iMedia Connection: Travel Buying Has Changed Forever

iMedia Connection: Travel Buying Has Changed Forever: "Bala Subramanian, senior vice president of brand integration at Hilton Hotels. Subramanian, whose responsibility spans Hilton, Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites and Doubletree "

Chusid, managing director of Americas sales and marketing for Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines says, "Historically, airlines ran fare sales in newspapers, or even on TV and radio, but that's less common now, as the Internet allows for such dynamic changes. Just putting a low fare in the market does work, since sophisticated monitoring systems pick actions up quickly. But most consumers don't have their 'radar' out, so it's important to place the price in targeted places, such as the Internet travel agencies and on one's corporate Web site, while at the same time minimizing cannibalization, or the dilution of higher fares that would otherwise be charged...

Stellwag and other airline marketers are partial to rich media, since it vastly outperforms traditional banners on every branding metric.

some vendors are trying to get their customers back from the middlemen, and are willing to match them or offer prices to beat them, such as Hilton does with the hotel sites."

Hilton's Subramanian says, "These aggregator sites provide a useful complement to our efforts with loyal customers that we have a relationship with, but their costs and commissions are substantially higher, so our hotels use them primarily as a source of distress bookings.

Stellwag agrees. "Aggregator sites such as Orbitz tend to be great for shopping, but supplier sites (airline and hotel) tend to be great for buying. We see it time after time. Consumers know that aggregators provide the richest information on multiple suppliers, but that the best airfares sometimes hide on the airline's Web sites.""