Expedia marries technology and travel

As technology continues to reshape the travel industry, the giant online travel agency Expedia has continued to deploy a range of advanced technologies to bring benefits to its hotel partners and consumers, said Pimpawee Nopakitgumjorn, director for market management in Thailand at Expedia Lodging Partner Services, part of the Expedia group.
Pimpawee said Expedia had advanced a wide range of technologies, including a chatbot, to benefit its hotel partners and consumers. The chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversations with human beings over the Internet.
“Chatbots are potentially the next evolution in discovery. Expedia’s goal, since we started, has been to help travellers find the best answers to their travelrelated questions. Rather than customers having to input linebyline the details about a trip, we now have the opportunity to ask and answer questions in a more open, conversation-like method,” she said.
She cited the case of the Expedia bot for Facebook Messenger, which allows Messenger users to interact with a bot to fulfil hotel search requests. 
For hotel partners, the Expedia bot allows them to respond to travellers’ questions and requests about a property. The bot leverages hotel-provided content to answer requests in seconds.
Recently Expedia launched a skill for Amazon’s virtual personal assistant, Alexa, to give customers the ability to interact with Alexaenabled devices to receive important travel updates and information in an easy, intuitive way. The company also recently launched its first Expedia Innovation Lab in Singapore, with a view to using its proprietary scientific methods to study consumer online and app travel search and booking behaviour. 
The lab will deploy scientific techniques for Expedia to better understand Asian consumer behaviour in order to optimise Expedia business group websites and apps for people in this region. 
With US$83.8 billion (Bt2.8 trillion) in gross bookings, based on the 12 months ended on June 30 this year, the Expedia group has delivered diverse demand to its hotel partners.
The company has more than 200 websites in 75plus countries and in 35 languages, earning over 600 million visitors per month.
Expedia Lodging Partner Services is a division within the Expedia group responsible for sourcing hotel supply for the company’s portfolio of travel brands, ranging from AirAsiaGo to Expedia.com, Hotels.com and Travelocity.
Pimpawee said that one of the hot trends in the global travel industry was maximising hotel revenue.
“Today it is no longer just about fillฌing your hotel, it is about optimising hotel revenue – filling hotels with the most valuable travellers,” she added.
She said that consumers nowadays were constantly connected to their phones, computers and tablets all at the same time, and their purchasing habits reflected this. 
Last year alone Expedia invested US$1.2 billion in technology, allowing it to create a cohesive and connected experience across devices.