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Oh no! Another travel web site to revolutionize travel (or is it?)
Added: (Sat Oct 10 2009)
Whether there’s an economic downturn or not, some initiatives simply make sense and fill a gap in the marketplace. This is surely the case of cost4travel, a travel start-up designed as a multi-faceted cost reference site for travellers and, as content grows, an invaluable source of data for travel professionals and suppliers also.
Madrid (Spain), 10 October 2009 - cost4travel is about getting travellers to share the prices they have paid for the services they have used during their latest trips – flights, hotels, other accommodation, car hire, taxis, ferries, scooter rental, scuba dive and more. Once that information is uploaded, all other travellers will be able to search this information to determine, plan and budget their next trip.
Imagine a travel calculator. The technology will store, organise and compute the pricing data inputted. The search feature will, using a number of parameters and business rules, show the average, or highest or lowest price for particular travel services. The information will be generated in currencies of your choice, offer bar charts and graphs for easy reference and give core information on travel costs worldwide. The data supplied may include specific information such as high or low seasons to add context for the travellers, as well as comments, thoughts and insights into the particular services bought.
Simply put, cost4travel becomes the first and only user-driven cost-focused travel site for us to compare and contrast actual, real, paid-for costs. If you want consolidated information about costs ‘on the ground’ and ‘onsite’ and you want to know what’s realistic for a service that adds the local colour to your trip without you paying ridiculous tourist prices, cost4travel can be accessed as you go from your handheld device for instant information. If you don’t want sand in your BlackBerry or cell/mobile, well the local Internet cafe is all yours or, if you want an idea with some foresight before you land, well a personalised travel budget can be generated for you from the comfort of home.
I better add a quick note here to bring us back to earth. Some of what I describe above will not be available right now in this first site version. The site relies on content first and foremost - the complete search module can only be released when there is enough data. Until then, the site still offers travellers the means to view specific trip and travel reports as data is initially inputted. Also, the site will evolve to run mobile technology during the course of 2010.
What about the wider appeal of cost4travel for the travel industry in general? “The value here is the value of data…” says Stéphane Pingaud, owner and co-founder of cost4travel, who also has 15 years experience working with global travel technology companies. He continues: “…the real potential for travel organisations will come from market data services. The point being, that this user-generated pricing data has the potential to be analysed and computed, so that suppliers could, for example, revise, implement or adjust pricing policies, marketing campaigns, revenue management rules or simply introduce new and competitive offers.”
cost4travel’s ‘preferred travellers’, as Pingaud calls those customers who feed cost data through simple and intuitive parameters, will add some non-sensitive, generic personal data such as age, gender, professional occupation, country of residence and their travel environment. No names, no telephone numbers, no emails - just background stuff. By linking this information with the travel costs, cost4travel can define market prices and expose travel product trends per certain traveller-types. For travel organisations, large or small, tour operators or local independent businesses, offers can be designed and priced in line with the reality as exposed through cost4travel.
What do I think about that? Well, Pingaud believes that this data will be crucial and I am inclined to believe him: airlines, rail operators, taxis, and city-express bus operators would do well to take note.
But is there a downside to this I ask myself. Is this site just another barrier between suppliers and consumers? Isn’t it just one more reference site out of a myriad of others out there? Apparently not. This is no booking site. This is not data taken from somewhere else which was taken in turn from somewhere else…“I see this, Pingaud emphasises, as simply a platform for suppliers to gain further knowledge of travellers’ expectations, and offers cost transparency to suppliers and travellers alike”.
In this context I am back at my cynical headline - will this site revolutionize travel? Well, revolutionize is a big word but cost4travel certainly has a lot going for it:
1. Travel sites today are an essential part of travel planning and statistics prove it. According to a recent report in Travel Daily News, sixty-six percent (66%) of leisure travellers now use the Internet to plan some aspect of their travel (versus 35% in 2000). The key, says Pingaud, is that none of these travel sites focus exclusively on cost.
2. Travel is still big business: “A new itinerary” highlighted by the Economist back in 2008 showed how international arrivals reached 900 million in 2007 a 6% increase against 2006. Certainly figures are not so rosy today as travel is hit but the trend is set to continue when the economic situation is back on its feet. And, ultimately, we will always want to watch our costs as we travel.
3. Transparency is a key topic for the travel industry. The gold-rush for ancillary revenues that now makes airlines unbundle their offers only to add fees for almost everything else above and beyond the seat price, is actually confusing travellers and not helping travel vendors. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal by Scott McCartney * highlights this realisation by travel companies who are attempting to roll out tools for agencies and online vendors to “…lay bare hidden fees”. Good for them. And for us, cost4travel is offering that transparency to consumers directly.
4. Help bring down prices? cost4travel data will show certain traveller trends: what’s in and what’s out, always with the angle on cost. We may inadvertently be encouraging suppliers to offer better services. Pingaud continues, “…it may just be that our data will motivate travel operators to re-valuate their costs and services…” Bringing down prices is an exaggeration but getting costs and offers that are more in line with our expectations would be a start.
5. Corporate travel management. Corporate travel managers or corporate-focused agencies will also have a way to really cross reference costs-paid against costs-quoted and ensure corporate customers stay in budget and are offered full and transparent cost data.
6. What’s in for me? Firstly, travellers’ contributions bring immediate rewards for themselves as much as for all other users of the site. From the outset, we are able to be smarter about our costs and budgeting before, during and after travel. Secondly, the mutual and community aspect of the site will drive data in the best interests of everybody with the added benefit of almost certainly influencing suppliers’ prices or offers.
I like it. I would use it. We will always travel and yet this site might add something more to the travel industry - and that is a spot of transparency and reality during these changing times.
* The Wall Street Journal, February 09, “Airfare Quotes That Lay Bare Hidden Fees” by Scott McCartney
Note to the editor
cost4travel is a new web start-up currently based in Madrid, Spain. The start-up has designed, developed and launched a new travel site (www.cost4travel.com) exclusively dedicated to recording and referencing the prices that travellers have paid for their flights, accommodation, transportation, restaurants and other relevant travel-related expenses.
cost4travel enable travellers to upload and manage their travel costs online and help other travellers to search for user-validated cost information to budget their trips and/or establish and negotiate fair prices for their travel services of their choice.
Contact details
cost4travel
Stéphane Pingaud, owner & co-founder
Office/Mobile: + 34 629 214 837
email: stephane.pingaud@cost4travel.com
Web: www.cost4travel.com