Speaker 1: The pandemic is behind us and many of us want
Speaker 1: to get back on the road again. So what do
Speaker 1: you need to know to get the best out of
Speaker 1: your travel budget? My guest today is Peter Kern Ceo
Speaker 1: of Expedia Group. Peter. Share with us your top hacks.
Speaker 1: When booking online, we all want to save some money here.
Speaker 1: Is it true that shopping discreetly or incognito gets to
Speaker 1: the
Speaker 1: best deals?
Speaker 2: No, almost never true in most cases, certainly with us,
Speaker 2: the best prices are available to our members. So signed
Speaker 2: in seeing all the best prices because basically hotels, even airlines,
Speaker 2: car companies want to give our best customers the best prices.
Speaker 2: So incognito, you don't always see the best prices. If
Speaker 2: you sign in,
Speaker 2: you get to see all the best prices, you get
Speaker 2: to see all the benefits that suppliers are trying to
Speaker 2: give our customers. And almost always that's going to be
Speaker 2: your best way to search on probably any site, but
Speaker 2: certainly on ours. What about
Speaker 1: for deals, Peter? There's this idea that if I shop
Speaker 1: for my flights and for the car hire and the
Speaker 1: room and so on separately, I'm going to get a
Speaker 1: better deal. Is that
Speaker 2: true in general? That is not true. People believe that
Speaker 2: if they search all these things, they get confidence that
Speaker 2: they know exactly what the cheapest price is, et cetera.
Speaker 2: But there are
Speaker 2: reality is many airlines and hotels in particular and car
Speaker 2: hires are willing to give the best prices to package
Speaker 2: pricing when people are taking longer trips and putting multiple
Speaker 2: products together. So while it may feel like you're getting
Speaker 2: a cheaper price, because you did all the research, if
Speaker 2: you looked at them separately and then looked at the
Speaker 2: combined price, you would see that the package price is
Speaker 2: often cheaper. Now, there's lots of ways to save on
Speaker 2: our site. You can be a member and get member prices,
Speaker 2: you can get package prices. There are sometimes mobile deals,
Speaker 2: you know, different hotels are willing to do different things.
Speaker 2: That's why it's good to be signed in. That's why
Speaker 2: it's good to look at the package prices. But very
Speaker 2: often the best deal to a given place for five
Speaker 2: days may be combining an airline ticket with a hotel
Speaker 2: with a car hire, which would be way better than
Speaker 2: buying them separately and way less complicated as an experience
Speaker 2: because you can buy it all at once.
Speaker 1: Well, a lot of the efficiency around that relies on
Speaker 1: the technology, doesn't it?
Speaker 2: Yes, it's totally about being able to package each thing
Speaker 2: together on our sites. You can actually make a pack
Speaker 2: kids out of anything. So if you know, you want
Speaker 2: to go from Singapore to Tokyo for four days, it
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be the old fashioned packages where it's
Speaker 2: a Sunday to Sunday and you fly on some charter flights,
Speaker 2: you know, you pick an airline, you then pick hotels
Speaker 2: and you see what the best pricing is of combining them.
Speaker 2: That's often the best price. What
Speaker 1: about where you get your information from when you're trying
Speaker 1: to get that travel plan, the perfect one together. Some
Speaker 1: people think that you have to go to the website
Speaker 1: because that's where you'll see the full suite. It's going
Speaker 1: to be easier to
Speaker 1: navigate websites or apps which are better
Speaker 2: generally, apps are best because apps are where the newest
Speaker 2: features are coming in general. And it's also where again,
Speaker 2: you're going to have the largest selection of possible savings
Speaker 2: because if there's a mobile deal, if there's a member deal,
Speaker 2: if it's all in the app and it's all generally
Speaker 2: the latest technology and the latest feature set, the web
Speaker 2: is great for certain people, they prefer it. But in general,
Speaker 2: the app is the latest greatest with the best value
Speaker 2: and the best place to search.
Speaker 1: So to recap, Peter, generally shopping incognito, going sort of
Speaker 1: on a VPN and pretending I'm not who I am,
Speaker 1: that's not going to necessarily get me the best deal
Speaker 1: I should consider bundling the different elements of my travel
Speaker 1: together rather than searching for one thing or another, not
Speaker 1: just separately, you know, the flight or the car or
Speaker 1: the room
Speaker 1: and apps just using that app on my phone, that's
Speaker 1: going to probably give me a better indication of the
Speaker 1: deals that are available, the packages that are available and
Speaker 1: the details that I really need to know to make
Speaker 1: that travel seamless
Speaker 2: and the best and newest features. So let's
Speaker 1: go on to loyalty programs because I think I'm a
Speaker 1: member of some loyalty programs, but I don't even know
Speaker 1: what the rewards are anymore. I've lost track because it's
Speaker 1: so complicated and some of them are really inflexible. I
Speaker 1: should just stick to
Speaker 1: one or can I have many different loyalty programs?
Speaker 2: Loyalty programs are all different. Some are based on points
Speaker 2: and you have to earn a certain amount to get
Speaker 2: to a certain level to receive something others are based
Speaker 2: on number of stay, et cetera. What we're moving towards
Speaker 2: is a program that encompasses all our biggest brands. So
Speaker 2: Expedia hotels dot com and are occasion rental brands. You'll
Speaker 2: be able to use points flexibly basically be one key cash.
Speaker 2: You'll be able to use it flexibly across anything. It
Speaker 2: will be denominated in money. You want
Speaker 2: have to earn 10,000 to get to some level you'll
Speaker 2: just earn. But the important thing is you're not choosing
Speaker 2: that instead of another program, you can get your airline
Speaker 2: points and book through us and get our points and
Speaker 2: you can get your car hire points and book through us.
Speaker 2: You can get your cruise points. So there's many ways
Speaker 2: to stack and take advantage of both. Even for those
Speaker 2: who are trying to optimize everything or have a credit
Speaker 2: card that has points, you can use that credit card
Speaker 2: on us to book an airline and get points on three.
Speaker 2: So it's not about picking one or the other.
Speaker 2: I think what we're focused on is building a program
Speaker 2: that rewards everybody, whether you travel 100 times a year
Speaker 2: or one time a year and make sure you get
Speaker 2: something for your loyalty, which just hasn't been the case
Speaker 2: in most of the travel industry. So
Speaker 1: it is entirely possible to leverage on many different loyalty
Speaker 1: programs and still have happy Travel. You can leverage on
Speaker 1: all of those. What about the best time to book Peter?
Speaker 1: Because everyone's got a story about the days of the
Speaker 1: week Monday through Sunday, which is the best time for
Speaker 1: me to book.
Speaker 2: Well, in general booking early is best. Although it's not absolute,
Speaker 2: there will be some last minute deals from time to time.
Speaker 2: If you're looking right now, things change all the time.
Speaker 2: But booking on a Sunday is usually better, leaving on
Speaker 2: a Thursday is usually better. Fridays are quite expensive things
Speaker 2: that encompass the weekend and those are the major watch outs.
Speaker 2: And if you're not sure use our flight tracking
Speaker 2: feature and watch the price. And when you're ready to book,
Speaker 2: you can book and we'll let you know when the
Speaker 2: prices change
Speaker 1: information is key. They say that a journey of 1000
Speaker 1: miles begins with a single step. The first step has
Speaker 1: got to be to get the right information. All I
Speaker 1: have to really worry about is what to pack.
Speaker 2: That's hard. Packing is hard. Depends how long you're going.
Speaker 2: Thank you. It's a pleasure. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: So to sum up the top five travel tips from
Speaker 1: the CEO of one of the world's biggest travel platforms.
Speaker 1: Sunday is the best day to book your travel and
Speaker 1: leaving on Thursday is generally cheaper. Shopping in Cognito doesn't
Speaker 1: always get you the better deals.
Speaker 1: The best place to look for member discounts is on
Speaker 1: travel apps rather than on the web. And you can
Speaker 1: also often get better deals with bundles that include multiple
Speaker 1: products and finally sign up for those loyalty programs that
Speaker 1: actually give you something back for your loyalty. I'm Dawn
Speaker 1: Tan and my guest today was Peter K CEO of
Speaker 1: Expedia Group. Catch Money. Mind on C N A and
Speaker 1: online at me, watch C N A dot Asia and youtube.