In business news for travel, booking giant Orbitz has penned a deal with New Orleans-based iSeatz to develop a customized private label and travel solutions intended to revolutionize the travel distribution landscape. The press release via PR Newswire Orbitz will integrate the award winning iSeatz OneView platform with their API and of course their already massive inventory of travel suppliers.
More than anything else, this move appears to be an effort to standardize, and thereby consolidate, the benefits of a homogeneous “in path” matrix of provider efficiencies. In simple terms, the marriage can give Orbitz much better user engagement as welll as monetization schemes for suppliers. Airlines like Delta for example, will now be able to offer their customers a vast range of travel products where they might otherwise have seen their customers shop over a variety of providers. This move offers a virtual “all in one” solution in the B2B and B2C areas.
Disruptive Innovation – Engaging Segments
iSeatz is in the conduit by which Orbitz can engage thousands of independent private travel companies worldwide. The strategic goal here seems to be the grabbing up of small and large markets where small to medium sized players offer a diverse and fragmented set of values for customers. Playing against giant Expedia, Orbitz can (if successful) garner a larger client base if the technology and partnerships iSeatz offers is substantial. Let’s look at a potential for this deal.
Expedia rules the booking world online at the moment. Orbitz basically does about half the online booking, as illustrated by the Quantcast metric below. A simplistic way of projecting the power of this deal, should all the technical elements fall into place, is to assume the medium and small players being engaged are added to the traffic flow via the integration of Orbitz clientèle and those already using iSeatz platform. Though not conclusive or exacting, imagine several thousand independent partners sending their clients in the direction of Orbitz.
We have not had the time obviously to test the iSeatz platform, but another imaginative way of expressing this deal news would be to look at current partners of iSeatz Delta and Amtrak. Add in other partners and it is easy to see how Orbitz addition of the over 200,000 iSeatz clients can elevate integrated travel solutions for clients. Taking a Delta flight from Europe to New York to board an Amtrak trip cross country to Los Angeles, ending up renting a car and driving to Seattle, booking hotels along the drive, making reservations at a clubs, and so on – you get the picture.
Digital Developments – Form and Function for Travelers
While this type of integration seems far off, it actually is not. Through our experience with the innovative startup in development Stay.com, associative API and user interface enhancements, and social elements we cannot discuss yet, one thing is certain – travel in the very near future will consist of highly customizable, feature rich, and even fun solutions for customers. Expedia and a world of smaller players are at this moment tasking all this. One key to the advancement of travel is just such integration, at least this is part of the developmental aspect. It will be interesting to test iSeatz’s interface and perhaps compare it to others.
Regardless of the immediate impact of this news, the bottom line for travelers is a better experience, better deals, less hassle, and potentially a lot more fun. Expedia will counter, and so on – then you get a fully integrated way to not only travel, but raise the level of everything surrounding your trip and your stay.
As you can see, Obbitz was paralell to Expedia - was
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