Giving the customer more choice when it comes to booking seems hardly a revolutionary move, but Expedia believes its recent move to give travellers more choice at the booking stage is going to shake up the industry. Pamela Whitby reports
What with Priceline acquiring Kayak and new entrants offering affordable services constantly entering the fray, Expedia decided it was time to get back to basics – and give the customer more choice of how to pay in the booking stages. Of course this isn’t new. Australia’s national carrier Qantas allows you to book now and pay later for a holding fee of £15 per passenger. American Airlines has its Fly Now Payment Plan. Many hotels do it in some form or other and there are those who would argue that some OTAs can achieve it with generous cancellation and refund policies.
But Expedia’s Seamus MacCormaic, Senior Director Market Management at Expedia LPS, says nobody is doing it with the same breadth or scale as them. “What others are doing is not as dynamic as Expedia’s ‘Expedia Traveller Programme (ETP) because in the back end of our systems we are replicating every rate plan so that it can is pay now or pay later. Everything is being matched to the criteria so it is not as if some will and some won’t be.”
Read full story at: http://www.eyefortravel.com/distribution-strategies/expedia-fights-back-offer-travellers-more-choice
