Corporate barbarism does not begin at home say The Smiths

Quite a captive audience for the appearance of Mr & Mrs Smith (or husband and wife team, James Lohan and Tamara Heber-Percy).

[Indeed, sitting alongside me was a representative from a German competitor, Escapio]

We have said for a long time that M&MS is a hugely interesting company, not least because it has managed to turn what essentially was a guidebook publishing house into a very online-focused service, using Kayak (for flights), UGC, Twitter, blogging, decent mash-ups, etc.

We, of course, heard the usual rundown on the company - much of which will be new to the European audience.

Perhaps one of the little nuggets of information is that conversion rates from phone queries to its travel team stand at 30% - which isn't bad at all (although overheads are a counterpoint).

[Escapio, sitting next to me, say they achieve similar rates and are far higher than online ]

A bit of history about the brand name as well.

Mr & Mrs Smith is synonymous with couples (who often aren't officially an 'item') escaping for the weekend and using the name to register, so they can't be traced.

The French equivalent, apparently, is M and Mme Dupont; in Italy its Rossi; and naughty couples in Germany would use the name Muller.

Bet you didn't know that!

But, in all seriousness, they're sticking with the Mr & Mrs Smith brand name for any further expansion overseas (they're in Australia and the US already).

And, finally, a proper nugget at the end. Lohan and Heber-Percy are considering splitting the company in two - media and travel. Very interesting...

Anyway, this was certainly one of the cosiest interviews I've ever seen at a conference. Good but strange...