Video: Booking.com CEO on Keeping Customers at Center of Strategy

With the proliferation of lodging types from hotels to apartments and vacation rentals, some online travel companies might be tempted separate the choices for customers, but Booking.com CEO Gillian Tans says it’s important to blend them together.

Speaking at the Skift Global Forum 2016 in September in New York City, Tans said customers want the breadth of choices together because they might enter the site looking for a hotel but they end up booking and apartment. There is a lot of cross-shopping going on, she said.

In her discussion with Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali, Tans touched upon ongoing innovations in the site’s agency model, the company’s contrarian approach to loyalty, how there was almost an internal revolt when Booking.com decided to do TV advertising in the U.S. a couple of years ago, and why she thinks the company hasn’t yet mastered the art of conversion.

Watch the complete discussion with Booking.com’s Gillian Tans below in the following video.

Read more coverage of Skift Global Forum 2016

At this year’s Skift Global Forum in New York City, travel leaders from around the world gathered for two days of inspiration, information, and conversation for panels such as this as well as solo TED-like talks on the future of travel.

Visit our Skift Global Forum site for more details about 2017 events, including our London event in April of 2017.