In Their Words

Password: travel

Remember the Name

Mark is a busy guy who travels often and books a lot of his own travel. He goes to Expedia "because I remember the name of it, but I know there's another one, what's it called again?"

He's doesn't think he's ever been to Kayak. "Or maybe I just forgot the name of it."

Even smart travelers only have a few names in their head and they go to the one they remember most. Telling people about Kayak won't be enough, we'll need to be more memorable than the rest.

Search It All

Melanie just heard about Kayak recently and used it to look for a flight from Indianapolis to Dallas.

"That is a great site. I needed a cheap ticket and I was traveling with the baby so I didn't want stops. You used to have all these windows open - you had to search everywhere to get what you want. Now with that site (Kayak) you know you're not missing out on something better."

People search and search because there's nothing worse than feeling like you've missed out on a better option. Kayak can help people feel like they're missing nothing.

Never Heard of It

Emanuel books travel online for his boss almost every week. He's a frequent Expedia user who's never heard of Kayak. Here's his first reaction when landing on the home page;

"This looks primitive. There's not much there. I guess it's for people in a hurry."

And after running his first search;

"It's not as colorful as the other sites, but at least they get right into it."

For people who've never been to Kayak before, first impressions can be misleading. It looks so different to the sites they're used to. Kayak needs a simple introduction to break the ice and welcome people in.

Travel Starts Here

It seems that everyone who already knows and uses Kayak goes there first. Later they'll pull up Trip Advisor to check out hotel reviews, or an airline site to double check prices... but Kayak is their starting point.

"Kayak sets you in the right direction. Nothing's misleading. Nothing's missing."

No Junk

I'm sitting with Kate as she plans a trip from Miami to New Jersey to see her nephew. 

"I always go to Kayak first. I like that it checks multiple websites. 

That's the biggest difference to me. Kayak gets straight to business.

It's easy. No garbage. No giant ads on it to distract me.

How do I feel about searching for travel?... It's a job. I have a goal."

Never forget that people searching for travel online are focused on an objective. Kayak is the site that knows they mean business.

Letter From A First Time Bing User

"I went onto Bing yesterday and did the simplest personal search by typing in my name. The first page was relevant, but it didn't even bring up my facebook page. Then, I did the same search on Google. It brought up my linked-in page, my vimeo, facebook, imeem, flickr, and wordpress accounts. My graduation dates, a South African newsletter, and even friends’ sites that I’m connected to. Basically three full pages of relevant information. 

I know that Bing still needs time to evolve – but so far, it’s done nothing to wow me or prove that it’s better than default Google. I think Google has a great mix of utilitarian function and the human touch (i.e. the google art logos, pick-your-own-themes,  Elmer Fudd language option, April fools jokes, my igoogle homepage, fabled Google work culture etc). I already feel like I have a relationship with Google, and I’m not looking for anything new, so it’ll take a lot for Bing to change that. 

Bing already feels more serious – and I really like Google’s playfulness. 

It doesn’t take a lot of money or press to convince me…it just needs to be relevant…to me.  :)"

Real people can't be fooled. They'll give you one chance to live up to your promise, so it better be an honest one.

Insider's Perspective

We met Lisa, founder and owner of the boutique travel planning company Tonic Travel, to hear her perspective on travel and the traveler’s headspace today. 

"Travel makes people feel excited. Travel planning makes people feel overwhelmed."

"Online travel planning is fantastic for quick comparisons, new ideas and inspiration, but people tend to feel vulnerable and ironically - given the volume of available opinions - alone."

It used to be that someone else was 'on your side' (your travel agent), now it's just you trying to find your way through all the complexity. 

Unlike all the others, Kayak can be the online brand that's on their side.

Matchmaking

If I’ve learned one thing at this travel conference it is that there are millions of travelers and millions of trips to be made. Millions of flights, rooms, deals, times and prices.

But for every traveler there is one perfect trip. The right time, the right room, the right seat, the right view, the right price.

Yet the industry is offering people trips that are meant for someone else.

We need to start thinking more like match.com and eharmony. These sites know that (most) people aren’t looking for 20 boyfriends, they’re looking for The One.

We need to help travelers find their perfect match.

Use It

There's a lot SEM jargon flying around the room at the eyefortravel online marketing conference in Miami.

I can however comprehend what Kayak’s Search Marketing Manager, Shehzad Daredia is talking about when he says that the more people interact with the site – the filters and features – the more loyal and profitable they become. As Shehzad says, “that’s when they get it”… that’s when Kayak is no longer just another travel site, but an awesome product.

We know that awareness is our priority, but there are big gains to be made by enticing people to really USE Kayak. Make it simple, human and fun. It worked for the iPhone.

What About What They Don’t Want?

We’re at the eyefortravel Online Marketing Conference in Miami. After just a few hours here it's clear that this industry is bombarding travelers with ‘stuff.’ Emails, deals, packages, upsells, promotions. TravelZoo alone sends an email every week to 50 million people. And every email, tweet and sale is measured and obsessed over.

Marketers are pushing and pulling travelers around the web in the hopes of getting that last click.

We’re hearing presenters talk about travelers in terms of traffic, conversions and users… the word ‘people’ seems to have been forgotten.

We get it. This industry is all about sales. But overwhelming people is not the answer.

What if we stopped thinking about what travelers want (just for a moment), and tried thinking about what they don’t want. They don’t want a spammed inbox. They don’t want to spend hours searching through deals. They don’t want to be blitzed with irrelevant ads and offers…