rooms that have not yet been sold. Therefore a greater opportunity to get a good deal on these rooms.

Another place to look for checking hotel rates is meta-search website http://www.hipmunk.com/ that offers the Discomfort factor…how much are you willing to lose out on for the sake of a good rate at a hotel…give it a test run and see if it suits your needs. An alternative is http://trivago.com/ offering comparison in products for you.

What all this shows us, is that the way we may soon research travel is going to change. The hotels are fighting the OTAs, the OTAs are buying new companies to stay ahead, and the technology is changing fast. Furthermore, the way, we as travelers must interact with Search Engines has to change to give us the results that we want.

So – are you ready to make a change in the way you buy your travels?

Socially Intelligent Travel Buying Data – are we giving enough away?

 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.

WTM – part one: Discovering new gay travel opportunities

World Travel Market (WTM) is always an incredibly busy and tiring week; one huge exhibition centre the size of several football pitches with over 100,000 visitors this 8 hour day across four days is an agony on the feet and demanding on the vocal cords – but all worth it.

Here you can learn everything there is about the new developments in travel – and one of my favourite areas has to be for the gay traveller. There’s a lot coming to the gay and lesbian traveller as countries and cities demand the high-earning, high-disposable income group (that is slightly a myth – but so be it).  The gay traveller is also more likely to specifically want gay bars, the gay community, gay pride events and the like – so it makes it easier to package a destination.

Those like Tel Aviv, Antwerp, Manchester, Brighton, Fort Lauderdale, Sao Paolo, Berlin and Sitges have been doing it for many years – some more mature than others; and there are those that are coming through as the next generation including Stockholm, Switzerland, Florianopolis, Buenos Aires and South Africa. What’s most interesting is how they are now marketing towards the gays, the marketing is more subtle, more personality driven and with flairs of humour – forget the old strereotypes, the travel industry recognises that flags and gorgeous men aren’t going to win them the visitors, its going to take “respect” – say CEO of OutNow Consulting, Ian Johnson.

But what a year it has been for the gay traveller with more areas of the world opening up. I little over two years India decriminalised homosexuality, Brazil recognised same-sex civil marriage and SAS airline took to the skies to grant the first same-sex marriage in mid-flight. WOW!

Every year there’s new and exciting events coming our way and all to cater to the different interests and tastes of the very diverse and varied gay and lesbian community.

In my next post – discover the new products for your travels.