Priceline’s Brett Keller on OTA’s evolution and progress in packaging

Brett Keller, CEO of Priceline, has been with the corporate for 25 years.

He reviewed his tenure at The Phocuswright Convention in November with Lorraine Sileo, founder and senior analyst of Phocuswright Analysis. 

They mentioned Priceline’s evolution over the many years, together with the success of the William Shatner Negotiator marketing campaign and the corporate’s introduction of the primary journey iPhone app. Over time, Priceline experimented with a broad product vary and targeted on journey post-9/11, remodeling from an air-centric enterprise to a diversified journey platform. 

The “title your personal value” product, which solely penetrated 10% of the market and appealed primarily to risk-taking males aged 35-55 based on Keller, was a chance to rethink the corporate’s technique to broaden the attraction to extra risk-sensitive vacationers. 

“The vast majority of what we promote at present is totally disclosed pricing, however opaque performs an important function for all of our companions, each airways, rental automobile corporations and hoteliers, to maneuver stock with out disclosing their value,” Keller mentioned.  

Priceline’s packaging companies have grown, notably in flight and automobile packages. “Lots of people don’t even add the lodge to their packaging. They simply wish to get a flight, they usually notice, effectively, I would like a automobile, and so bundling that automobile with it delivers a cheaper price and provides them nice worth,” Keller mentioned. 

Now, the Reserving Holdings-owned Priceline model emphasizes innovation, for instance, by introducing the AI journey assistant Penny, which makes use of OpenAI’s actual time voice know-how to reply to buyer queries naturally. 

“Customers are already partaking together with her and conducting lodge searches,” he mentioned. For now, Penny solutions questions and remembers buyer preferences to make suggestions through the journey search section. She then sends prospects to the Priceline checkout web page. “Shortly, you’ll be capable of do the complete transaction instantly, talking to her,” Keller mentioned.  

Keller additionally mentioned the significance of reaching youthful vacationers by making use of generative AI to seek out locations just like these they already know and love.

Watch the complete focus on under.