BOOT in Business Week Business Exchange

I feel like I have lost a bit of control over the syndication of the BOOT across the InterToobs but cant complain when one of the unknown feed results is to end up on a BusinessWeek page. Image below

BOOT on MJ bandwagon

I am 37 years old so you are going to have to indulge me. I don't vere away from the business of online travel often. It happens sometimes on Fridays. Most recently I did so for dung beetles, to say I am sorry and to watch in amazement at the battle between a lion, a buffalo and crocodile (ok...and for some muppets over Christmas). I am a child of the 70s and 80s so here is the best live performance I can find of that strange, odd and potentially dangerous man that had a musical talent the likes of which we will never see again. Here he is singing Billie Jean, dancing his magic and a wearing a pre-Frankenstein make over body. Farewell Michael

Kayak is not that flattered by Bing imitation (Wired Mag)

Quick post for the BOOT recommended read of the week. Wired is reporting that Kayak sent Microsoft a "legal letter" along the lines of accusing Microsoft's Bing Travel of copying Kayak's look and feel and therefore misleading Kayak customers. No more details than that. Anyone out there is the Michael Jackson obsessed InterWebs know any more?

Full Article "Kayak to Bing: Stop Copying Us!"

hat tip to whodeani where I saw the story first

AsiaRooms moves to commission model at 15% for directly contracted hotels

The TUI owned AsiaRooms started life as a 100% operator shop. Accessing net rates from operators such as GTA and Turismo Asia. Many times they were criticised for pricing policies that angered hoteliers but recent comments from marketing head John Fearon indicated they were looking to move away from that pre-TUI reputation. AsiaRooms is part of TUI's Onlien Destination Services Group.

I have heard today of another step in that move UPDATE (and this has been confirmed by John Fearon). Here is a screen shot from an email sent out to hoteliers today. It shows that AsiaRooms is moving to a commissionable model with directly contracted hotels at 15%.

I am sure this will be a challenging shift. While it may make it easier to contract hotels, setting up an effective accounts receivable department across Asia where none existed previously will be a huge challenge for AsiaRooms. While hotels will be happier with the pricing certainty on AsiaRooms, the commission model shifts the credit card fee and payment transfer cost to the hotel. Here a shot from the email. What do you make of this change?

PS - I am assuming the email is legit. Can't say either way but if you know it to be a fake please let me know.Is confirmed as legit direct from Fearon at AsiaRooms

TripIt launches TripIt Pro - more features and a price tag (Re-Posting)

Assuming I have not screwed up the embargo timing, (I did break the embardo - Update Below)

Travel co-ordination and itinerary builder TripIt is announcing right about now that it will be launching TripIt Pro. This will be a paid upgrade to the basic TripIt Product. We don't normally do launches here at the BOOT but I am a keen TripIt user, am interested by the potential for an online travel content/organisation company actually charging users for a product and TripIt's VP of Biz Dev Scott Hintz shared some product launch learnings that I wanted to pass on to you (oh....OK...and by way to disclosure they let me have access to a Pro Account for no charge).

Quick reminder - the core of the TripIt product is to let you forward to them all of your separate itineraries for each of the parts of the trip and they combine it into one itinerary that can be shared with others. My recent review of the base/free product is here. Most of features of the base product are "pre-trip". The paid TripIt Pro product comes with lots more during and post trip features such as flight tracking, mobile alerts and alternative flights to help with delays and missed connections and a points tracker/combiner for all loyalty cards. You can read up more on the features here. All useful stuff, will report back once I get a chance to trial them.

Hintz tells me the pricing will $100 per year, or $49 if you sign before 31 July. You may have heard this described as the "Freemium" model - where the base but usable produce is available free but advanced features cost. We have seen this in lots of desktop software but I have not seen it yet in a travel product. Hintz says they have done lots of research to set the pricing.

I wonder if there is an irrationality factor to get over when it comes to paying for online travel tools. The OTAs are busily cutting fees, travel inspiration and meta-search providers are looking for suppliers and agents to pay and Google is the most useful thing the world but it is entirely free to use.

That said for a multi-mile road warrior $100 per year is a rounding error on a travel budget. I certainly will certainly spend more each year just on the tips at cafes buying coffee and can easily burn that it one trip using my cell to dial into a conference call.

Unfortunately they can only take US credit cards. Hintz said there were practical and cost reasons for that but in hindsight wishes and with the product on the cusp of launch wished they had found a way to launch the product with a reach beyond US customers. In launching the product Hintz said the cost of taking on non-US cards appeared prohibitive but as they face the realities of rolling out the product he believes they should have been more aggressive with targeting more markets for launch.

Another learning from the launch was to engage more beta testers earlier. A lot of the features from the final product came from tester feedback. If he had his time again Hintz says that he would have brought on more testers earlier to increase the feedback and speed up the product dev. It was nice of him to be open and share this.

Thus we have a Travel 2.0 company prepared to turned to paid subscriptions for revenue. What do you think? Do you think people will pay for more/better tools for managing itineraries, points, connections and trips?

UPDATE - apologies to all at TripIt. I did screw up the embargo timing by 24 hours. Caused the TripIt team to scramble to launch a day earlier and brief people fast. I earned a justifiable "tut tut" from uber travel journalist Kevin May. Then I tried to bring my post down and instead deleted it, meaning I need to repost again with the comments in the main text rather than in the comments section. As I said via twitter I "..proved that bloggers are lazy and untrustworthy". Thankfully TripIt have graciously forgiven me for my mistake.

Here are the comments I deleted

Teddy Douglas said...

They couldn't find a non-US payment method!? What about PayPal?

24 June 2009 3:06 AM

Anonymous said...

Why pay $100 for TripIt, when you can get the same functionality from StreamThru for free?

24 June 2009 4:33 AM

Jeff said...

I just did a quick scan of the StreamThru site and it seems to indeed offer a similar product. Tim, have you used it?

24 June 2009 4:37 AM

Uptake CEO Yen Lee talks revenue plans, expansion plans and lessons learnt

Am on an interview roll here at BOOT HQ. To keep things going I thought it was time to catch up with Uptake CEO Yen Lee. Initially launched as Kango in 2007 with backing from Shasta Ventures Uptake is building a review meta-search business. They have a series of algorithms and search methodologies for collecting and analysing huge numbers of reviews for hotels and destinations (currently US only). They hit the news again in September last year having secured another round from Shasta just moments before the GFC entered our acronym dictionaries.

A year after the new round and four months after Kayak announced the expansion of Travelpost into review meta-search I wanted to find out from Yen how the company was going and what he thought about the market. Here is some of our exchange

BOOT: How is the business tracking?

Yen - four big milestones from the last twelve months:

1. 5,000 sites in the index;
2. Technology is working;
3. Raised the second round; and
4. Hit a million uniques in traffic.
   

BOOT: With 5,000 sites in the index and a significant traffic base is the focus now onto revenue, is the product ready?

Yen - want to increase the number of sites searched by 100-200 times. Beyond dramatically expanding the size of the index also want the display to be better customised based on consumer preferences.

Any other expansion plans? What about using ad networks to sell CPM campaigns for revenue raising

Yen - we are happy for now with the CPA model from click referral. Not under pressure to turn to ad networks and CPM. Areexploring expansion possibilities outside of English language but in no rush. Also to expand the product into destinations. Believes long term there is more money in destination activities than hotels. There is a third expansion plan but Yen would not share what is was.

BOOT: Has Kayak's Travelpost revamp left you worried? How about TripAdvisor?

Yen - would be flattering to think we are on radar of either of these companies [as a competitor]. Is convinced there is space for Uptake to take on both of them.

BOOT: Any worries about the fall in online advertising spend?

Yen - not really as not very close to it. Focused on CPA and lead generation revenue. While banner/brand spend is soft, performance based advertising continues to be very strong. Expects growth in CPA to be stronger than PPC as traffic is even more qualified than paid search.

BOOT: Now that you are through your early stages as a start-up what things have you learnt about launching a company and growing a business?

Yen - couple of things

1. There were some early staff members better suited to building prototypes and early products than for scaling the business. Learnt that it was OK to move people around and shed some people and move on;

2. Cash is king -"don't worry about dilution" and "if you have a choice don't spend a dollar"; and

3. Should have been more aggressive with the consumer experience part of the product. Were very aggressive on the search index and algorithms. Should have displayed the same aggression in building consumer experience and gotten to it three months earlier.

My Take on Uptake

I am not sure what it is about my most recent round of interviews with travel search and discovery sites. Like the others before him in this series Yen is sounding very confident and very relaxed. No furrowed brows and tough talk filled with reality checks and challenging growth plans. He has a comfort brought on from money in the bank and limited revenue pressure (or "lots of runway" as they say in the best Valley coffee houses). My guess is Uptake is actually more concerned about the Kayak move into review meta-search than they are letting on but Yen does have a product that is not only a year a ahead of Travelpost in functionality but most importantly a year ahead in terms of Google indexing. The meta-search model in reviews is not yet proven but the revenue model behind sending qualified leads to hotel companies and intermediaries is proven.

What do you think - is review meta-search a viable business? Can Uptake fight off product launches and marketing pushes from Kayak and TripAdvisor?

First bit of Bing Travel for the BOOT - but makes no sense

I am a long way behind on doing any analysis or commentary on Microsoft's launch of Bing search platform.

But I did receive my first piece of traffic referral from the Bingers. Receiving traffic form a search engine is not a story in itself, but there is a story here because the traffic makes not make any sense. The search term that sent me the traffic was "qantasbooking.com.au" and the Bing page with those results has only one free link on it and no reference to me anywhere. I don't understand. Also look at the paid search on the right hand side. Does this mean Bing is selling remnant inventory or allowing for bidding on any term. Image below

If you are looking for some Bing travel analysis check out some of the following

Siew Hoon with Bing. Pong or Bang?
Bishop Cook with Farecast team looks to take Bing travel to new heights
Alex Bainbridge with Microsoft Bing and the travel website onion