PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: LiveRez.com

Looks like Vacation Rentals are a theme this year at PhoCusWright.  A recent press release announcing PhoCusWright’s recent study “PhoCusWright’s Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Change” identifies the vacation rental market as an up and coming segment of the accommodation market and values it at over $24 Billion.  LiveRez.com as well as a couple of other innovators including Escapia.com and VacationRoost.com are fighting for dominance of this market.

LiveRez.com offers a web based vacation rental management system that allows vacation rental managers to better manage their properties.  There is no demo of the management system and only a one page list of features (which are a bit vague) so we may have to wait for the Travel Innovation Summit to actually see what it can do.  There is a demo of their consumer website available at http://template2.liverez.com/.

LiveRez.com also offers an interesting service called SecureRez which appears to be a certification program for property owners.  I wanted to find out more information about the SecureRez program but unfortunately at the time of posting the link was broken:

Questions:

1. What is it about LiveRez that is innovative? Business model? Application?

2. How does LiveRez.com differentiate itself from competitors like Escapia.com and VacationRoost.com?

3. LiveRez.com appears to be focusing on a very service driven offering with value add offerings like marketing and consulting.  Is this the case?

Additional notes:

Upon further review, I noted that the following items were not working or displaying properly:

• Company tab on home page shows no content
• Information tab on home page shows no content

PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: Innovata LLC

Innovata is a global leader in travel related content management, content distribution as well as travel planning solutions utilising this content. Airlines, airports, hotels, web based travel companies and a wide range of industry related companies and associations use our data and solutions to help facilitate their own businesses.

In association with IATA, Innovata markets the Schedule Reference Service (SRS) to the aviation industry. The database contains over 99% of all flight schedules worldwide with over 900 airlines participating in and updating the SRS directly. Approximately 90% of the database is updated and refreshed each week.

Innovata also provides content licensing services for the following:

• Innovata’s Hotels database (HotelBase) contains property description, amenity and related information on over 66,000 separate properties
• Innovata’s Car Rental database (CarBase) contains data on over 11,000 airport and off-airport car rental locations for some 85 car rental companies.
• Innovata’s rail schedules database (RailBase) contains up to date schedules for Amtrak in the USA and Via Rail in Canada.

Questions:

1.  There appear to be a number of solutions offered by Innovata.  What is being presented at PhoCusWright?

2.  With the advent of so much free content on web now, is there still a market for paid content?

3. Has Innovata considered opening up the schedules for free and driving revenues through booking revenues?

PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: Fogglight

Fogglight is a travel website builder for companies who want to integrate an itinerary software without the costs normally associated with such an integration. At first glance, it would appear that Fogglight is ideally suited for small travel companies who are looking for a simple website, but Fogglight has some very high profile customers. I tried the itinerary planner tool on the Gusto! Fogglight site to see how it works and I was very impressed. The itinerary builder asks a series of simple questions to get an idea of the type of activities you might be interested in. When viewing more details about a particular activity, you can visit the activities website to book (for those activities that support booking).

The following is a video that outlines the steps for creating a Fogglight website.

The Fogglight system appears to be built around the trip builder software developed by parent company Home & Abroad.  The system recommends destinations and activities based on the travelers preferences and then allows the traveler to book air and hotel through integration with third party booking engines, specifically Expedia.

Questions:

1.  Can travel companies, for example tour and activity providers, load their own products into the itinerary tool?

2. If not, are there plans to allow suppliers to add product in the future?

3. Is there an XML API for integration of the trip planner into other websites without the need for a white label?

4. Can travel websites use the trip planner technology while supporting their own booking engine?

5. How does Fogglight generate revenue?

PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: FarePool.com

According to the FarePool website:

Farepool.com is a 24×7 online service from QuadLabs offering travel agents access to the best deals from specialist suppliers across the world.

Farepool.com helps travel agents pick the most profitable fares and earn better margins. With Farepool.com, you can make instant reservations of deep discounted rates, apply comprehensive markups, track your bookings and manage your customers, all from a single user-friendly interface.

Farepool.com is the easiest way to be a travel agent. Instant registration gives you access to an exhaustive array of deals on multiple products including airfares, hotels, packages, car-rentals, insurance, etc.

Using highly advanced travel technology from QuadLabs, Farepool.com connects to the electronic supply chain in real time and delivers blazing fast results, helping you stay ahead of competition.

You no longer need personal contacts and contractual commitments to get the best deal, Farepool.com lets you concentrate harder on your customers rather than complex dealings with the suppliers.

So drop the phone, relax and let Farepool.com scout the deals for you.

I’m not really sure what to make of this site.  The information provided on the site is very vague and there are no deals published.  I would like to see an example of how the system works without having to create an account.

Questions:

1. From what I can tell from the website, FarePool appears to be a system for suppliers to load their special deals and where agents can search and book these special fares.  What exactly does FarePool consider innovative about this?

2. Are there any examples of what FarePool actually does?

3. What products are in FarePool? Air, Hotel, Packages, etc.

4. How does FarePool.com compare to something like TravelZoo.com?

PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: Escapia

Escapia is a hosted vacation rental management system which includes an integrated booking capable website and distribution platform.  The concept behind escapiaOne, which is the companies flagship product suite, is a fully integrated platform that replaces a PC based property management system, a website, and manual distribution through Internet marketing partners.  The idea is to combine these three critical areas into one unified system which thereby reduces manual intervention and automates all the necessary functions for you.  Instead of me having to describe their application, I recommend you take a look at the demo they have provided.  I have to say, this is one of the nicest demos I have seen.  Kudos to the team at Escapia.

Summary:

escapiaOne is made up of three related components:

1. escapiaVRS is the back-office application designed to allow the property owner to manage bookings, house cleaning, accounting etc.

2. escapiaWeb is the property’s own website which pulls data directly from the escapiaVRS for updated live availability, property descriptions, photos, etc.  When bookings are made on the property’s escapiaWeb, the bookings are made directly into the escapiaVRS, thereby removing the step of having to manually update the reservation system.

3. escapiaNet is the distribution platform which allows property owners to share their property data and live availability with marketing partners.  These marketing partners can make real-time bookings through escapiaNet which update each property’s escapiaVRS.

Regardless of where the booking is made, directly in escapiaVRS, through escapiaWeb, or through escapiaNet, the availability is updated immediately and in real-time which prevents double bookings and ensures accurate reservation data.

Questions:

1. The marketing partner websites (from the demo anyway) appear to be white labels.  Is this case?

2. Does escapia plan on having a partner program like Ian.com that allows website owners to sell vacation properties through their own sites?

3. Does escapia offer an XML API which would allow for the full integration of data into a booking website?

PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: ekit

From their website: ekit is a global provider of integrated communications and Internet services, designed to keep travelers in touch.

ekit provides a suite of travel communication services including mobile phones, SIM cards, global calling cards, Internet calling, voicemail, text messaging and email solutions. These services are accessible worldwide from more than 152 countries.

At first glance, the ekit.com website looks like an e-commerce site for buying cellphones and sim cards.  When you take a closer look however, there is a new service they call their Travel Journal.  It appears to be a travel blog that can be updated using your mobile device and automatically tracks your locations based on when and where you post mobile photos and messages.  I don’t for sure if this is the product that ekit.com is planning on presenting at PhoCusWright, perhaps someone from ekit.com can confirm my suspicion.

The travel journal is a service provided free when you purchase an international phone or sim card from ekit.  It is, therefore, a value add service and not necessarily a revenue driver for the company.  The service allows the traveler to post messages to a pre-configured travel journal.  Whenever the traveler makes an update or posts a mobile photo, the system captures geotag information and posts the current weather for the location.  All your geotagged entries are posted on customized Google map that shows your locations and attaches your entries to location pins on the map.  This is a great way to see where you have gone and what you did at these locations.  Finally, there is an interesting status service that tracks your location, your local time, and whether your phone is on or off.

This is an interesting service and has the potential to be used by a wide audience.  Given that the majority of the revenue of ekit is driven by the sale of phones and sim cards I have trouble seeing the scalability of the app.  Perhaps there is some thought of opening up the platform and only making certain features like the status and recharge available for ekit phone and sim customers.

Questions:

1. Is the travel journal the innovation we can expect to see at PhoCusWright?

2. The travel journal is so far down on the page (most customers would probably miss it).  Are there plans to bring more attention to this service?

3. Are there thoughts about opening up the platform to other mobile users? iPhone App?

Here is a link to a CNET article about the Travel Journal. (Note that Telestial and ekit are the same company)

PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: Dealbase

Dealbase.com is website that allows users to post travel deals to a growing database of hotel and package deals. I would compare it to a user generated TravelZoo. The site currently has about 9279 deals from destinations around North America, the Caribbean, and Mexico.

The concept is certainly a good one. Basically a Craigslist of hotel deals, created and updated by the user community. The site does not require a login, which is a bonus, and the “Post Deal” process is very simple. To post a deal, you complete a very simple one page form. In fact, I completed the form myself and created a deal…

You can view the deal here

My only concern is that there is no moderation of the deals or a way to ensure the deals are legitimate. With reviews or ratings this tends not be a big issue, but deals are transactional and should probably treated a little differently.

The site is well designed and utilizes some nice ajax features including autocomplete fields when posting deals. The site uses large fonts and is easy to read.

Questions:

1. Is Dealbase planning on expanding into other deals, for example flights, activities, tours, car rentals, and cruises?

2. Are there any plans to allow properties or operators to post official deals? Will they monetize this?

3. Is Dealbase planning on making their data available through an API?

4. Can they import deals through a standard interface or API?

PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: Clairvoyix

Clairvoyix is a database marketing company that uses sophisticated personalization to better target customers. According to their website, Clairvoyix uses a seven step process that covers everything from collecting the information you need about your customers all the way to ROI. The steps as identified are:

1. Data Capture: This appears to be a service to help you make sure you are capturing the right information from your customers. I would presume this would be helping an organization make sure that their CRM and sales tools have all the right fields. After all, you can’t really target your customers effectively if you don’t know who they are.

2. Data Hygiene: This is the process of cleansing the data, making sure formats are the consistent and accurate. For example, this would be used to make sure all address information is in the same format.

3. Data Mining: Allows the user to search against their database with natural language searches and other mechanisms.

4. Targeted Strategy: This applies to segmenting and personalizing campaigns directly to users. The idea here is that if you have a lot of data about your customers and it is consistently formated then you should be able customize your messages to each user without a lot of work.

5. Targeted Design: I like this step a lot. Why? Because it means that you can essentially program your marketing campaigns based on decision trees. For example, if the user is a woman, then print this message. If the user prefers sun vacations print that message. The opportunities for customization are tremendous.

6. Targeted Execution: Not sure what the difference is between this step and the previous one. Both steps appear to be the same. Maybe someone from Clairvoyix can clarify?

7. Campaign ROI: This is a bit vague, but Clairvoyix seems to be saying that they can quantify and measure segmented marketing campaigns. I’d be interested to know how they do this?

Questions for Clairvoyix:

1. Is it the Clairvoyix process or your technology that is innovative?

2. Is there an online demo of the system? Is it web based?

3. The Clairvoyix blog has two posts (total) dating back to June 2008. With the advent of social media marketing, how is Clairvoyix addressing social media marketing.

PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: Cadabra

Cadabara is a research and booking website for New Zealand.  The site is based on Cadabara’s tour planning software which allows customers to search, plan, and book a variety of travel products including accommodations, car rentals, and attractions.  The system includes wizard based tools that help the customer through the planning process.

I signed up for an account so that I could try the itinerary planning tools.  The interface is very easy to use and nicely designed.  The itinerary building tools are quite sophisticated and make logical sense.  Once you choose a hotel, you can find activities that fall within the date range of your stay and in your immediate location.  This makes sense and means the customer can avoid having to search for activities based on date and location criteria.  The itinerary also allows you to build your trip before you actually book it.  This also makes sense because it allows you to fine tune your plans before you commit to paying.  The danger here, however, is that if you take too long, your accommodations or activities might not be available at booking time.  I didn’t go through the booking process, so I am not sure how they are handling this particular problem.

The technology appears to be quite flexible and is being used in New Zealand as a case study (I would presume).  Because of the amount of content required in the production of a site, I would be interested to know how they are handling the content and data strategy.

Questions:

1. How is the content managed? Is it imported in  through 3rd parties or is it all managed by Cadabara?

2. Is the product booked in real-time through partner connections?

3. Are there plans to open the system up to more content providers for other regions?

4. This is a great example of how the system works, but the corporate site is very vague about the actual technology, how customizable it is, how much it costs, how flexible it is, etc.  I would like to know more about what makes it tick.

PhoCusWright Travel Innovator: Adventure Link

AdventureLink is a reservation and distrbution system for adventure travel and experiential product.  They appear to be using TriSept Solutions as the basis of the application and piggybacking on the VaxVacation network to distribute their products out to 80,000 connected travel agents in North America. TriSept Solutions is a travel technology company that provides:

“airlines, hoteliers, tour operators, and travel agents with vacation travel technology to dynamically package, market, and sell vacations via a variety of distribution channels.”

AdventureLink benefits tour operators by giving them the ability to distribute their adventure product through multiple channels simultaneously and AdventureLink doesn’t charge the 10% distribution fee until a booking is made. There is no indication what the commission to agents is currently.

For travel agents, AdventureLink is a source of additional product that is focused on a growing niche market, the adventure travel market.  Travel agents can sign-up, search for, and book adventure travel products through the VaxVacation network.  AdventureLink also offers a service called the AdventureLink Expert Travel Agent.  These travel agents receive a VOIP phone that is connected to the AdventureLink call center number and receive commissions for booking adventure trips.

Their website is well designed with some nice features like the pop-over details view for each product.  This saves the traveler having to click through to a product to find out more details and then having to click back to the search results.  AdventureLink also appears to have quite a significant number of products loaded into their system already.

Questions:

1. If they are promoting themselves as a global distribution system for adventure travel, then why are they also a licensed seller of travel?

2. Is the model B2B, B2C, or B2B2C? The site seems to indicate that the system is a B2B system, but it also appears to be a B2C model for selling the product.

3. For information or bookings please call 1-877-462-3854 or email reservations@adventurelink.com. Does this mean customers can book directly through AdventureLink.com? If that is the case, how does Adventure Link reconcile competing with their distributors?

4. Are the Expert Travel Agents independent or are they agents of AdventureLink?

Competitors:

The following companies share similarities to AdventureLink in that they focus on adventure travel, they provide booking systems for suppliers and are also B2B, B2C, B2B2C or some combination of the three.

• Adventure Engine
• Adventure Central

Website Error Notice:

At posting time, links from the following page were resulting in an error:

http://operator.adventurelink.com/RegisterSupplier.aspx