Kayak CEO Steve Hafner on PhoCusWright Center Stage

Here is a quick list of quotes from Kayak CEO Steve Hafner that I Twittered during his PhoCusWright Center Stage Interview with Philip Wolf."Kayak's traffic was three times Sidestep when they bought them""The jury is out for the media model on retail sites""Bartels at Travelzoo has $80mm of revenue in their P&L. I want it. Of course they are a competitor""brought out a great mobile product a few years ago. Was used by 1000 people""next year will be talking about consolidation in OTAs (online travel agents), new faces at the top of some, cost cutting and site improvements. Can't believe how... Read more »

Priceline CEO Jeffrey Boyd on PhoCusWright Center Stage

Philip Wolf has just finished interviewing Priceline CEO Jeffrey Boyd at PhoCusWright 2008. Here is my summary.On US v InternationalAlready have more than 50% of business outside of US (see Expedia CEO's comments from yesterday). The international hotel business overtook US in terms of size at the end of 2006; andInternational split is reflected in staff numbers with 1,600 total staff but only 340 in the US (but note another 6-700 more in outsourced US customer service).On moving away from the opaque model and doing acquisitions in Europe Was an easy decision to move away from the opaque model... Read more »

The Renaissance Hollywood Hotel wants more money

I have been at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel this week as part 1,000 people attending the PhoCusWright 2008 Conference at this hotel. I have tried to be a good guest - no unnecessary demands of staff, tipping everyone that looks my way. I asked very nicely to be able to check out at 3pm rather than the 1pm they offered. "I am sorry sir but that will be an extra $25 per hour" was the reply. "But, I have been staying here for six days as part of a very large conference, surely you can be nice to me and extend my check out for no charge" was my polite reply. "Can't help you sir, we have to... Read more »

PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit - Video of all of the presentations

Here is the video list where you can watch 13 minute presentations from the 32 companies from the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit. You can select which one you wish to listen to. My pick of the top six are here. The six finalists here. You should also listen to YourTour, ekit, nileguide, planeteye, tripchill and travelbeen. Read More →

Expedia at PhoCusWright - quotes, facts, figures and mattress stuffing

Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has just stepped off the centre stage at PhoCusWright. Here are the highlights of his presentation and Q&A sessionOn Global Expansion19 Expedia branded sites worldwide. Currently two thirds of revenue is in the US, one third international. Want this to be fifty:fifty in five years;Need to do a lot of transation. Plan to translate 500 million words in 2009; and10% of revenue is Advertising based. Is growing faster than merchant/retailer business but do not expect it to take over from merchant/retailer business as the main reevenue source for the company.On... Read more »

United on premium customers - not sure what will happen to demand in 2009 but am sure that premium customers do not make decisions based on price

I posted on Monday some thoughts about the premium air fare product and the downturn/crash/eco tsunami. On Center Stage at PhoCusWright is Tim Simonds the MD of Customer Strategy and metrics for United Airlines talking about the increased focus that United will be making on the premium customer. Simonds highlighted that in the US Air market the premium passenger sector represented 30% of revenue in 2007 but lept to 50% in 2007. He was open and honest that he did not know if the numbers would hold up in 2009 but premium will still be a core focus as "a very attractive part of the market".It... Read more »

PhoCusWright: Model Blur - media and retail. Big deal for the industry but less for consumers

Philip Wolf is giving his opening monologue at the Centre Stage part of the PhoCusWright conference in LA. The second storm in the "Perfect Storm" is the merging of models in Travel between the media model and the retail model. The media model being eyeball focused, content companies that generate money from advertisers (think TripAdvisor and Away in the travel space, Yahoo!, MSN and online newspapers in the more general media space). The retail model is based on transactions direct with consumers (surely you don't need me to give you examples).As part of the Philip's perfect storm analogy,... Read more »

PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit - Six finalists

My pick of the six finalists are here.The picks by the Travel Innovation Summit attendees and finalists are:WandrianHome & Abroad (Fogglight)TripItYaptaiM@TriporatiMy score two out of six. Read More →

PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit - my pick for the top six

32 companies spent today presenting at the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit. Six get to move onto the Centre Stage sessions. The six will be announced tomorrow at lunch time based on anonymous voting during today's session. Here is my pick of the six (note have to pick two each from New, Emerging and Established Companies). In no particular orderPick 1 - Uptake.com: I have spoken about Uptake before. They have built a meta-search business for travel reviews and built a search methodology that goes well beyond the tradditional capabilities of Google, Yahoo and MSN. [Emerging]Pick 2 - Triporati:... Read more »

Quick Break from the Spectator - how to make a profit flying BA to Argentina

Cute story from the Spectator. How to keep getting yourself bumped from BA flights to generate a profit and a long weekend in London. Not sure of the truth of it. The fact that the Spectator gave it a run should mean something but old media has been fooled in the past. Read More →

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