Vol. 2: The Detail

EyeforTravel Research Case Study
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The School of Mobile Vol. 2 - The Detail Chapter 1 - The Travel Buying Cycle

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Yeah but are you making any money from
it?
Where next for Kayak and the development
of their iPhone Applica�on?
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Kayak doesn’t charge any money for the App. They
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“What we are thinking of doing is asking; what
are not necessarily making any money from usage
do mobile users care about? Kind of ques�ons
of the app right now. People can just call the hotel/
like: when does my flight leave tomorrow?
airline etc and if they do Kayak does not make any
Where is my hotel? So we see those kinds of
money. If they book through the mobile browser
things as a lot more important and those are
Kayak does make money. There is the problem
the developments that we are looking at. We
though that many of the hotel websites that you
want to look at what are the problems that
can link through to from Kayak are not necessarily
users want solved as opposed to developing a
op�mised for mobile let alone for iPhone.
solu�on for the sake of it. Have to be careful
about developing use cases and ensuring
So, Kayak is of the argument that they want people
that you work out how users will actually use
to engage with the Kayak brand. They want to make
something as opposed to how they think they
people think of them more o�en and not forget
would use something.”
about them, ever. They want to make people happy
and use Kayak to fulfill their travel needs and keep
Kayak in the forefront of their mind when it comes
Recommenda�ons/Advice for the
to travelling. That is why the app is free.
travel industry:
This shows how travel brands can use the power 1. From an industry perspec�ve, it would be
of mobile to extend the reach and bring their very helpful if travel merchant websites had
brand to new customers and re-energise exis�ng mobile op�mised/mobile version of their
ones. The points raised here by Kayak also bring websites. There are an awful lot out there that
up an interes�ng discussion about mone�sa�on have not done this.
of mobile. Indirect mone�sa�on is perhaps be�er
2. Mobile is rela�vely easy. A lot of it comes
through loyalty, branding, traffic, familiarity,
down to understanding the mobile user and
necessity of useful tool and other brand factors
how they are using/will use your services.

What have the results been since you 3. You have to look at how everything on
launched your mobile applica�on? your website and work out what is minimally
necessary to get people to be able to take
Kayak has had over 40,000 downloads of the app advantage of your product/service on their
to date (14/04). This is impressive considering the mobile. Mobile is s�ll small and you have
applica�on was released at the end of March and to avoid the process being clumsy. Have to
Kayak has done no significant marke�ng around its make sure that everything is easy. Appealing
release They get about 5,000 users searching with chunks of informa�on. Don’t try to mobilise
the app per day at the moment. everything. Think mobile.
4. There are things that companies can do to
“If you have a great website and are
make booking easier. As a user Bill advised that
pondering building a mobile appli-
he would really value from a travel app, being
ca�on or moving beyond a simple
able to push a bu�on and have someone call
mobile website, either build an API
me. That would be very powerful. Someone
yourself or work with a development partner that
to call back ready to sell to him. This is an area
can do it for you. When you decide to go mobile,
of huge poten�al. Poten�ally, this is quite cost
you will be able to roll out a compelling offering
effec�ve in terms of driving efficiencies with
much more quickly + you never know what other
call centres and organising call-backs delivered
clever people will be able to do with it when built”
through mobile. Great opportunity to integrate
– Bill O’Donnell, Ultra VP of Code, Kayak
mobile, online and call centre systems.
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