Expedia Group’s new rewards program, One Key, launched Thursday in the United States, allowing members to earn and use rewards on bookings through the company’s leading brands.
The strength of the unified loyalty program is its flexibility, company officials have said, allowing travelers who, for example, book flights through Expedia to use those rewards on hotel rooms through Hotels.com or vacation rentals with Vrbo. Expedia Group first announced the concept of a single platform in September 2021.
“It’s a super powerful tool and a marketing enhancement, in my opinion,” said Alfonso Paredes, Expedia Group’s senior vice president for commercial partnerships.
Paredes was speaking last month at Phocuswright Europe 2023 in Barcelona during an executive interview with Charuta Fadnis, Phocuswright’s senior vice president for research and product strategy.
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Fadnis pressed Paredes on whether longtime members of the Hotels.com rewards program — which promised one free night for every 10 nights a member stayed – would be disappointed by the change.
Paredes said those people would gain additional benefits by being able to use rewards on Expedia or Vrbo. More importantly, he said, the unified program would open rewards for everyday travelers.
“A lot of people aren’t able to travel 10 days to get to stay a free night,” he said. “You will start making something now – not in 10 nights. A lot of the people, a big chunk of the population, they were not able to redeem.”
The interview also covered Expedia Group’s growth plans on the B2B side, the microservices the company offers, the increase of fraud in travel and the partnerships Expedia strikes with financial institutions and other companies.
“We listen to our partners. And then we try to find out what are their priorities,” Paredes said. “When we start to see a common element there, that’s when we get together, all of us, and say, there’s some interest here. Can we make it work or not?”
Of course, the conversation eventually turned to generative artificial intelligence — the speakers joked they felt obligated to talk about ChatGPT — and Expedia Group’s plans for the technology.
Paredes noted that Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, had been a member of Expedia’s board of directors before stepping down June 1 to focus on his other business interests. “So it’s not so new for us,” he said.
Expedia was one of the first travel brands to provide a plugin for ChatGPT in March. Shortly after that, the company added a ChatGPT-powered travel planning tool to its Expedia mobile app.
But that doesn’t mean the company is rushing things, Paredes said.
“What we are seeing is an increase on the interaction for the booking journey — from planning a trip, shopping or using it for booking and especially on the post-booking: cancellations, refunds, all of that. It’s helping us a lot,” he said. “I can’t imagine the number of calls we’re avoiding with all of that. Baby steps, but we’re going in the right direction.”
Asked about how generative AI would be used in the future, Paredes said he doesn’t perceive the technology as the threat that some others see.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to lose their jobs, just to be very clear,” he said. “It seems to be very popular to think we’re all going to lose our jobs. A hundred years ago, we were all farmers and now here we are.
“I think what is going to happen is it’s going to increase productivity. If you are able to eliminate all the friction that you see in a booking … that is what I think is going to make us be more productive and be more focused. I think it will change the way we operate but also make us focus on the important.”
Watch the full interview below.
Executive Interview: Building Momentum with Expedia - Phocuswright Europe 2023