NB: This is a viewpoint from Tim Gunstone, managing director of EyeforTravel.
Nobody said it was going to be easy for online travel businesses and it isn’t. In this multi-channel, digital world, the landscape continues to shift and change. Newcomers pop up daily and entrenched players are upping their game with new products and services.
Mobile transactions will soon be mainstream, the technology is here to truly deliver on the promise of ‘big data’, and driving compelling, personal and relevant messages to the customer's device of choice is no longer a nice to have.
In advance of the forthcoming Travel Distribution Summit in London, I spoke to speakers about some of the things keeping them on their toes and awake at night.
If everybody plays fair, could this be the year to heal old wounds?
Not everybody will agree but Tim Hentschel chief executive of online group travel company HotelPlanner believes 2013 should be the year that travel suppliers and OTAs try to make amends and work out how to “stick together” to keep any outsiders, which are 'just going to take more money out of the industry [read Google and others]' at bay.
After all, both sides have the same goal, be that for booking a room, plane or car.
This recognition of the need to work with all parties has been taken on board by citizenM, a trendy relatively new breed of hotels. The group’s boss Michael Levie understands the internet has brought a new transparency to travel booking that is ignored at one’s peril. Even chains like Best Western, the first hotel to become fully bookable on Facebook, realises that forming the right partnerships in this environment will be crucial providing, says UK chief Richard Lewis, those partners 'play fair'.
Mobile may be old news but it’s becoming mainstream
Ask just about anybody in the travel industry what the big trends for this year andmobile will be on the list. Unlike last year, brands realise that mobile is no longer the Wild West, it is an opportunity. EyeforTravel’s own consumer research shows that in the US 20% of bookings today are made via mobile and this is only going to increase.
Other research tells a similar story. A recent report from PhoCusWright on the US market says that by 2014 nearly one in five online travel dollars will be booked via smartphone or tablet. In 2012, three in 10 mobile web users booked or purchased travel products such as hotel rooms or flights via mobile phone, up from 26% in 2011. So it won’t be long before mobile transactions become mainstream.
What brands will need to decide is where to focus their mobile investment. So far, many have focused on developing for Apple devices but with Android adoption rapidly growing, this platform can no longer be ignored.
This is true for online travel group Odigeo (owners of eDreams, Govoyage, Opodo and travelink) which expects to have native android apps for smartphones by the end of this year.
A strong focus for Odigeo is growing the business it generates via smartphones, which the group's senior director for international, mobile and new ventures Dr Andreas Schräder believes is the 'number 1 travel companion of the future'. He also believes that it's worth developing separately for tablets. Interestingly not everybody seems to agree.
Mobile search is another growing focus, hardly surprising given a report from Google Think Tank, which surveyed more than 6,000 users, and found that every mobile search results in two follow-up actions, which could include word-of-mouth sharing or a purchase.
The big three…and other disruptive forces
Developments by the big three - Google, Apple and Facebook will continue to be watched with interest. While HotelPlanner’s Henschtel argues that Google Hotel Finder may not be the 'biggest disruptor ever' as initially hyped, as there are other developments playing out at the world’s most powerful company that will impact travel brands.
As Fairmont Raffles Hotels International’s Barbara Pezzi points out the forthcoming enhancements to Google Analytics, such as Universal Analytics, visitor segmentation and the attribution modeling tool should be watched if only because of the sheer impact this will have, being the most widely adopted web analytics tool around. Google Tag Manager is also worth mentioning, she says, as the first free tag management solution.
The impact of Facebook’s Graph Search and how this changes the way people search for content should be closely watched too.
Meanwhile, the recently revamped Facebook News Feed and dark posts will test whether Facebook can really find the right balance between driving much-needed advertising revenues and keeping users happy. This will be something that Twitter – another growing force in travel - must be aware of too as it looks to monetise its user base.
As citizenM’s Levie points out, the transparency of the internet has given rate consolidators free range to capture the guest long before hotel booking departments.
Instead of crying "oh, the big bad OTAs", CitizenM recognizes that brands need to fundamentally change the way they do business or they won’t survive. Whether that means supporting Apple’s Passbook, becoming bookable via Facebook or building close relationships with the likes of Expedia, Priceline and Booking.com.
All loved up with loyalty means getting personal and relevant with the right people and technology
With the number of touch points on the rise, how travel companies improve the services that matter to their members is an area to watch. Many hotels will be taking their cue from airlines, which have recognised that to survive they need to be far more than a distribution channel.
Greg O’Gorman, head of partner marketing at easyJet says a growing focus is the 'ever increasing targeting of product and content'. And this will involve using increasingly sophisticated tools and channels. EasyJet has worked hard to make the in-airport experience far more enjoyable by putting information in the hand of the customer – namely on the mobile phone.
Developments like this are being carefully considered by hotels which are looking at ways to differentiate with customer service – and mobile is a key focus. In the hotel business, to date, mobile has been used mainly for bookings, but brands will be looking to extend its use to before, during and after check-in.
As Lewis points out, to achieve this you need both great technology people and the right people to drive it. This is one of the biggest challenges facing brands.
So if you have developed an app that allows a guest to text for room service, you need to ensure the processes are in place to ensure that the request is delivered in a timely way. Not only does this mean ensuring the right processes are in place, but you also need to understand guest expectations.
Delivering compelling content and cracking customer service
Content has always been king but never before has it been so important to deliver high quality, compelling content. Today this means delivering an integrated product and content strategy, using the right tools and across multiple channels.
Developments like the new look Facebook newsfeed, and continued integration of social into Google’s search algorithm, among others, will mean that compelling content becomes imperative.
Unsurprisingly Apple’s Passbook is gathering momentum and many brands are beginning to use this to simplify the travel experience for customers. Passbook apps have emerged as an efficient way for travellers to handle boarding passes and tickets and so on which is exactly what customers want.
Delivering great content means truly understanding what your customer wants. Only when you know that can you deliver exceptional customer service.
In the end, customer service is the only thing that really matters and while price will continue to be an important factor, customers are increasingly looking for value. With so much competition brands that don’t deliver it may be heading for the Bermuda Triangle.
NB: This is a viewpoint from Tim Gunstone, managing director of EyeforTravel
NB2: Signpost image via Shutterstock