Over 30 online travel companies presented their latest innovations on Tuesday at PhoCusWright's premier Travel Innovation Summit in sunny Hollywood, Florida. While on the brink of information overload, I survived the day and was inspired by these cutting-edge travel pioneers. The day opened with Adam Goldstein, Co-Founder and CEO of Hipmunk.com and his 200 pound chipmunk companion, together making the travel booking experience seamless for travelers by comparing your daily calendar to available flights and hotel inventory. The heat map feature was especially interesting, super user-friendly. This was but one innovator that caught my eye, here are a few more of interest .....

ReviewPro - Taking social analytics one step further, ReviewPro helps lodging properties respond instantaneously to user's needs by tracking all chatter on the web, reporting in an easy to read format organized by category. According to CEO RJ Friedlander, "only 10% of the market (travel providers) is implementing social media strategies such as ReviewPro to manage their online hotel reputation through social media monitoring." Monitor everything that is being said about your B&B! I wonder how these guys plan to compete with the folks at Revinate?

Liftopia.com - Provides hotel operators, from small to large, with a unique opportunity to book advance ski tickets for their guests. With the majority of tickets still being sold at the slopes, this is a great add on for hotels to further service their guests while generating ancillary revenue. With up to 80% off the slopes, I may myself need to become a ski bunny.

MyGola.com - Not only do travelers benefit from insightful travel commentaries around the globe, but so do Indian housewives! Check out what MyGola.com is doing to provide quality destination content to travelers while uplifting their community by providing jobs for woman who enjoy writing about travel from the comfort of their home.

GroundLink.com - While you can book on the phone and through the web, this innovative young company is bridging the gap between excess car inventory and travelers in need of a ride in luxury digs via an easy to use, free mobile app. Travelers can book discounted luxury car services in 110 countries. In NYC, travelers are summoning luxury cars on demand instead of waiting in long yellow cab que's - catch a luxury ride for the same price, or lower, than a dingy yellow cab! While "on demand" in NYC only, rumor is these guys are expending quickly.

TripTV.com - Share your B&B video with travelers worldwide while borrowing other people's video to enhance your visitor's experience, such as videos about your destination including local adventures, dining and more. According to CEO Kulin Strimbu, "Visitors who viewed product data (by video) were 85% more likely to buy." Sounds like there may be some synergy here for B&B's and their guests, something you may want to consider for your website.

View all 2011 PhocusWright Travel Innovators here.
More to come from my week at THE Travel Summit of the Year.
Marie Lanier
Vice President, Business Development
Lanier Publishing International

PhoCusWright 2011: The Eagle Is Flying Overhead

For three days in November in tropical Hollywood, Florida, travel leaders and bright, young innovators converged at the Travel Summit of the Year, PhoCusWright 2011, to grab their share of the travel space. The theme of this year's conference: Travel Unleashed. "As consumers engage in new ways, travel companies have remarkable opportunities ...provided they have the right DNA." Travel is unleashed "because yesterday's assumptions and business norms" are being turned inside out daily. - Philip Wolf, Chairman, PhoCusWright

As Philip described the eagle flying overhead, we participants were enthralled by the idea of an ever demanding, ever increasing online traveler whose expectations soar higher and faster than our services deliver. His point was clear --stay one step ahead of the traveler's expectations if you hope to survive in this social media revolution.

Leading CEO's from the likes of Priceline, Expedia, Living Social and TripAdvisor, to name a few, presented at Center Stage, followed by a hard-hitting group of panelists, often from competing companies. While the dialogue at a few points became charged with accusations of he/said, she/said, the exchange was rich with relevant questions and a fair share of straight-forward answers. Here are a few of the highlights, in no particular order:

Facebook: Dan Rose, VP of Partnership and Platform Marketing

The theme of Dan's presentation: Our offline life is becoming increasingly influenced by our online interactions with friends and family. From where to eat to what to see and do, we're no longer informed by traditional media (news, TV, radio) but rather by our friends and people around us online.

"Interesting time to be here when the Internet is moving from the Information Web to the Social Web."

"We are moving from the "What" to the "Who," the Information Web to the Social Web."

Dan rounded out his presentation by announcing Facebook's new "Timeline" feature intended for users to create the story of their lives while living it day by day online.

HomeAway: Brian Sharples, Co-Founder & CEO

Brian Sharples, acquirer of 13 of the leading vacation rental websites, shared his feelings on the small property owner. When asked why HomeAway continued with the membership model for property owners versus the commission model, Brian explained that property owners wanted full control of their inventory and did not respond well to a commission scenario. According to Brian, the "#1 reason HomeAway wanted to go public was because HomeAway is still a relatively unknown company, sub 10% of the market in total. There's a lot of press that comes along with taking the company public."

Jeremy Wertheimer, VP, Travel, ITA Software by Google

Jeremy presented a seamless, straightforward overview of Google's new "Flight Search." Numerous presenters referenced Google's move into the travel sector as a conflict of interest, while Jeremy valiantly defended his position. One online commenter from the audience posted this on PhoCusWright's Twitter message board: "Will Google cannibalize ad revenue from Airlines by competing in the flight search themselves? Answer not clear."

Stephen Kaufer, President & CEO, TripAdvisor

Stephen's one-on-one interview with Lorraine Sileo was poignant, TripAdvisor has obviously entered the vacation rental market with the acquisition of such sites as FlipKey (includes a booking component) and numerous others. Stephen made it clear that Expedia was severing ties with TripAdvisor so that they could expand and stretch their wings, it will be interesting to see what TripAdvisor does after leaving the nest. Good luck Stephen, it's an exciting time.AirBnB

While not present at the Travel Summit, AirBnB was certainly on the tip of many people's tongue. Their burning question? Is there really a market for AirBnB worth over a billion dollars? According to Woody Marshall, General Partner, Technology Crossover Ventures, AirBnB is "building a new market with a whole different demographic filling rooms inside peoples' homes." The overall majority appeared to agree that AirBnB's primary issue is going to be delivering a quality product to its travelers. It's questionable as to whether or not consumers are going to like showing up at someone's home with no quality control in place.

Tim O'Shaughnessy,
CEO, Living Social

Panelists wanted to know, how was Living Social profiting, and for that matter able to sustain, with a 30/70 revenue split in favor of the hotels? According to Tim, "70% of escapes customers were not planning on buying a room night. Over 600,000 room nights sold over past year." Visitors, on average, go to 12 websites to plan their travel. Hence why Living Social saw an opportunity to create high value in one location with restrictive time constraints, selling room inventory that would otherwise go empty with significant demand.

While this model may be good for lodging properties with perishable inventory, will it last at this rate?

Chris Loughlin, CEO of TravelZoo asked the hard hitting question everyone wanted to know: "When does the cash run out and are you profitable yet?" For which Tim replied, "One of the joys of being a private company, we don't discuss profitability." Touche Tim!

Dara Khosrowshahi, President and CEO, Expedia, interviewed by Carroll Rheem, Director, Research PhoCusWright

Dara confirms that TripAdvisor's spin off from Expedia is going to be taking place after 6 years of a successful partnership. According to Dara, the "spin off is not really going to have much of an affect as Expedia and TripAdvisor's media are so separate."

In reference to Expedia's slow response to the daily deal trend, Dara shared with the attendees that "Groupon's audience is a very engaged audience, we have to train the Expedia audience to buy a product in a different way than they are accustomed to... We want to create depth and breadth of supply." Dara continued to explain that ultimately, what he thinks social will mean for Expedia is an opportunity to share information between friends as far as "these are hotels your friends like."

The presentation turned personal when Carroll Rheem asked Dara what were some of the early lessons Dara had learned as a young, 35-year old CEO at Expedia. To which Dara replied:

#1. You hire great people.

#2. Once in a while, make the call that your team fundamentally disagrees with. CEO's job is to avoid "average answers," move away from "less risky path" and bring as a leader a new direction from what the team typically does.

Jeffrey Boyd, President & CEO, Priceline interviewed by Philip Wolf, Chairman, PhoCusWright

Philip asked Jeffrey, "how do you balance time honored , learned business "techniques" with aggressive, fearless new business models." Jeffrey explained how Priceline continues to implement new strategies regularly, including "Tonight Only," travel deals on the go via Priceline's non-opaque new mobile app.

In closing, one thing is certain from this year's Travel Summit, the eagle is in fact soaring overhead and we travel publishers can either swoop down and create value for travelers , or find a perch to sit on as the social media revolution passes us by.

In closing, one thing is certain from this year's Travel Summit, the eagle is in fact soaring overhead and we travel publishers can either swoop down and create value for travelers , or find a perch to sit on as the social media revolution passes us by.

It is my pleasure to share with you my findings from this year's travel summit, see you soon online!
Marie Lanier
Vice President, Business Development
Lanier Publishing International