Articles tagged “lola”

Paul English was pretty candid about the limitations of his initial idea and equally excited about the potential of tapping into the corporate travel world. The "travel agent in your pocket" approach was never going to be big for the average consumer and targeting businesses seems much more sensible.

Tune in to hear how Paul English is rethinking the tools that travel agents use.

There's a lot of wisdom in this video. Find out why Lola CEO Paul English believes travel startups should get as close as possible to the booking instead of going out and trying to create what he calls the "blah blah blah of travel."

With Lola's acquisition of Room 77's metasearch tech, Room 77 essentially becomes a consumer insights and hotel search test lab for Lola. Room 77's original founders have essentially exited the business: Google licensed its tech and hired the bulk of its employees, Expedia acquired Room 77's pioneering room-view tech, TrustYou bought Room 77's Checkmate hotel-messaging app, and now Lola picked up the remaining technology.

In a funny twist of fate, the man who helped drive consumers away from traditional travel agents with Kayak is now building a business around them. By combining the convenience of an app with the human touch, English and company are hoping to hit a sweet spot.

Travel startups take a dramatically different idea, creativity, exuberance, focus, money, connections, a dedication to team building, and a helluva lot of hubris. Depending on the moment, Kayak and Lola co-founder Paul English has all of the above in ever-changing quantities.

Though bots still aren't completely frictionless and can't think like a human (yet), they certainly offer a way for consumers to have a conversation with a brand during the booking process that wasn't possible before. And it is potentially a very cheap channel for the brands.

It remains to be seen how much of the future of travel booking will be based around mobile messaging and service. But it does seem reasonable to expect a hybrid of traditional personal service and digital do-it-yourself accessibility to appeal to many travelers going forward.

English envisions a travel booking experience where users can simply talk to their phone and have the perfect trip planned for them. Questions remain, however, about how exactly Lola's technology will enable customer service professionals to become indistinguishable from experienced travel agents.

Lola wants to use mobile messaging, and an artificial intelligence system that learns traveler preferences, to reinvent how consumers book travel using a travel agent. Everyone else wants to cut travel agents out. Lola wants to deal them in.