Interview: Google on What Makes Google's Travel Ambitions Different
Skift Take
Google is already the dominant player in travel advertising but now, after four years of acquisitions and product development, the search giant is finally integrating its flight and hotel products and becoming the booking power some feared.
Earlier this season we released a report in the Skift Trends series, Deep Dive Into Google’s Travel Ambitions.
Below is an excerpt.
Oliver Heckmann, a Google vet of nine years, took the helm of the 850-person Google Flights and Hotel Ads product teams in the fall of 2014. Heckmann gave an exclusive interview to Skift from Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters prior to the launch of Google’s new vacation-destination search in late 2015.
The new feature integrates flight and hotel recommendations on smartphones in a way that Google hasn’t done before. Heckmann detailed Google’s travel strategy, including for its new Book on Google functionality and Hotel Ads Commission Program.
An excerpt of that interview is below. Subscribe or purchase the report for full access to the interview and other exclusive insights on Google Travel from industry experts.
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Skift: What’s ahead for Google Travel? As you know, you guys are already Google but does upper management say to you, “Hey, let's take this thing forward. We want to be the next Booking.com or the next Expedia in travel?”
Heckmann: No, it's quite different than that. We have a couple of things coming together nicely now. I mean Google flight search, Google hotel search and Hotel Ads.
