A new-look Expedia has revealed a new technology platform, marketplace, and traveller benefits as part of a new strategy designed to “redefine its place in travel” and serve travellers, partners, and the travel industry.
Announced its recent EXPLORE 22 event, Expedia Group’s three-tiered strategy features:
• a new technology platform called Expedia Group Open World;
• a reimagined marketplace that rewards partners for delivering great traveller experiences;
• a focus on developing traveller technology that provides the right information to increase booking confidence.
“This isn’t the Expedia Group we were two years ago, let alone two decades ago,” said Vice Chairman and CEO, Peter Kern, referencing the company’s inception in the late 1990s and the fact that EXPLORE was last hosted live two years ago. “We spent the last two years reimagining our potential and decided it was time for a much-needed change. Rather than a market that has become commoditized around price, we envision a world where travellers are served the right option for their needs, with transparency around value and expectations. We are excited to share the ways we are bringing that to life.”
Open World
The company announced Expedia Group Open World, its new, purpose-built technology platform created for partners of all sizes – including travel agents – to leverage and configure products and services needed to succeed in the travel ecosystem. The platform will deliver an entire ecommerce suite, with building blocks like, payments, fraud, conversations, and service, that anyone can use to accelerate, enhance, or even enter the travel business.
As the platform matures, it will become a place where developers, data scientists, marketers, entrepreneurs, and others can create new ways to encourage and enable people to travel.
Reimagined Marketplace
Expedia Group also announced a reimagined marketplace that puts traveller experience at its core. Using a breadth of data signals, including traveller reviews, customer service interactions and more, each hotel property will receive a new, guest experience score. This score will directly impact the search and sort factors that drive visibility in Expedia Group’s marketplace algorithm.
Partners will receive personalized insights and actionable recommendations to improve their guest experience scores in line with traveller expectations. Incentivizing partners to deliver better experiences by shifting more bookings to those who score well, the company expects to create better connections between partners and travellers and greater traveller long-term loyalty for all.
New traveller features
The company also introduced three new features designed to add confidence and trust to the travel shopping and booking experience.
• Trip Boards: To enable a better travel planning experience, Expedia Group is extending Trip Boards to more product lines. Trip Boards serve as a homebase for all things trip related, from hotels, to activities, flights and more, enabling travelers to save and book items, and simplifying collaboration with travel companions. Trip Boards is already successful on Vrbo and launches this summer on Expedia, with additional collaboration features later in the year.
• Smart shopping: Smart shopping makes it easier for travellers to compare and choose between offers by surfacing a wider range of options earlier and all in one place. For hotels, this includes room attributes, categories, and upgrade opportunities. For flights, this includes different timings, stopovers, seat selection and baggage check. Smart shopping offers travelers more transparency on their purchase, while partners are exposed to incremental revenue opportunities. Smart shopping is live today for hotels and coming soon for flights.
• Price tracking: Price tracking shows past trends and future price predictions for flight searches. It empowers travellers to see how their flight prices might change, reducing stress so they can book with confidence at the right time. For partners, it encourages travellers to consider and purchase flights they may otherwise not book. Price tracking is available today on the Expedia app on the US point-of-sale for flights and will be extended to hotels later this year.
Following the news from last year that Expedia Group would create a new, unified loyalty program, the company announced that this new program is called “One Key” and brings together four different loyalty programs the company has under its umbrella. When One Key launches next year, all members will, for the first time, be able to earn and burn points on any of the Expedia Group brands, like Expedia, Vrbo, Hotels.com and more, and on any of their travel products, including air, hotel, vacation rental, car, and cruise.