[Note: The views expressed below are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of Expedia. This post is an application of the framework I introduced in a prior post: A Universal Framework for Understanding Great Products]
One of the first questions I get asked when I tell people I work at Expedia is, “Why would I book on Expedia over any other travel website?”
I’ve heard a variety of answers from folks outside Expedia and inside Expedia. At its core, the key differentiating aspects lie in Expedia as a product. At its exterior, it’s about its marketing tactics —(advertising, SEO, marketing and branding). In combination, you get the fuller picture. In this blog post, I’ll dive deeper into the core and share what makes Expedia stand out among the many travel agents in the $100B+ travel industry.
At its basics, Expedia is an online travel agent that helps travelers plan and book travel (flights, hotels, cars, activities). From a product perspective, what makes Expedia a great product is that it’s a) useful b) easy to use (discover, stay organized, book, travel) and c) trustworthy.
A) Useful
Expedia launched out of Microsoft, back in the late 1990s. Back then, Expedia gave customers the superpower of being able to discover and compare prices for travel at the click of a mouse — a huge advantage over the tedious process of calling up your travel agent and asking about pricing information for various travel permutations.
Over the next two decades or so, tons of other online sites provided this same superpower. In order to remain competitive, Expedia broadened the scope of this superpower. It was no longer enough to measure Expedia’s usefulness in terms of the above-referenced superpower. Its usefulness would mature and be measured by its inventory coverage — over 435,000 bookable hotels and over 400 bookable airlines. After all, if a customer wanted to travel to Fiji from San Francisco and this was not feasible with the product, well then — that product wouldn’t be that useful then, would it? So, coverage became an important component to keeping Expedia, as a product, useful. That means onboarding merchants all over the world and providing them the tools to run an effective business off of the Expedia platform (supplying inventory, handling payments, running promotions, etc).
B) Easy to use (discover/stay organized/book/travel)
The travel process can be stressful and that’s why a product/service that can reduce this stress along the entire value chain of travel would gain a strong following.
Expedia makes it easy to discover travel options. If the customer problem is in how to make sense of all the inventory on the Expedia platform, Expedia solves that with search widgets, filters, easy to understand text descriptions, superlatives like “Exceptional, Good”, rating snapshots, map views, informative messaging (did you know you can cancel most reservations within 24 hours free of charge?), etc. You may notice a “recommended” section which is powered by sophisticated algorithms that take data collected from previous users and gleans insight on what may be relevant to the next traveler. All of this data collected also powers its search result rankings — much in the same way that the Google Search Results work. Mixed into those results, you may see Daily Deals, Special Deals, +VIP featured hotels, opaque discounted hotels — all of these are presented in an optimal manner to help customers be aware of their most relevant, worth-their-time options and to then make a decision.
More recently, Expedia has also made it easy to stay organized. An Expedia study revealed that customers may do up to 48 flight searches before feeling comfortable to book. Some of these searches are repeat searches. Scratchpad is a feature that saves a user’s searches into their history and makes them accessible. It can also update the user on how much the price has changed since their last search, helping the customer organize their options and more quickly come to a comfortable decision.
Once customers want to book, booking is made easy with autocomplete features via 1-click Facebook login, an efficient checkout process with various payment options accepted (your choice, even Bitcoin), and timely email confirmations with itineraries — a rewarding booking experience.
There are more experimentations in the pipeline — for example, features aimed at making the ease of use process so easy that it’s pleasant and maybe even fun. Travel trends add a component of a real-time game — following a stock market ticker approach. And further down the pipeline, what I would really like to see and what I’ve been contemplating deeply — making travel social! Social discovery, social organizing, social booking, and even social sharing. Now THAT would be fun and pleasant!
While booking travel will always require some level of thinking and stress, Expedia has already taken a big step in helping the customer get through the process with less thinking and less stress. For this reason, Expedia at today’s standards is among the travel choices that is easiest to use, plan, and book travel.
C) Trustworthy
In travel, there are many instances of frustration — problems with booking and disappointments in expectations. Hidden fees, descriptions that did not match actuality all breed distrust and drive customers elsewhere.
Expedia offers customer support 24/7 as an overall first line of defense in addressing customer frustration.
Next, Expedia works diligently with suppliers to get accurate information so that there are no surprises (i.e. arriving at hotel and all rooms are taken, even though one was already reserved; no pool when the description said there was one; unexpected charge for extra travelers; etc). This is often an arduous and long-term task that requires building up tools for suppliers to use, communicating and coordinating with them, and having a process in place to handle disputes. The latest products (ie Real-Time Reviews) helps in creating data loops that will in the long run improve data accuracy on Expedia and set expectations for customers on par with what they will actually experience.
Expedia also has a reviews system that collects reviews only from verified hotel guests. This helps shoppers with a credible lens with which to evaluate the hotel.
What About Price?
Notice I did not necessarily mention price as a dimension that makes Expedia a “great” product. Price still is one of the most sensitive variables in this industry — but when everyone has the same low price (especially for flights), it’s hardly a differentiating point. This is because the market has gotten so competitive — pretty much all travel providers offer the same low price for the same inventory. Any discrepancies are usually very minor and can vary.
Any price advantage will usually come in the form of packaged deals (flight+hotel, flight+car, hotel+car, flight+hotel+car). Expedia, and many others, look at this product attribute over the long term and since travelers may be repeat customers, offering Loyalty programs that reward users with points that can be used for price advantages or other benefits in the future is a common tactic. I won’t go into the nuances of how Expedia’s rewards program compares with others, but I just wanted to bring that up as one of the ‘features’ created to address this dimension of ‘Price/Affordability’.
Recent Steps
More recently, Expedia’s mobile apps have improved Expedia as a product by leveraging the convenience and aesthetic capabilities of the mobile platform for its customers. And as even newer products roll out like Real-Time Reviews, Expedia is becoming an even more trustworthy product of choice in the travel market.
Recent Steps: The Rise of Mobile
When the industry landscape changed and users migrated their time to being on mobile devices, Expedia offered mobile web pages, then followed that up with mobile-responsive pages while simultaneously launching various versions of its mobile apps. Today, Expedia’s mobile apps offer compelling advantages to its customers in the areas of price, convenience, ease of travel, and UX design.
For price, steep discounts are offered on same-day hotel bookings. This superpower is targeted at the last-minute, on-the-go traveler who is looking for a hotel that night and does not have access to a desktop computer, but would be able to book a hotel via his mobile device. Recall that price was not an advantage in the section above, but given this new customer segment and the ability to get lower-price inventory from suppliers at the last minute, price is now a feasible dimension on which the industry can compete. This superpower may not be for every traveler, but it’s certainly a valuable superpower for a small but growing customer segment.
For convenience, itineraries are easily accessible via the mobile app. There is no more need to print out itineraries. Also no need to search through one’s inbox to find one’s Expedia itinerary. Accessing the itinerary via one’s mobile device sitting in one’s pocket is just easier and makes things more convenient.
For ease of travel, the mobile apps leverage push notifications to give travelers reminders when their flight is departing and updates on any gate changes or plane delays. These push notifications are timely and relevant, just what travelers need to ensure a stress-free, successful journey.
Lastly, the Expedia mobile apps offer an aesthetic design and delightful user experience that really takes advantage of the capabilities that mobile devices have to offer. The mobile apps won Expedia awards and recognition with its floating panels, infinite-scrolling world map, swipe to purchase features, and more. Apple featured the Expedia mobile apps in its App Store — the only OTA travel app with such a distinction.
Clearly, mobile has been an inevitable and natural next step and Expedia has taken that change as opportunity to improve its travel product to the next level.
Recent Steps: Real-Time Reviews
One problem that hoteliers have is getting feedback from guests at a time when the guests have already checked out — too late for hoteliers to step in and improve the experience.
So, Expedia launched real-time reviews, listening to users’ first impressions on the night of check-in, relaying that sentiment to hoteliers so they have a chance at improving the customer experience.
But hoteliers aren’t the only ones here potentially with a chance at improving the customer experience. Listening is an EQ skill — and so, simply listening (right at the time when customers are usually very excited or very disappointed about their hotel) may be enough for Expedia to start building trust with its hotel guests. But that is only the first step. By listening, we uncover a common customer pain point — customers getting something that did not meet their expectations. Expectation did not meet reality. And so this feedback starts the data loop of improving the accuracy of information on Expedia — the variable responsible for setting the appropriate level of expectation. This loop becomes increasingly powerful in improving customer trust — we’ll get more into it in another product-focused post. Trust over the long-term is what gets people coming back or telling their friends, and is what will make Expedia an even better product going forward.
Recent Steps: Expedia on the Apple Watch
Apple entered the wearable-device market in 2015 and invited Expedia to be one of the first app providers on this new device. Should this device gain widespread adoption, the Expedia smartwatch app helps extend Expedia’s greatness as a travel product in the area of ease of travel.
Many of the advantages gained from the mobile device (price discount for same-night bookers, convenience of itinerary access, and ease of travel via push notifications) would exist for the smartwatch app as well. The incremental benefits offered by the smartwatch app applies to the “convenience” and “ease of travel” dimension.
Since travelers often have their hands tied, not having to hold their mobile phone in one hand means one less thing for them to carry — more convenient.
When it comes to flights, travelers have strict deadlines. The countdown circle timer on the smartwatch app really effortlessly tells travelers how much time they have left so they can plan accordingly while at/near the airport — ease of travel.
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