Since 2005, CEO Barrie Seidenberg has led Viator, a tours-and-activities marketplace, that has been relatively selective in the products it lists.
She's guided the company to a solid foothold as the world's largest seller of tours and activities based on its curated product lineup more than its technology.
But in the next 12 months, you'll be hearing a lot more about Viator's technology, rather than its curation.
The company's tech solutions have been getting heavy investment in this same year that the company was acquired by travel tech giantTripAdvisor for $200 million.
In the first half of 2015, Viator will roll out a robust open platform, moving away from a curated approach to tours and activities listings, said Seidenberg in an interview Monday with Tnooz at the PhoCusWright Conference in Los Angeles.
Already, suppliers can sign up to be on a waiting list to get priority for inclusion in the open platform. (Suppliers won't have to sign up for a TripAdvisor Business Listing to be able to join.)
Tech initiative
Today was the first announcement in an ongoing tech rebuild for the San Francisco-based brand. Seidenberg said the initiative pre-dated the acquisition interest by TripAdvisor.
For the past year, Viator has had a supplier application programming interfaces (APIs) that have enabled more advanced connectivity and automation for tour operators and other intermediaries than the company's current extranet offers.
In short: real-time booking and distribution updates can be streamlined.
Seidenberg explains the impetus for the initiative this way: In early days, any given small supplier may have only been receiving two bookings from Viator a week or a day.
But now that Viator has grown, and been bought by TripAdvisor, it can send far more volume. Said Seidenberg:
"As we have become more meaningful as a source of customers, suppliers who may have been dragging their feet a bit to do the work on their end to automate processes now recognize the opportunity. And we're also making it easier for them."
In an interview, she told the story of how, last year, Viator's staff visited a supplier in Paris and watched as they handed off about 20 bookings. The supplier had to call in a few staff people to manually input the booking data into the operator's systems.
New API has 100 partners
In the past year, several top Viator staffers have been doing road shows with suppliers to persuade them to adopt the API. They've also been learning how to fine tune the direct connections to the suppliers' custom systems.
The API is a step toward helping suppliers automate their reservation procedures and make live and last-minute inventory accessible to Viator's users.
A trend accelerating the adoption of Viator's technology is that suppliers now have more affordable, easy-to-use tools for managing bookings digitally -- instead of by whiteboard, paper-and-pencil, or ancient desktop systems.
They can instead take advantage of software-as-a-service subscriptions from third-parties and other tools.
To that point, Viator's API is also connected to 10 leading inventory and booking management systems that help tours and activities companies manage their reservation processes cost effectively, such as BookingBoss, Get In Sell Out, Jewel Business Solutions, PonoRez, Rezdy, RezGo, TourCMS, Welcome Management System (TourBiz), XOLA, and Zaui.
BookingBoss has been an early adopter of the API's ability to handle live barcode delivery, providing simplified consumer check-in for tours and attractions, such as museum exhibitions and observation points.
The company adds that ActivityRez, Adventure Office, Checkfront, Fare Harbor, HulaRez, and ResPax "are signed and preparing to launch in the coming weeks." Said the CEO:
"The greater supplier connectivity means great choice for consumers which should increase booking volume, of course."
Despite the move to a more open model, there will still be a vetting of suppliers, says Seidenberg. But the screening will be more automated than it has been in the past.
Having a synergy with TripAdvisor will make it easier to recognize companies that have a positive ratings reputation -- one criterion that will be used for approving a company to be added to Viator's open platform.
Company update
Seidenberg says that her team is working with TripAdvisor's to merchandize the traffic currently going to TripAdvisor's own site on webpages focused on tours-and-activities themed information at particular destinations or for particular attractions.
The companies are working on language and graphic icons for buttons saying things like "Book a tour", which would be placed on the relevant pages and then link users over to Viator's site.
Viator won't be integrating its rating system with TripAdvisor's because they measure different things, said the CEO.
The goal is to rapidly scale and dominate the tours-and-activities space. The company has already staffed up on engineers, and will now be accelerating growth in its account management teams.
Unusually among travel companies, Viator has many executives who have been working for the CEO for around a decade, a fact that has enabled Seidenberg to make sure her idea of a company culture is consistently deployed in its offices worldwide.
Seidenberg says she has told her staff that the only person getting a new boss out of the acquisition is herself.
She volunteers high praise for that boss, TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer, who she says grasps that speedily achieving growth in tours and activities will take a modified course to what's worked for hotels because of the distinctiveness of the product.
In other matters, Seidenberg said there was nothing to report on the "ongoing investigation" into a data breach affecting 1.4 million customers in September. She said the company has since made its systems more robust against intrusion.
EARLIER: The wait is over, tours and activities finally hits the big time
Auf wiedersehen, GetYourGuide – TripAdvisor starts trimming suppliers of tours and activities
TripAdvisor acquires Viator, the tours and activities agency, for $200M
