Kayak-American spat heading to the courts

Just when people thought the row between Kayak and Amercian Airlines couldn't get any more bitter (last installment: War of Words), it turns out that American Airlines has now filed a lawsuit against Kayak.

Papers were filed in Tarrant County, Texas, on 6 August. [Open PDF]

This suit is to stop Defendants ongoing violations, and recover damanges for prior violations, of the terms of its contract with American to distribute American fares and related information.

It goes on:

Defendant intentionally violated these rules in order to secure lucrative referral or other fees form third parties in connection with sending them bookings on American flights or giving them preferred rights, which caused Amercian to incure substantional, unwarranted costs.

This is going to get very messy indeed.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

New comments from Kayak - it was us who pulled the plug, not them

Our story yesterday about Kayak and it's ongoing row with American Airlines indicated how irritated the meta search engine has become with the carrier and its axing of live feeds.

A statement we received from Kayak admitted that its results were "a little less comprehensive" following AA's decision to cut ties with the meta search engine.

But as it stands today the row is likely to escalate further after Kayak got in touch again last night to effectively add a Molotov Cocktail to an already fiery corporate riot.

A spokeswoman told us:

Kayak.com is disappointed that American Airlines has chosen to misrepresent to loyal users that they terminated their relationship with Kayak.com.

The truth is that Kayak.com terminated the relationship because we refused to concede to AA’s demand to not display AA fares available through online travel agencies alongside those from AA.com.

Kayak.com became aware of AA’s misstatement after our user feedback system started receiving supportive emails from consumers disappointed with AA’s actions, a number of whom forwarded us the inaccurate email AA sent out last night.

We hope that AA will not only agree to again allow consumers to compare AA fares on Kayak.com and SideStep.com, but will refrain from making false statements.

So now it's a matter not only of how fares are represented, but who is telling the truth - apparently.

One suspects that Kayak chief executive Steve Hafner - who is well known for not mixing his words - had a slightly terser series of sentences, but the corp comms people thought better of releasing them into the ether.

NB: See Norm Rose's anaylsis of the Kayak-AA situation.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: kayak american airlines

So many twists in the tale...

Our story on Tuesday said American Airlines could pull the plug on its product feed to Kayak because it doesn't like the way its aa.com search results have to compete with orbitz and cheaptickets results for the same flights

The airline said it could end its relationship with kayak and sister brand sidestep as early as TOMORROW unless concessions were made!

In the meantime, site analytics specialist Compete has come up with some pretty interesting stats on what AA stands to win or lose from such a move.

In June kayak and sidestep sent 1.3% of all visits to aa.com.

These visits converted extremely well with Compete's findings showing that almost 5% of all conversions on aa.com came from kayak or sidestep.

And, visits referred from kayak and sidestep to aa.com converted at 9.3% in June, quite a lot higher than the airline's own website average per visit of 2.7%.

The flip side of the coin is this - Compete also analysed the rate of people clicking over to AA flights on Orbitz revealing that 72% make their way to aa.com anyway at some point over a month.

So, AA will seemingly lose a chunk of business by withdrawing from the meta-searchers but in all likelihood get a good chunk of it back a week or two later!

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Finding transparency in search

There’s a big difference between talking about ‘ improved conversion rates’ in a press release and using the same phrase in a regulatory filing. So when moneysupermarket group plc tells the London Stock Exchange that its travel vertical has improved revenue per visitor as well as revenue per transaction in 2007, the OTAs need to look at numbers as closely as travelsupermarket’s direct competitors.

Travelsupermarket.com’s 2007 numbers show big increases across its metrical board;

• visitors 37m (06: 19.7m)
• transactions 30.6m (06: 17.2m)
• click-based revenues £13.6m (06: £6.8m)
• total revenues £15m (06: £7.5m)
• revenue per visitor £0.41 (06: £0.34)
• revenue per transaction £0.43 (06: £0.40)

Looks like the millions of pounds put into TV advertising is working then! Analysts were shown a slide based on a ‘custom defined Hitwise report’ which ranked travelsupermarket as the UK’s most visited travel comparison web site in January – the key month for bookings in the UK.

So travelsupermarket.com seems in quite good shape for its new MD. Travolution Towers has learnt that there is a shortlist of three – former travel supremo Chris Nixon is overseeing the hunt and said he wanted someone with international experience at senior level. Travel or search experience – watch this space.

And what about the travel search generally? Kayak’s takeover of Sidestep at the back-end of last year showed the sector has legs when commentator such as Henry Harteveldt at Forrester pointed out that, in the US at least, travel search's market share was holding steady at 12-15% of the online travel sector.

Kayak.com had 5.72% of the UK market in Jan08, according to travelsupermarket’s Hitwise report. Sidestep, bless, had 0.94%. Kayak remember raised $196m as part of the SideStep takeover: Mobissimo is lurking with its revamped intuitive and customisable engine. SkyScanner – 11.34% of the UK market in Jan - picked up some funding of its own in November.

And with the market leader in Europe’s biggest online travel market confirming improved conversion rates and hikes in visitors and revenue per visitor, 2008 could be the year when travel search finds itself.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Eyres wins ex-Sidestep execs-looking-for-new-jobs competiton

Well, in fairness, European managing director Kevin Eyres left Sidestep in September last year, three months ahead of the meta search engine's takeover by Kayak.

Perhaps he saw the writing on the wall then?

But clearly he has done rather well for himself, being picked to run the new European division of business networking site LinkedIn.

So what of the remainder of the Sidestep employees?

We are told the Kayak acquisition will see a core team of around 20 Sitesteppers remain in various posts.

Almost certainly looking for new jobs at some point soon will be chief executive Rob Solomon, wo we understand is kicking around for a while but will be off pretty soon.

Time to join LinkedIn, Rob?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Technorati tags: linkedin sidestep kayak

Travo weekly round-up #1

Here are the top five stories by visits on the Travolution website for the week ending Friday 18 January 2007:

• Sidestep axed in the UK
• Monarch to switch web address
• OpenSkies to operate from BA.com
• DoSomethingDifferent opens platform to third parties
• Drakefield creates travel insurance meta search site

Best of the blogs:

• WAYN-AOL shenanigans, from Musings, Travo, Drama 2.0 and The Boot. [Original Techcrunch post]
• Interview with Bezurk, from The Boot
• Hotels price guarantees, from Les Explorers
• Google's nice tendencies, from Mashable
• The fog of revolution, Open

Please post any further recommendations in the comments section.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Say Hello to new ways of meeting

Our latest column for Travel Weekly, with some more predictions:

The travel industry has finally accepted its fate: that it needs to embrace as many distribution channels as possible to reach the modern consumer.

This shift in thinking will be put into practice by many travel companies in 2008, with equal emphasis given to offline and online interaction.

But what else can we expect this year?

Expedia’s announcement in November last year that it would adopt what it calls a “media model” (cost-per-click for referrals) for its partnership with the InterContinental Hotel Group set tongues wagging across the online sector.

Not only did it signal the return of IHG to Expedia after a high-profile bust-up in 2004, but it triggered discussions about how the online travel agency model will develop.

The industry is divided as to the logic behind Expedia’s decision to effectively become a metasearch engine for that particular client.

Rival OTAs and suppliers will be watching this relationship closely – and expect an escalation of the model by Expedia to others if it works.

A significant change to the OTA business model has repercussions throughout the online travel industry.

Meanwhile, this year should also see whether the (often wild) enthusiasm for social networks by consumers is going to stay or simply disappear before you can say “MyTravel, remember that?”.

If social networks continue to grow then it is critical travel companies try to reach consumers in these new channels.

With only 300 or so travel-related applications on Facebook, for example, including TripAdvisor, Sidestep and, more recently, Youtravel, there is certainly plenty of room still for innovation.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Kayak-Sidestep deal reaction

News of the Kayak-Sidestep deal is sinking in on both sides of the Atlantic.

Travolution has collated some reaction - most of it, unfortunately, off-the-record - from various bosses of online travel companies and representatives from both companies.

Boss of rival UK search engine:

Given the promise of travel search has yet to be fully proven with the mass market consumer, this is consolidation too early. Are they buying/merging brand or technology or client relationships?

Maybe they are consolidating to be bought by a generic search engine?

Steve Hafner, Kayak chief executive and founder:

Kayak.com is a technology company focused on perfecting travel search, and SideStep.com is a media company with in-house sales expertise and user-generated content.

By merging, each brand can improve its offering while continuing to focus on its individual strengths. With less than 10% overlap between existing Kayak.com and SideStep.com users, each site stands to gain millions of new users.

Another meta search boss:

Kayak want to dominate the meta search market in the US and as both sites are very similar they have simply bought more users and share. What

I am impressed with is taking on over £197m debt to finance the purchase. It will be interesting year in 2008.

I do not see a huge impact for us, as both Kayak and especially Sidestep have made no real ground this year in terms of market share or acquisition of visitors. Even their combined market share is still relatively small.

Rob Solomon, Sidestep chief executive:

From its inception as the first travel search engine, SideStep.com believed that consumers would prefer an objective and comprehensive travel shopping experience.

Joining forces with Kayak.com will help make this vision a reality for mass market consumers.

Former Sidestep senior executive:

Yes, big news - good for both I believe.

UK online travel chief executive:

Great vote of confidence in travel search. Kayak has always had a slight tech edge.

Great to see both firms becoming profitable: again, underlines the attractiveness of travel search as a business.

Thrilled that an East Coast tech company is doing so well.

A more powerful Kayak is just like a successful Google or Travelzoo, helping to convince travel companies that advertising on the web is more cost effective than traditional media.

The acquisition means that Kayak becomes a very clear leader in the USA in meta search with only very small companies (eg Mobissimo, Farechase) now to compete with.

Thoughts?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: sidestep kayak

We finally have a very juicy story in meta search world

Kayak has bought rival Sidestep!

Full story here. Techcrunch and Wall Street Journal broke the story, although WSJ says its a merger.

Vibeagent founder Adam Healey has some more numbers. As Tim on the BOOT points out, with just days to go in 2007 we have the deal of the year.

Not quite, from a European perspective (anyone remember the mergers of the Big Four!), but it's still a hugely significant development.

More as it comes in during the day.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: sidestep kayak

The future for Kelkoo - the black sheep of meta search

The Financial Times today reports Yahoo! is considering its options over price comparison site Kelkoo.

[Full report here - will need subscription in a few days]

This is a bit of a funny one as, in terms of travel, Kelkoo almost feels like the outsider these days.

Talk to anyone in the travel search/price comparison arena and Kelkoo barely warrants a mention.

There is always plenty of back-slapping between the likes of TravelSupermarket, Kayak, Sidestep, Skyscanner, even Cheapflights - but when was the last time anyone heard Kelkoo mentioned in the same breath.

Mind you, it has managed to achieve the Holy Grail of travel search: apparently securing a relationship with Expedia, although Travelsupermarket works with on some car hire products.

One suspects this story is going to develop...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: kelkoo yahoo meta search price comparison

Travolution Generations has arrived

Many of you will have received a copy of September edition of Travolution. [Make sure you don't miss out next time]

You can access all the Travolution Generations content on the main Travolution website.

One part we have not highlighted over the summer - we wanted to keep it under wraps - is an exclusive article by Rob Solomon, chief executive and president of Sidestep, where he explains why the company has embraced social networking sites uch as Facebook. A fascinating read.

The digital edition of Travolution Generations - and other issues over the last year - can be downloaded for free.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: sidestep facebook Travolution Generations

Tech site thinks TripAdvisor is daft

UPDATE III: TripAdvisor in the US told us: "This is untrue. Beyond that, we do not have any comment."

Influential blog Mashable has reacted with barely disguised astonishment today after discovering TripAdvisor has bought a Facebook application for $3 million.

The Where I've Been tool - yes we've tried it out - has around 2.3 million "users" (or those that have installed it on their Facebook pages) and simply allows people to plot locations they visited on a world map, which can then obviously be shared with friends.

"INSANITY", screams Mashable. [Full post]

"We say users in a relative way, however, since these surely aren’t as valuable as the users on an independent site: they’re “borrowed” members of Facebook who could ultimately decide that they’d like to switch to a different travel app.

"Monetizing them, meanwhile, is also a challenge. No doubt TripAdvisor was wise to tap the youth demo through acquisition, but justifying that price seems impossible."

They've got a point.

We understand travel search site Sidestep recently snapped up the services of a university-based Facebook application developer to work exclusively on these kind of projects for them.

Anyway, congratulations to Where I've Been creator Craig Ulliott for trousering the $3 million.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook application Craig Ulliott tripadvisor

What next for Sidestep?

Tim Hughes on the The BOOT blog has been musing over the long term strategy for Sidestep.

He reckons it is probably too early for a sale of the business per se, but he raises some interesting points/speculates wildly mainly in the area of whether Sidestep would consider a "technology buy".

Hmmm.

Anyway, Sidestep has its fingers in many pies - content deals, white labelling with Orange, blogging/reviews, as well as travel search, of course - and is rolling out international versions reasonably frequently.

The question remains: what is the end game for a meta search site?

TravelSupermarket (and Cheapflights soon, perhaps?) is going one way and will - if all goes to plan - list on the London Stock Exchange later this month.

It is an enormously complicated sector, and no-one really knows where the future lies for the likes of Sidestep, Kayak et al.

...except our hugely opinionated audience, of course: so write your What Nexts in the comments section.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

How to bring down the back end of an airline

Interesting conversation the other day with a senior executive from a leading meta search engine.

Apparently when his company launched a few years back it sent too many leads to the American Airlines website and it "fell over" within a few hours.

Whoops.

So who was it? [Multiple choice question for you all]

1) Sidestep
2) Kayak
3) Mobissimo

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: american airlines

TripAdvisor now on Facebook

Three high profile travel apps now on Facebook. The TripAdvisor-owned Travelpod.com launched a blog sharing widget last week following the SideStep plug-in a few days before.

Now TripAdvisor itself is getting in on the act.

The application is a Google Map mash-up, trip-sharing effort - and it's pretty good and very simple. Members can just tag every single destination they've been. Simple.

Facebook users can install the application easily.

Ideally - and it would not be a shock to see it happen pretty soon - each tag should also show the review of the hotel in which the member stayed at each location.


Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook trip web 2.0

Sidestep and Facebook doing a thing

Social networking phenomenon Facebook just got very interesting for those wondering how travel companies might be able to interact with it.

US travel search engine Sidestep yesterday unveiled a plug-in for members to add their trips, previous and forthcoming, to their homepage.

Users who create a new entry can then invite other Facebook members they know are/were included in the trip to be added, as well as being able to upload photographs and notes.

Sidestep gets a mention and a link on every page associated with the tool.

[Mashable has a list of its Top Facebook plug-ins]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook facebook API facebook platform

Travolution Awards - Winners

The winners of the Travolution Awards have been unveiled at a ceremony in London:

ADVERTISING AWARDS

Best Use of Online Advertising

• Love Creative for STA Travel
• Harvest Digital for Cruise Thomas Cook
• Harvest Digital for Cheapflights
• KitCatt Nohr for Virgin Holidays
• Agency.com for BA.com

WINNER: Love Creative for STA Travel

Best Use of Affiliate Advertising

• The Dedicated Partnership for UKSeries.com
• Affilinet for Paramount Hotels
• Buy.at for LateRooms

WINNER: Buy.at for LateRooms

Best Use of CRM

• CreatorMail for Thomson
• Lastminute.com (in-house)

WINNER: CreatorMail for Thomson


MARKETING & INNOVATION AWARDS

Best Use of Social Media

• Jumeirah Hotels – The JCast
• TravellersPoint maps
• STA Travel Blogs
• EnjoyEngland/Yahoo! Answers
• Avis WeTryHarder Blog
• Select World Travel Blog

WINNER: STA Travel Blogs

Best Agency for Search Engine Optimisation

• Neutralize for Justtheflight.co.uk
• Spannerworks for SN Brussels Airlines
• Tamar for National Car Rental
• Greenlight for Monarch Airlines
• BigMouthMedia for Superbreak

WINNER: Neutralize for Justtheflight.co.uk

Best Agency for Website Design

• Adams Creative for TravelOwl.co.uk
• Designate Communications for Wales In Style
• Five By Five for Island Cruises and Club 18-30
• Netizen Digital for various
• Fortune Cookie for Kuoni UK
• Nucleus for various

WINNER: Designate Communications for Wales In Style

TRAVEL AGENT AWARDS

Best Travel Agent Website

• RailChoice
• Travel Designers
• Isango.com
• STA Travel
• Expedia.co.uk
• WhyDontYou.com
• TravelRepublic
• PackYourBags.com
• Expedia Corporate Travel

HIGHLY COMMENDED: STA Travel
WINNER: Expedia.co.uk

Best Use of Technology

• DirectLine Holidays
• Door2Tour.com
• Comtec
• Dolphin Dynamics
• Touch Clarity

WINNER: Touch Clarity

TOUR OPERATOR AWARDS

Best Tour Operator Website

• Leger Holidays
• Thomson
• VisitBattlefields.com
• Voyages Jules Verne
• Sunisle.co.uk
• Kuoni.co.uk
• VillaPlus
• OnTheGoTours.com
• DirectSki.com
• ErnaLow.co.uk

WINNER: Voyages Jules Verne

Best Use of Technology

• Adventure Company/Netizen Digital
• Kuoni

WINNER: Adventure Company/Netizen Digital

SUPPLIER AWARDS

Best Hotel Website

• Paramount-Hotels.co.uk
• Jumeirah.com
• BestWestern.co.uk
• Hyatt.com
• Sheraton.com
• VonEssenHotels.co.uk

WINNER: Paramount-Hotels.co.uk

Best Airline Website

• FlySilverjet.com
• BA.com
• FlyBMI.com
• ThomsonFly.com
• VirginAtlantic.com

HIGHLY COMMENDED: BA.com
WINNER: FlySilverJet.com

Best Travel Insurance Website

• GoTravelInsurance.co.uk
• JourneysTravel.co.uk/InsureMore.co.uk
• 1StopTravelInsurance.co.uk

WINNER: GoTravelInsurance.co.uk

Best Car Hire Website

• USRentacar.co.uk
• TaxiTransfers.co.uk
• HolidayAutos.co.uk
• Avis.co.uk

WINNER: HolidayAutos.co.uk

TRAVEL INFORMATION AWARDS

Best Travel Portal

• TravellersPoint.com
• TravelGator.com
• WalesInStyle.com
• WAYN.com
• EnjoyEngland.com
• TripAdvisor.co.uk
• Viator.com
• Yahoo.co.uk/Travel

WINNER: TripAdvisor.co.uk

Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website

• Kinkaa.com
• Australia Travel Market
• Cheapflights.co.uk
• Sidestep.com
• TravelSupermarket.com
• Kelkoo Travel

WINNER: TravelSupermarket.com

Best Use of Technology

• Teletext Holidays Linguabot
• IfYouSki.com
• Cheapflights.co.uk Partner Portal
• Icelolly.com TV
• Online Travel Brochures

WINNER: IfYouSki.com

TRAVOLUTION SM@RT AGENT OF THE YEAR

• Mann Link Travel
• Sunmaster
• Coachtrips.com
• Select World Travel
• C&B Maddocks Travel
• Travelcare

WINNER: Coachtrips.com

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

• Isango.com
• TravelZoo UK
• Sidestep UK

WINNER: SideStep UK

ONLINE TRAVEL BRAND OF THE YEAR

Shortlist to be decided from winners of Best Travel Agent Website, Best Tour Operator Website, Best Airline Website, Best Hotel Website, Best Car Hire Website, Best Travel Portal and Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website categories.

WINNER: Expedia.co.uk

TRAVOLUTION ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Brent Hoberman

Further details and comments from the judges are available on the Travolution website.

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

Look a little on closer on Henoo.com

Travel search engine Henoo.com has been getting a fair bit of attention recently, mostly for the launch of its car hire search engine (last week) and revamped holiday search tool (yesterday).

But what the Internet Business Group-owned website hasn't anounced officially is that the site has also quietly started testing its flight search section.

Chief executive Maziar Darvish hinted during an interview with Travolution in December that the site would be adding flight search at some point in the New Year.

So, with little fanfare, here it is...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Opodo is taking the plunge

Today’s confirmation of job cuts and a massive restructuring at online travel agent Opodo will not surprise many in the industry.

The agency has seen a string of senior managers leave in the past few weeks following the arrival of new chief executive Ignacio Martos (pictured) from Spanish travel portal Rumbo. [He was brought in by parent company Amadeus to replace Hilton-bound Simon Vincent]

The exit list includes: HR director Garry Thompson, chief financial officer Jill Robinson, UK country manager Neil Mott, commercial and product director Sally Balcombe, and head of tours Chris Roe.

Rumours have been circulating all week after it emerged Roe had quit to join Virgin Holidays, with speculation suggesting a redundancy headcount of 70 (neither confirmed or denied) and a fundamental shift in its operations from a highly centralised business to what will now be very much a regional operation.

Ever since the company was first mooted by a group of nine European airlines in late-2000, chief executives (one for every year since its launch in 2001, in fact) have had to face not only the rapid rise of their rivals Expedia and Lastminute.com, but the growth of supplier-direct websites.

Indeed, Ebookers is looking to re-enter the fray, after a few years in the doldrums, with a vastly improved technology platform and new look website (expected in April).

However there is no doubt that there is some pressure on the old – we can call them that now – OTAs as airlines and hotels beef up their websites and the travel search engines, such as Travelsupermarket, Sidestep, Kelkoo, Cheapflights, Kayak et al, continue their speedy growth.

Opodo’s new strategy will be to create localised management teams, responsible for their own marketing and commercial operations, enabling them to react quickly to regional trends.

This makes sense in many respects – Opodo has different rivals and fundamentally different challenges in each market. [Expedia is strong in the UK, but less so in France, while for Opodo it is the opposite scenario]

Clearly Opodo needs to be well positioned and shaken up in order to grow or indeed, as some suggest, survive.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution