Travel add-ons for Expedia Users

Posted: Friday 2 Jan 2009, under category Ideas

A viable, smart way, to get into the travel business on a very low budget.

It was something like 10 years ago that travel websites made their opening on the Net. Dozen of them fought for a long time to gain the lead in this booming market. Now there still are some different players around, but there is also an unquestionable global winner: Expedia.

Many of you who have already used this service know one of the features that has made their performance possible. It is called Dynamic Packaging and it is basically a feature that allows Expedia customers to chose some add-ons related to the product they have just selected. For example, if you book a flight to Paris, the website will also suggest that you to buy a prepaid ticket from Charles de Gaulle airport to your hotel, a night tour with the Bateau Mouche on the Seine, a wine-tour around the Chateaux, and dozens of other offers. This is a tremendous opportunity for Expedia itself to increase the total amount its customers spend, but it is also a clear opportunity for creative entrepreneurs who want to offer various services to Expedia users.

I recently had an interesting conversation with an Expedia European top manager. He told me that there is a huge space for add-on services in this area. And I totally agree. You can try out yourself, looking for the Dynamic Packaging Expedia offer for some smaller city. I did that booking trough Expedia an hotel in Mantua, a beautiful city in Northern Italy. There was no interesting "dynamic" add-on proposed, despite the fact that Mantuaboasts many attractive possibilities, such as a beautiful river with a famous bird watching spot. If somebody created a simple boat-tour package, I bet many business people would appreciate the offer and buy it as an Expedia add-on. The same would likely happen with a guided museum tour, or a package offering a romantic or business dinner in one of the many traditional restaurants of the city.
Dynamic Packaging is a bold opportunity for local people who want to startup a little business of their town. And it could also become a viable way to aim at something bigger: a network of tourism packages in different small and medium towns. There will be somebody else who takes care of the sales' side (Expedia), and the entrepreneur will be able to concentrate on the core business: to create a service which really offers a pleasant experience to the customer.
One weak point is the critical mass. Would a service like the one you could offer get the attention of a sufficient number of Expedia customers to be worth the startup? Difficult question to answer: but if you already have something in mind you can knock on the door of your local Expedia branch office and ask for a suggestion.

Another thing is the Expedia percentage, which is likely to be quite high (a good salesman always want his slice of the cake).

The strong point is the following: the startup cost of a business like that would be very low. Think about, for instance, to set up a very simple package with a dinner out and a guided city tour. If you are already an expert you can create it in a matter of weeks and operate it on an irregular basis, i.e. you do it only when you have customers

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