Online Revealed Calgary 2008

SOUND BYTES Five New Questions to Ask Online Travel Companies By Noreen Henry Note: A version of this article was first published in the Fall 2007 edition of Hospitality Upgrade F our years ago Michelle Peluso, our president and CEO, discussed the questions that hotels needed to ask online travel companies when thinking about entering into “net rate” agreements. Back then, the discussions hotels were having revolved around “Why should we even provide access to our inventory to an online travel company (OTC)?” The industry has evolved tremendously since the nascent days of the net rate model and with every major hotel supplier now working with a variety of OTCs, the question has shifted from “Should we?” to “How can we?” As in, “How can we get even more from our OTC partners?” As your relationships with your OTC partners continue to grow and mature, here are five new questions to consider prior to the next time you sit down with them face-to-face. 1. Are they humble? In other words, do we, the OTCs, understand that your success precedes ours? In my opinion, it is our job to support you as our partner and that there is always more for us to learn about how we can improve for you and our mutual customers. I drill this message home to teams throughout Travelocity every chance I get. Just because an OTC has been doing well for you does not mean there are not opportunities to improve. 2. What matters more to them: price or experience? OTCs no longer exist merely as an avenue to distribute your content on the cheap. Our mission needs to be about marketing experiences. Creating memories that last a lifetime is what matters and our job is to offer relevant merchandising for our suppliers and fantastic and relevant offerings for our mutual customers. As a group, OTCs have the ability to make consumers remember the magic and power of travel. 3. Are they comfortable with our low price guarantee? If you are working with an OTC that thinks that customer experience matters more, then this should not be an issue. That said, OTCs do not want to be at a rate disadvantage either. If you remain consistent in how you allocate your rates across all distribution channels, then there is no excuse for any OTC to constantly badger you for cheaper and/or exclusive rates. Again, it should be our mission to shape the consumer’s limited attention span on the experience rather than gaming the system in hopes of finding a cheaper rate. 4. Are they innovative? The next generation of online travel shoppers planning a fulfilling trip experience want tools and content to explore a destination and the various experiences available there. Rich Internet applications like Flash have opened up an entirely new way of interacting with information that makes features like trip planning by categories and themes, planning and shopping through photo albums, video galleries, and maps come to life. Giving users a richer visual and more fluid view of their destination allows them to easily move around and see more detail and options that are based on their interests and enticing themes versus exploring items on a list. OTC tools that are based around list selection simply do not allow the traveler to dream and plan in an engaging manner. A recent example of innovation that we have engaged our hotel partners in at Travelocity involves the rollout of ExperienceFindersm, new technology that we launched in beta earlier last year. 5. Are they nailing customer service? Collectively, we the OTCs know what our mutual customers need from us: a high quality experience every single time. To achieve this, it is imperative for us to devote significant intellectual capacity and resource, but we can not get there unless we are making this investment together. Therefore, customer service must be a shared issue. After all, if a customer has a good experience, we both reap the rewards and, conversely, if the experience is negative, we both suffer. So how do the policies and employees of the OTCs you work with support your brand? Everyone these days guarantees price, but are they holding themselves accountable to the experience as well? Travelocity has led this charge with our service guarantee and customer bill of rights, both firsts among OTCs. And we remain committed to being “customer champions” by proactively anticipating potential issues before they become a problem. It is a dynamic time in our industry with few signs of demand increasing. Hoteliers, Tourist Boards and Destination Marketing representatives need good partners right now. I firmly believe that, as a group, we the OTCs must live up to the highest of your expectations as the traveling public continues to look for richer travel experiences, from the activities and themes that they choose and by branching out to find deeper meaning in those travel experiences – think volunteer vacations. How we interact with you in helping meet this demand while fully realizing the potential of Online Travel 2.0 can not be taken for granted. Noreen Henry is vice president hotels and packages, at Southlake, Texas-based Travelocity. She can be reached at Noreen.henry@travelocity.com onlinerevealed.com | ONLINE REVEALED CANADA 2008 | 15 http://www.onlinerevealed.com

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