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Location, location, location for travel supplier websites

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

I promised last week that I was going to write up some ideas for location based services for travel supplier websites. By supplier I mean “product owners” or agents of product owners. i.e. these are ideas that could be implemented by travel companies – rather than new location / mobile based startups.

These ideas are based on the principle that you know where the web user is while accessing your website or service. While this may be “out of reach” of many travel websites currently – this is functionality that is coming to everyone in the next few years so time to start thinking about it.

The big question is – with this new ability to know where a user is – what kind of ideas will it support?

First a few general points:

  • A location based service doesn’t have to be a mobile service – you could create a great piece of functionality that understands a person’s location and responds to it without the necessity for the service to be a mobile one.
  • Having a general understanding where someone can be useful – its not just about knowing exactly where someone is. Just knowing the country can be a good start!

 Sales

  • Understand which airport is most local to a user – hence push offers and promote products that tie in with what is likely to be of interest to the customer. Zero novelty factor – most large travel companies are mapping this currently within their CRM systems….. but always good to cover the basics!
  • Where is my nearest agent? Unlike many I don’t believe its quite the end for the travel agent yet. However, agents need to turn into product evangelists rather than ticket clerks. Just last week I was in an agents office and they had converted their downstairs into a “presentation room” with massive plasma screen. Their plan is to hold interesting evenings covering different topics. If I were a tour operator working with agents a user could be pushed towards their nearest agent holding a product presentation evening……

Operational and in resort

  • Where is my nearest rep? - many customers will be taking mobile devices with them on their trips. Imagine providing them with a tool with a big red “panic” button – to either tell them where their nearest rep is – or automatically put them in touch with their nearest. Customer can get an ETA for the rep to arrive. In reverse, rep can see, on a map on their mobile device, where the customer was when they pressed the panic button.
  • Transfer bus coming – if you are going on a tour and you need to catch a “transfer” bus…. wouldn’t it be great to actually know where the bus is. Often the last few hours of a holiday (fly and flop) are sat waiting in bar…. or on a dusty road….. for the transfer back to the airport. I am sure that mobile devices can help improve this part of the holiday experience – the customer can see where the bus is…. the reps can see that everyone is waiting (even if the rep isn’t actually at that location).
  • The shopper - say you are on holiday and you want to buy a rug or stuffed camel…… you could navigate to your travel portal and find out where you can get your best deals (perhaps also with coupon codes). Often people, in specific destinations, come back with similar mementos of their trip…. so you are not having to create an entire ecommerce system for thousands of products (like you would if were a conventional mobile retailer) – just pick the ones that are absolutely top picks for the destination….. actually not too mad an idea for a new startup……… ummm – anyone got any VC?
  • Whats on today? Events, weather, etc…..  

Operational – the rep’s perspective

  • Big brother is watching you – howabout in the local rep’s office having a big plasma screen showing the location of all your customers at this point in time (not just where they are staying, but where they are).

Just touching the surface here…… lots more to come in the next few years!


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3 Responses to “Location, location, location for travel supplier websites”


  1. June 24th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
    Michael Madison

    More location based information could be easily given today. A starting point could be information relating to things you can do, see, eat, buy, etc. near where you are going to, or near what you are looking at while visiting a site.

    Hyatt do something like this with “e-concierge”, but focused on hotel activities and services, and now better with their recent forum-based service “yatt’it”, into which their premium guest can provide feedback, but which seems to be populated by tips from hotel staff. At first that was mainly relating to hotel services, but now it seems to expand beyond the hotel’s grounds (their San Diego now includes information and tips on scubadiving, shopping, and favorite breakfast spots).

    Expedia so something similar, well not quite, by suggesting al sorts of local services to pre-purchase when I only want to finalise my purchase. But useful nevertheless. Did you know the Alcsatraz tour in San Francisco needs to be pre-booked and can be sold out a long time in advance?

    But the virtual concierge seems like the right way to go, and it should not be too hard to do. Can’t wait for Kayak.com to integrate some sort of social element, traveler feedback and tips, etc.

  2. June 25th, 2008 at 12:54 am
       Alex Bainbridge

    Hi Michael,
    Thanks for your comment….. re the Alcatraz tour…… yes – this is the sector we are swirling around in with TourCMS ! We have a mafia history tour on our system – does that count!?

  3. June 28th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
    Gareth K Thomas

    Maybe I’m taking this to a very basic level, but we understand the booking habits of our American visitors to be quite different to those booking in the UK. I’m sure we would increase conversion by showing the 2 countries different key information and possibly taking them on a slightly different route to booking.

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This blog is about travel ecommerce & travel social media with a focus on topics of interest to tour operators & B2C travel companies

Alex has previously started up a small tour operator (5 staff) and also worked for leading "dot coms", airlines, hotel chains and tour operators advising and project managing web, ecommerce, social media and reservation system projects.

We operate TourCMS - a web based reservation system for small tour operators


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