In the middle of a decent enough session to kick things off this morning at the EyeForTravel conference in London were these wise words from Brian Clark, SVP of fly.com, Travelzoo's new meta search engine.
Fly.com is getting a fair amount of attention following its launch in the US a few weeks back and plans for a UK roll-out later this year.
There was, understandably, a captive audience to hear what he had to say about the new engine, etc.
No new details emerged there, but he explained what could be seen as six principles of better travel search - relating especially to the plethora of meta search engines out there on the market and what fly.com is trying to do.
1 - Communicate the 'value' of a product in a more transparent and helpful way.
2 - Merchandise better.
3 - Create context for search results and additional information on the site.
4 - Aim for the elusive 1:1 relationship with the user.
5 - Stimulate demand (don't just re-arrange the deckchairs!).
6 - Inspire consumers to travel in the first place.
Now some of these aims are easier to do than others.
Indeed, number six is perhaps the Holy Grail for meta search engines. How to become a player and an important part of the research>purchase journey much further forward thanthey are currently are.
Let us know what you think...
What if there was a meta-search site that only accessed API's and made booking via XML?
Surely this is the way for meta-search to achieve Brian's "holy grail" and actually control the purchase journey by having a consistent booking page nav, as opposed to passing off/deep linking to different designed booking pages?
Steve
these steps look like the strategy for lastminute.com 8 years ago ... nothing wrong with that as 95% of travel websites ignore the basics
would like to see how people are putting these in place, i don't see too many examples and not sure it fits the meta model unless conversions with the client (not consumer) can be improved
Hi Steve,
I think that your meta search site Oodles.com does a great job in using the API's from the 5-6 car rental companies and your booking path is consistent through the use of a XML booking path( I have used your site previously for car rental bookings). Unfortunately the broader travel industry especially the thousands of hotel providers do not yet have API's so accessing their data is going to be messy for another few more years.
Also most travel providers ( excluding car rental companies) want to own the branding of the customer so they want the booking process to be completed within their site environment.
Building a .com into the uk market you have got to be kidding. Nominet recently quoted that over 70% of consumers will trust a .co.uk domain over a .com
Good luck to all at travelzoo and fly.com
Doug Scott
Director www.fly.co.uk