Take a line-up of Expedia bigwigs and interrogate them how they'd like their holiday planning and trip experience to be down the road and you get a range of different answers.
There's talk of personalisation and multi-channel booking capability, collaboration with friends and family gets a mention and spontaneity during the trip itself is up there.
Of course the corporate line is stressed - none of this stuff is "an imminent product release" - but that doesn't make the different takes any less insightful.
So here's a list of our line-up's demands.
Sheldon "Products" Chuan
- ...he wants his circle of trust (aka family and friends) to have input into his shortlist of destinations. He wants booking across any device and during the trip he'd like tours and excursions to be as instantaneous and easy to book as a restaurant reservation. And, he'd like support from an Expedia concierge throughout.
Scott "Packages" Crawford- ...he likes the idea of personalisation and wants seamless access to the experiences of people like him. He wants to be immersed and the planning stage 'to build excitement' and bring the trip to life, or else! He also wants to create his itinerary, in terms of tours and excursions, while he's on the go.
Peter "Social Guy" Parkes- ...just wants a little magic. He won't divulge how he wants to book his trip but gives an example of how when a jogger hits the driveway sweating after his run, is greeted with a towel and bottle of water by the time he hits the door.
Parkes adds:
"If we can create systems for that kind of anticipation. It's being able to figure out when we can add a bit of magic."
Just a few words on that corporate line, we know Expedia is planning to relaunch its beach pages along similar lines as the job it did with ski in January.
We also know all companies are scrutinising customer data to find ways to create a more personal experience and we know they're all working hard at multi-channel functionality.
So none of this stuff is really a stretch too far of the imagination.
Andrew "Marketing Heavy" Warner, says:
"Expedia has an interesting role to play. If you look at British Airways, it sells flights and some hotels as well, or Google, which is a technology company. We sell holidays and we are also a technology company and because our regular customers book all sorts of trips across multiple devices and in different countries, it gives us a view of data that some of those other companies don't have."
He adds that personalisation is about joining the dots and mentions the idea of a portable PNR (passenger name record).
"There are all sorts of ways it could go such as services for regular customers who are higher value."
NB: Criminal line-up image via Shutterstock.
NB2: Official titles for the Expedia execs - Warner is senior marketing director for EMEA, Parkes is head of social media for EMEA, Crawford is head of packages, and Chuan is product director for site experience.