written by Tom Romary, CEO & Founder of Yapta（对自己的网站他当然会吹嘘一番，是否真行还要用过才知道。）
It’s no secret that airfare and hotel prices yo-yo up and down frequently. A typical domestic flight will have 21 price changes over a 45 day period. And the “high” vs. the “low” for the same seat on a flight varies by 400%. Hotel rates change too (although less frequently, and within a tighter band).
The volatile nature of hotel and air prices leaves travelers wondering: Did I miss out on a deal, or did I overpay? Online travel shoppers today spend many hours visiting multiple sites scourging the web and getting their own price updates (according to Yen Lee at Uptake, over 21 website visits before buying a ticket). And while the leading online travel search sites do an adequate job of helping you find a hotel or flight, they are delivering a static solution to shopping. You do a search, and then you have a choice: ”buy now” at the current spot market price, or leave. Even after you’ve narrowed your choices to some specific flights and hotels, you are left wondering, “Will the price change?” The odds are that your airfare will likely change, and possibly even within a few hours.
So if pricing is so dynamic, why are the big travel sites offering static solutions?
The business models for most travel search sites are finely tuned to maximize “conversion to transaction” now (not later). They’d rather you not delay your purchasing decision in order to keep checking prices.
Value is more than a star rating
Value vs Price: One mistake many travel shopping sites make is assuming that the “cheapest alternative” is the travelers’ ultimate goal. In most instances, their goal is really more about getting the “best value” (Value = Quality/Price). Even the most savvy of travel shoppers are willing to pay a 3-star price to stay at the 4-star hotel. They’ll also pay a little more for a non-stop on their preferred carrier, so those sites that are recommending a cheap ticket on a 2-stop are often not hitting the mark. (For instance, I have 3 little kids under the age of 7, so when traveling with family, avoiding ANY layover is worth a little extra dough!). But travelers want to make sure they aren’t overpaying on the specific flight or hotel they choose to stay in - and knowing that prices are volatile, this fear is always there.
So how can online travelers be assured of “best value” across a dynamic price environment?
As a personal travel assistant, Yapta.com helps travelers find hotels and flights, and then checks rates daily for you on those specific hotels and flights. If the price goes down, you’ll know about it. Your travel agent doesn’t do this for you. Nor does any other travel website aside from Yapta.
(Value = Quality/Price)
To be fair, on the price “denominator” of the value equation, there are some travel sites that have made an effort to alleviate some of the fear and uncertainty around price volatility. Nearly all major travel shopping sites offer some form of price alert functionality on a market level (e.g. SFO to JFK), but not on a flight specific or property specific level. Additionally, they aren’t taking into account the “quality numerator” of the value equation. So they don’t really solve the problem of “best value”. Most of these solutions actually commoditize air travel further by emphasizing only price.
Here’s a quick sample of some solutions that are worth comparing through the “static vs. dynamic” lens:
Farecast: For airfares, they make a prediction about whether they think the fare will go “up” or “down” in the next seven days (at a market level…not specific to a flight). It’s a helpful tool, and by their internal study they are accurate at the 75% level (better than a 50% coin toss!). In fact, it’s a good complement to Yapta. The limitation is that it’s not flight specific so it doesn’t solve the “quality of flight” problem – and they don’t do predictions on hotels.
Orbitz: Offers a “deal detector” that tracks airfare in a given market pair. You can name your price, and if any flight hits it, they’ll send you an alert. Again, the limitation is that it doesn’t really filter for quality of the flight (e.g.your preferred carrier, non-stops only) - and it doesn’t track hotels.
Expedia: They have a download called “Fare Alerts”, however it’s really a trojan horse to kick off a search on Expedia, and not specific to any dates or whether I want a non-stop.
American Airlines: AA’s solution is best in breed among airline sites. Their Deal Finder gets to the date-specific/route-specific level.
Yapta tracks the pricing for you
Yapta tracks pricing for you.
Yapta: As your “personal travel assistant” Yapta aims to deliver value assurance. While your sleeping, eating or going about your day, you can rest assured that your personal assistant will catch any decrease in the price of the flights or hotels you’re interested in purchasing and will alert you to the savings. Yapta will then connect you directly with the airline to buy it. If the price drops again after you buy, Yapta will alert you if you’re eligible for a travel credit (net of any “re-booking fee” from the airline).
Given the very dynamic nature of pricing in travel, I believe that travel search as currently delivered in the industry is mostly a “static” (spot market) solution. A personal assistant brings a more dynamic approach to travel planning by constantly observing and notifying when prices change on specific flights and hotel properties — ultimately maximizing the value for the traveler, and providing an efficient method of driving bookings for the supplier. A dynamic personal assistant represents a compelling consumer opportunity within many e-commerce categories, and most certainly within the $200 Billion+ global online travel market.
It’s no secret that airfare and hotel prices yo-yo up and down frequently. A typical domestic flight will have 21 price changes over a 45 day period. And the “high” vs. the “low” for the same seat on a flight varies by 400%. Hotel rates change too (although less frequently, and within a tighter band).
The volatile nature of hotel and air prices leaves travelers wondering: Did I miss out on a deal, or did I overpay? Online travel shoppers today spend many hours visiting multiple sites scourging the web and getting their own price updates (according to Yen Lee at Uptake, over 21 website visits before buying a ticket). And while the leading online travel search sites do an adequate job of helping you find a hotel or flight, they are delivering a static solution to shopping. You do a search, and then you have a choice: ”buy now” at the current spot market price, or leave. Even after you’ve narrowed your choices to some specific flights and hotels, you are left wondering, “Will the price change?” The odds are that your airfare will likely change, and possibly even within a few hours.
So if pricing is so dynamic, why are the big travel sites offering static solutions?
The business models for most travel search sites are finely tuned to maximize “conversion to transaction” now (not later). They’d rather you not delay your purchasing decision in order to keep checking prices.
Value is more than a star rating
Value vs Price: One mistake many travel shopping sites make is assuming that the “cheapest alternative” is the travelers’ ultimate goal. In most instances, their goal is really more about getting the “best value” (Value = Quality/Price). Even the most savvy of travel shoppers are willing to pay a 3-star price to stay at the 4-star hotel. They’ll also pay a little more for a non-stop on their preferred carrier, so those sites that are recommending a cheap ticket on a 2-stop are often not hitting the mark. (For instance, I have 3 little kids under the age of 7, so when traveling with family, avoiding ANY layover is worth a little extra dough!). But travelers want to make sure they aren’t overpaying on the specific flight or hotel they choose to stay in - and knowing that prices are volatile, this fear is always there.
So how can online travelers be assured of “best value” across a dynamic price environment?
As a personal travel assistant, Yapta.com helps travelers find hotels and flights, and then checks rates daily for you on those specific hotels and flights. If the price goes down, you’ll know about it. Your travel agent doesn’t do this for you. Nor does any other travel website aside from Yapta.
(Value = Quality/Price)
To be fair, on the price “denominator” of the value equation, there are some travel sites that have made an effort to alleviate some of the fear and uncertainty around price volatility. Nearly all major travel shopping sites offer some form of price alert functionality on a market level (e.g. SFO to JFK), but not on a flight specific or property specific level. Additionally, they aren’t taking into account the “quality numerator” of the value equation. So they don’t really solve the problem of “best value”. Most of these solutions actually commoditize air travel further by emphasizing only price.
Here’s a quick sample of some solutions that are worth comparing through the “static vs. dynamic” lens:
Farecast: For airfares, they make a prediction about whether they think the fare will go “up” or “down” in the next seven days (at a market level…not specific to a flight). It’s a helpful tool, and by their internal study they are accurate at the 75% level (better than a 50% coin toss!). In fact, it’s a good complement to Yapta. The limitation is that it’s not flight specific so it doesn’t solve the “quality of flight” problem – and they don’t do predictions on hotels.
Orbitz: Offers a “deal detector” that tracks airfare in a given market pair. You can name your price, and if any flight hits it, they’ll send you an alert. Again, the limitation is that it doesn’t really filter for quality of the flight (e.g.your preferred carrier, non-stops only) - and it doesn’t track hotels.
Expedia: They have a download called “Fare Alerts”, however it’s really a trojan horse to kick off a search on Expedia, and not specific to any dates or whether I want a non-stop.
American Airlines: AA’s solution is best in breed among airline sites. Their Deal Finder gets to the date-specific/route-specific level.
Yapta tracks the pricing for you
Yapta tracks pricing for you.
Yapta: As your “personal travel assistant” Yapta aims to deliver value assurance. While your sleeping, eating or going about your day, you can rest assured that your personal assistant will catch any decrease in the price of the flights or hotels you’re interested in purchasing and will alert you to the savings. Yapta will then connect you directly with the airline to buy it. If the price drops again after you buy, Yapta will alert you if you’re eligible for a travel credit (net of any “re-booking fee” from the airline).
Given the very dynamic nature of pricing in travel, I believe that travel search as currently delivered in the industry is mostly a “static” (spot market) solution. A personal assistant brings a more dynamic approach to travel planning by constantly observing and notifying when prices change on specific flights and hotel properties — ultimately maximizing the value for the traveler, and providing an efficient method of driving bookings for the supplier. A dynamic personal assistant represents a compelling consumer opportunity within many e-commerce categories, and most certainly within the $200 Billion+ global online travel market.
选择“Disable on www.wenxuecity.com”
选择“don't run on pages on this domain”
