What are the discounts like?
Everyone should be upgrading because you can get the four- and five-star properties for an amount of money that you just won’t believe. I was looking on Hotwire in Mexico this morning . . . you can get a four-star in Cancun or Puerto Vallarta for $50 a night. . . . Expedia does this survey every year about people’s vacation habits - they’ve been doing it for a long time, four or five years - and they keep finding that people are taking less and less vacation every year. And it really bums me out. OK, we’re in a bad time, so just relax a little more. Take more time off. Don’t stress. Go some place. You can get it and not break the bank.
Fewer people have been traveling during the recession, but more people have been looking for bargains. What effect has that had on Hotwire?
Business travel is in dire straits. . . . It looks like it will be 20-plus percent down over last year. . . . It just takes a giant piece of business, a very profitable business, away from every airline, car rental company, and hotel in the country. And so they then therefore have to discount, and . . . it’s actually drawing more leisure travel. . . . Bookings for hotels on Hotwire and on many other sites are way up.
According to a recent study by Forrester Research, fewer travelers are enjoying using the Web to plan and buy trips. What do you make of that?
This was the year of fees. . . . And they hide it from you until the very last step, many of the sites. . . . So I imagine that it’s less fun, because you might see a price point and know: They’re going to get me somewhere between now and when I’m going to check out. . . . TripAdvisor has a new flight search product where they allow you to see the [airline] price with and without bag-check fees. . . . And on Hotwire on car rentals, we’re trying to do our part by pushing the end price right up so the first time you hit search, I’m going to show you the full price with all the taxes and fees included.
