Round 1: Observation
In a competitive market such as meta-search engines in the travel industry, which companies like Skyscanner, Priceline and Kayak have been dominating for years, it is sometimes hard to stand out from the crowd and bring innovative ideas. But Google is notoriously famous for not letting opportunities go by, and after a round of observation, it is now trying to catch up with its mobile app Google Trips. Google has been patient enough to test its product outside of the markets where meta-search engines are already well-established such as USA, Europe and China, and occupies a leading position in some South American countries.
Google has waited for the market to reach maturity in order to extract all the best practices and this has also enabled them to pinpoint all the flaws of the competitors in order to offer an improved experience to the user, which may not be completely revolutionary, but is still likely to win over some support especially given that digital trends are pushing for always faster, easier ways for customers to obtain what they are looking for. Furthermore, brand loyalty with meta-search engines cannot be called a strong one, and users will not hesitate to shift between competitors if it can earn them a few minutes, and obviously save them some dollars as well.
Round 2: Action
Quickness is one of the aspects Google has been focusing on, ensuring the delay of response is faster than its main competitors but it’s not the only one. The next big idea is the ability for the user to search for corresponding hotels after searching for a flight without having to go back to the home menu and do a new search, again in the purpose of saving those extra seconds. By integrating both hotels and flights, Google hopes that users will be driven to use the hotel search function which generates higher commissions than the flights one, which is so far much more popular. Also, it has added some price predictions tools, similar to the mobile application Hopper and is basically combining all the best practices from the industry in one place. There is also an advantage for hotels owners, as advertising on the platform is free for them, and it is painless as it would be mostly a user-generated content feature. Taking into account that airlines and hotels are currently trying to cut the costs of OTAs and GDS by encouraging their customers to book directly, Google has chosen the right strategy by positioning as a meta-search engine.
Final round: creation of a competitive advantage
As the world leader search engine, Google is counting on its huge traffic to progressively grow its market share. The fact that all services such as basic information research to flights, hotels, itineraries, tours and activities but also Gmail for example are integrated means that Google can store an enormous amount of information about each user and therefore design the perfect personalised services to all of them. By opting for this strategy, Google is turning away from its traditional way of earning money which is advertising, but commission based income is more likely to be successful for them in the domain of travel. In addition, Google have the digital tools and background (such as Google Maps, Google Trips…) to back up those new features and offer more customized services. Centralizing and connecting its services will allow Google to have a better understanding of their users needs.
Adrien Della Valle and Mamoun El Youssi
Original source: O'Neill, S. (2018). Google Is One Step Closer to Its User-Centric Vision of Travel Booking. Skift. Retrieved 8 March 2018, from https://skift.com/2018/02/06/google-is-more-aggressively-connecting-its-flight-and-hotel-products/
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