It’s hard to believe it’s only been 10 years since online travel behemoth Expedia propelled itself into the Australian market to mixed opinions from the industry.
This week KarryOn got the rare chance to catch up with Expedia Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Mark Okerstrom (CFO), Georg Ruebensal (MD Expedia ANZ) and Daniel Finch (MD Wotif Group) in Sydney to hear a bit more about their insights, ideas and what lies ahead.
Together the group has been on a 10-year journey of learning and today, Expedia Inc. continues to increase its regional scale and results with Trivago, Hotels.com, Wotif.com.au and Lastminute.com.au all “performing strongly in this market”, according to Khosrowshahi.
So what’s their secret? What’s the scoop? And is it really true that they have a lab with people wearing sensors on their faces like ‘The Matrix’?
Here are seven things we can learn from 10 years of Expedia in Australia
1. Travel Agents are Expedia’s fastest growing consumers
This may surprise you, but according to CEO Khosrowshahi, the fastest growing area for expedia.com.au right now is travel agents signing up to Expedia’s TAAP program. What was once seen as an agent’s nemesis by some is now being seen by many as essential and complimentary to an agent’s every day tool kit.
With helloworld.com.au also being powered by Expedia owned Orbitz it’s no surprise that agents are seeing the platform as a positively enabling one. Australia in fact has the largest share of travel agents on board Expedia anywhere in the world.
2. There’s a brand for every type of traveller
Expedia Inc. have boldly set out their market stall to focus on covering all bases.
Expedia.com.au is positioned as the outbound and inbound brand into Australia whilst soon to be re-branded Wotif.com is seen as the domestic old favourite with lastminute.com.au bringing some impulse love to leisure travel and experiences. And let’s not forget hotels.com for the accommodation only fans.
Wotif.com, now fully integrated onto the Expedia platform is also rumoured to be bringing in their own version of the Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP), which will also see commission on all bookings for agents within the next two years.
Focus it seems, is everything.
3. Their motto is test, test and test some more
Check out the latest Expedia staff outfit… Ok maybe we made that bit up.
Expedia inc. operates meticulous consumer testing on every single thing they do.
Generally, they say that on every product or site enhancement, one third is successful, one third doesn’t make a difference at all and one third fails on every update they make to the customer experience.
Expedia’s level of ongoing site evolution is such that there could be around 50 versions of Expedia.com in existence globally at the same time with constant updates being made to correspond with consumer choices in their testing results.
Do you test what you do on a regular basis? If you don’t – how do you know it’s working?
4. It’s really okay to fail
You won’t see this kind of response above at Expedia.
As mentioned in point three, a third of Expedia’s products fail with their founding ethos being – ‘If we’re not failing, we’re not succeeding’.
This is a wonderful (and clearly highly effective) trait for a company of their size. CEO Khosrowshahi talked of regular product days where the entire company is invited to pitch their ideas. In fact each of the business shares their wins and losses for all to see. Including the leaderships teams losses.
“Senior people don’t have all the ideas, the entire business does. Given we test everything, our one and only metric will always be – was it successful?”
Expedia Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi
Can you imagine this principle in your business? Would it make a difference do you think?
5. Wotif.com is about to get a makeover
The new identity, going live next week…
Since the $703 million takeover by Expedia Inc. in 2014, the iconic Aussie online brand Wotif.com has been peddling hard to maintain itself as a market leader whilst being hit by a drop in sales and US currency.
But with the migration onto the Expedia technology platform now complete, the next evolution for the brand is almost here with a re-brand coming next week together with the launch of a significant advertising campaign centred round the tagline of ‘The home of holidays’.
The campaign, the first of its size that Wotif has embarked on in years will feature across TV, Radio, digital and Social Media and aims to firmly re-plant a stake in the ground as Australia’s favourite domestic booking hub.
There was also talk of zero booking fees and the addition of cruises in the near future. Watch this space.
6. They do have a lab where people wear sensors and stuff
What started out as probably a crazy idea at one of their product days is now a reality and a major part of Expedia’s ongoing research into understanding how and why people pick holidays.
Researchers at Expedia’s Innovation Lab use eye-tracking and facial-movement technology to measure what people look at and why.
The sensors on people’s faces detect slight changes in facial expressions that indicate feelings of happiness, frustration, or anxiety. Standing behind a two-way mirror, a psychologist studies the data to see what part of Expedia’s online experience stirs up certain emotions.
And the end result? Expedia learned that travellers like the images on the site because they tended to smile more in the lab when looking at pictures of hotels and other travel destinations. As a result they amped up the photography and suggested that hotels supply better quality images to use.
When was the last time you made a crazy idea happen? Here’s some more inspiration.
7. They’re not stopping innovating any time soon
Realtime feedback takes reviews to the next level
Recent initiatives from Expedia include ‘Realtime feedback’ – a tool designed for hoteliers to head off negative reviews that could be posted on Expedia sites and elsewhere.
When guests arrive at a hotel they’ve booked through Expedia they receive an email or app notification asking them three questions: “How was your check in?;” “How is your room?” and “Are you happy with the location?”
The idea is that hoteliers can receive guest feedback while they are still staying at the property and can make up for any poor service while guests are still on-site and before they post a negative rant anywhere online.
Scratchpad is another tool that actually has proven to drive more sales from repeat bookings. Scratchpad is a sort of digital scrapbook for saving your searches on Expedia. The cool thing being it always updates the pricing so a consumer only sees fares and rates that are actually bookable, not ones that have already expired.
The tool also works across devices which means that a user can start researching a trip on their mobile and tablet and then jump onto their laptop to see their previous Scratchpad saves.
Whatever your opinion on the tech giant, it seems their founding ambition of ‘revolutionising travel through the power of technology’ is on track to deliver across all their brands.