Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright--TripAdvisor confirms site has steep penalties for fraudsters

Daniele Mancini, e-business director of Costa Crociere S.p.A , having failed during yesterday’s panel to bribe Marc Charron, head of TripAdvisor, to remove the negative postings about Costa, tried to tempt the audience by offering a discount on a cruise in exchange for glowing reviews.

Of course, Mancini wasn’t serious (we hope not, anyway), but his point is one that crops up again and again.

Charron concedes that, while there are a few bad apples who do try to defraud the system, TripAdvisor’s “zero tolerance” policy on misrepresentation has severe penalties for site abusers.

Unfortunately, the bell rang before we had a chance to discuss one of the other areas of concern--Expedia's ownership of TripAdvisor.

Guess we'll have to leave that one...for now.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright - Quote of the day

Connie Rheams, vice president at AltiusPAR, a hotel technology company, answers a question from the floor about what should happen to a sector that uses totally different systems and models.

"A bomb would be the best thing that can happen to us."

Now that's honesty...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright--ITA faces round two of questioning

After surviving a barrage of intense questioning about the value of his product during yesterday’s panel, William Phillipson of Boston-based technology-provider ITA Software, took the stage this morning to face yet another tough audience.

“After listening to your presentation again it seems like your product is exactly the same as Amadeus’s, so what is the difference?” demanded fellow panel member Sigmundur Halldórsson of Icelandair, which is an Amadeus subscriber.

Phillipson, likely already expecting a repeat of yesterday’s performance, kept his cool, and responded by explaining that ITA is essentially better because it does not carry the legacy systems of the GDSs, and all that that implies, including added costs and difficulty in sharing data in a seamless manner.

Surely the GDSs, given the opportunity, would have something to say about that, but I digress.

Things started to get a bit more interesting when an audience member (ok, it was me) asked Phillipson why Air Canada—ITA’s launch airline client –was not using ITA’s software to handle the carrier’s website fulfilment.

“They will,” said Phillipson.

“So, let’s be clear,” I said. “Air Canada is going to switch its online reservations system from Amadeus to ITA?”

“That’s the plan,” said Phillipson.

But when Martin Ruschen of Lufthansa Systems jumped in and pressed Phillipson on exactly when Air Canada would do this, Phillipson backed off and said that was a question for Air Canada.

That response was obviously not enough to convince some delegates, who remain sceptical about whether Air Canada, or indeed any other airlines, will swap their present GDS platform for ITA’s software.

Guess we better ask the airlines.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright - Too darn nice

Day Two of the PhoCusWright conference is the same Day One - a move to give delegates that need to hold meetings elsewhere in ITB the opportunity to come and go as they please.

Carl Michel (Holidaybreak), Laurie Myers (Octopus Travel) and Damon Tassone (Lastminute.com) are on stage talking about online travel agencies and tour operators.

A question comes up on the big screen message board

"Which of the following OTAs is nithe most precarious position as a business? Opodo or Ebookers?"

"Defintely not Ebookers, because of the [re-design] developments," says Myers.

"I'm ex-Opodo, so I won't comment," adds Michel.

Tassone sits quietly. The debate moves on...

What a shame...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright - Down down down

Apologies for the lack of coverage this morning. This was, alas, not induced by a crazy night out exploring the delights of Berlin, but a widespread wirless internet access problem around ITB.

Please believe us.

Up and running now...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright--TripAdvisor won't take bribes

It's official. Marc Charron, head of TripAdvisor, said the company will not, under any circumstances, accept bribes to remove negative reviews.

Well, I'm sure we're all pleased Charron cleared that up, though Daniele Mancini, e-business director of Costa Crociere S.p.A (and the would-be briber) was slightly disappointed.

Of course, after reading some of the less than complimentary reviews for Costa posted on TripAdvisor, we can hardly blame Mancini for trying.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright--Brand & trust matter in the world of search

The future of search will be all about branding, according to Anthony Mayfield, head of content and media for Spannerworks.

"Technical tweaks will mean less than brand equity in the future," said Mayfield.

He advised travel suppliers to aim to build a community around their brand, but cautioned against diving straight into a WAYN.com type of endeavour.

But building trust is no easy task.

TripAdvisor is a case in point.

It has a loyal following to be sure, but there are plenty of sceptics who believe its parent company, Expedia, is pulling more of the strings than it lets on.

When asked if Expedia was likely to keep TripAdvisor at arm's length--or at least continue peddling the perception that it's kept at arms length--the audience's response was a resounding no.

Ouch.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright - CRM kings

The conference has just heard a case study from holiday home specialist Interhome, picked by PhoCusWright for its cutting edge CRM.

It uses some whizzy elements from the rest of the site and allows people to build their own brochures. See some of it here.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright - India vs China

Attention private equity firms: Invest in India, not in China!

That was the message from Ram Badrinathan, senior market analyst, India for PhoCusWright, who spoke just before lunch.

"In China you need 11 licences to business. In India you need a letterhead. In China, TravelSky is the gatekeeper. India is open."

Still not convinced?

Just look at the growth and investment already pouring into the country.

In India, airlines have a 70% to 80% online market penetration (compared with 4% in China).
New carriers have managed to achieve 40% of the marketplace in just two years.

Travolcity is already in India and Expedia is coming soon.

But, it's not all so rosy.

"The challenge will be to go beyond early adopters. The days of picking the low hanging fruit are nearly over", cautioned Badrinathan.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright--The sexy side of social media

WAYN.com will surely see its membership spike after a demo of its site kept delivering pictures of...how shall we say...very "friendly-looking" Berlin girls.

Hmmm.

WAYN.com co-founder Jerome Touze (who was presumably unaware of the pictures which had been flashing behind him only a moment ago) proceeded to give an example of how some social media sites can be of use for someone interested in meeting a 25 year-old Swedish girl.

Oh, dear. Damn those automated ads!

Thankfully, Touze says WAYN doesn't accept any users under age 18.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright - Travel innovators 2.0

Ten years ago the likes of Brent Hoberman et al - enthusiastic, bright and in their twenties - were the new kids on the block of the travel industry.

A reasonably formal talkback session featuring David Roche (Expedia), Damon Tassone (Lastminute.com), Carl Michel (Holidaybreak) and Steven van der Heijden (TUI Holland) is quickly forgotten as the founders of social networking site WAYN.com take to the stage.

Jeans, trendy haircuts, confident, and clearly riding the crest of a wave.

They speak confidently about the business model and the enthusiasm with which (mostly young) travellers have embraced the WAYN idea.

David Soskin, who has plouged a tidy sum into WAYN alongside fellow Cheapflights executive Hugh Burge and Hoberman, is in the audience. He must be very pleased with his investment so far...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright - No more legacy, but no answers

Google gets a breather at last. It's time for the airlines to get some airtime here in Berlin, rather than what appears to plenty of muttering about the search giant's ambitions in the travel sector.

We'll ask Esteban Walther [Google] later on, promises PhoCusWright boss Philip Wolf.

William Phillipson from Boston-based tech-house ITA Software takes the stage to highlight the plight of the airlines and their so-called legacy systems.

"There is a mish-mash of systems from over 50 years", he says, including reservation kits, e-commerce, remote access and, more recently, remote access, web and e-ticketing.

The problem with such a plethora of systems is pretty fundamental, Phillipson says. Each piece of kit contains a different customer database, but now the now vastly empowered consumer needs far better servicing, airline legacy technology is just not up to the job.

ITA, understandably, wants to peddle its own "solution", but the panel for the talkback session has meatier issues on its mind.

"Why should we switch?" asks Sigmundur Halldorsson from Icelandair during the talkback session, which uses the Amadeus platform.

"I would not be able to comment on your relationship with Amadeus," Phillipson says, much to the disappointment of the audience. And to paraphrase a reasonably convoluted answer: "Functionality, value and cost."

An delegate asks, via the text system, if ITA has designs on being one of the so-called GNEs (mini-GDSs).

Cue a rather nervous-looking Phillipson, who only answers when the question comes in again from Martin Ruschen (Lufthansa Systems), another member of the panel.

"G2Switchworks is an excellent customer of ours. We are a technology provider and will be willing to talk to anybody out there." Doesn't really answer the question really...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright--Google is a big fat failure

Google is doing an abysmal job of "building vibrant communities around search".

Well, that's the opinion of Paul English, co-founder and chief technology officer of meta search engine Kayak.com, who spoke at this morning's PhoCusWright conference at ITB.

Errm. Does he mean Google, as in Google, Google?

Can't be.

Apparently, this other company, also called Google, is not particularly good at building customer loyalty.

Well, that company should have borrowed more than just Google's name, because Google Google is pretty damn good at building customer loyalty.

And as far as "building vibrant communities around search" goes, well now, Google (the real Google) is also proving to be quite good at that.

One need only to look at how the search giant is gearing up to deliver smarter, more personalised search results to its subscriber base (eg gmail users).

I hope the real Google finds out who this other company is. After all, it's not very nice when people go around giving you a bad name.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright - Cost per what?

If you have trouble translating CPC, CPA, CPO and other acronyms in the online advertising world, don't fret...you're not alone.

Even the tried and true techies attending the PhoCusWright at ITB conference seemed a bit tongue tied when trying to decipher what was what.

Is CPO the same as CPA?

Is CPC better than CPA?

What's the future of CPO?

The short answer is it doesn't really matter...at least not to the meta search engines.

As Paul English, co-founder and chief technology officer of Kayak.com elegantly summed up, "We'll take money any way you want to give it to us".

Sounds like a good business model to me.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright--Godfather says Google to launch travel site

"It is only a matter of time before Google launches a travel search engine."

Such was the message from the so-called Godfather of search marketing Danny Sullivan, chief technology officer of Search Engine Land, who opened the PhoCusWright@ITB conference in Berlin.

Obviously, Sullivan is a religious Travolution reader. We've been reporting regularly about Google's flirtation with its own travel arm, dubbed Troogle.

Visitors to Google.com searching for a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles, for example, will now find direct links to the leading US online travel agencies--Expedia, Orbitz, Cheaptickets, Hotwire, Priceline and Travelocity--in the first search result.

Visitors can also search for departure times directly from the Google results page.

Surprisingly, Google currently does not charge the online agencies for the privilege of sending what are likely millions of holiday searchers to their sites, according to Sullivan.

But the free ride is not likely to last.

"Google is doing this now because it's good for them. They know these agencies are where people are looking for travel and Google wants to show consumers that it can do a lot more than just a general web search."

Sullivan predicts Google will eventually go the way of Yahoo! Travel, which offers a similar "smart" search result, but restricts the results to its online agency subsidiary FareChase.

He added that it will also only be a matter of time before recognised Google users (so those with a gmail or google account) will begin to receive personalised search results, which will vary from the generic results that an unknown Google user would receive.

Google subscribers can already personalise the Google home page with the local time, weather and horoscope.

The big question remains: When will Google finally reveal its true plans for the travel sector?

We still have two full days of conferencing ahead of us, so stay tuned.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution