Special New Skift Trends Report: Deep Dive Into Google’s Travel Ambitions

Today we are launching the latest report in our Skift Trends Reports service, Deep Dive Into Google’s Travel Ambitions.

Weighing in at three times the size of our standard reports, this expanded trends report offers exclusive insight into new Google travel products launched on November 19, 2015, as well as exclusive interviews conducted at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California this fall. In addition, it includes industry analyst notes that are otherwise only available to clients and banks.

This report provides a first look at a new Google feature: its integration of flight and hotel products, along with restaurants, into vacation-destination search on smartphones. Contrary to industry speculation, a Google exec says it does not want to become an online travel agency like Expedia or Booking.com, but it wouldn’t mind it if the percentage of travelers, currently 60 percent, who begin their trip-planning with Google, rises in coming years.

This report features an exclusive, in-depth interview with Oliver Heckmann, Google’s vice president of travel, who details Google’s strategy, describes changes in user behavior that Google is addressing, and responds to criticism about the dominance of Google AdWords and Google’s own products at the top of the fold in search results pages.

This report, which includes the perspectives of online travel figures such as Kayak co-founders Steve Hafner and Paul English, a Starwood executive and the former distribution head of Northwest Airlines, as well as public statements about Google and the rise of metasearch booking from the CEOs of Expedia Inc. and the Priceline Group, features a raging debate about whether Google will eventually dominate online travel or whether Google’s strategy is fatally flawed.

The report also features UBS analysts Eric Sheridan and Robin Farley interviewing hotel digital-marketing expert Max Starkov, who argues that Book on Google is a “non-event” for the hotel industry because Google approaches travel retailing as a “side show” and its volumes are a fraction of TripAdvisor’s. This UBS interview was previously only available to UBS clients.

In addition to providing the exclusive interview with Google’s Heckmann from Google’s Mountain View, California, headquarters and a first look at Google’s new travel features, the report outlines a key business model difference between Book on Google and TripAdvisor Instant Booking, a difference that is widely misunderstood in the industry.

The report, which examines Google’s new vacation-destination search, Book on Google, the new Hotel Ads Commission Program, Google Hotel Ads and Google Flights, also provides in-depth insights and best practices about participating in Hotel Ads from metasearch-auction optimization platform Koddi.

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A Note About Price

The single copy purchase price of this report is $495, which is twice the price of our typical reports. Annual subscribers get the report, along with access to all existing Skift reports, as well as 12 more months of exclusive insight into the trends shaping the travel industry.

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About These Reports

This is the latest in a series of twice-monthly trends reports that brief readers on a specific trend, providing insight into the current state of the market, the context around the trend, and where the industry is heading in the near future.

After you subscribe, you will receive two reports every month — 24 in a year. Reports are available online in a responsive design format, or you can also buy each report a la carte at a higher price.

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