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Hosted by business breakfast executive Dana Dunne talks sales automation, packages and mobile. Ben Ireland reports


eDreams shifts focus to offer flight-plus-hotel


More customers are looking for a “one-stop shop” to buy their holidays online, according to the chief executive of flight specialist eDreams.


Dana Dunne said there had been a shift towards customers looking on the web for all the components of a holiday together rather than flights and hotels separately. His comments could be seen as a boost for traditional travel agents, who have long since offered an all-in-one service and are increasingly shifting online. Alternatively, it could be a warning that the online players are looking at their space in the market. Dunne, former chief commercial


officer at easyJet, said: “One of the big areas we are focusing on is dynamic packages. “The rationale is that we are number one in flights. We know that people, on average, book a flight before they book other services such as a hotel, so we


“We’ve reduced contact by about 40% and customer satisfaction has gone up massively”


want to cross-sell more customers to a flight-plus-hotel. “Increasingly, data shows that, both in and outside of travel, customers are looking towards a one-stop shop and it’s very important to us – a good revenue growth opportunity.” EDreams acquired hotel booking site Budgetplaces.com earlier this year to boost its dynamic packaging ambitions and Dunne said the retailer had been branching out into transfers, car hire and hotels in recent years. “[Budgetplaces.com] has the


technology to deliver what we think will be an even better customer experience and an even


CONTACT: Dunne says fewer customer ‘touchpoints’ result in ‘better service’


better hotelier experience,” he added. Asked whether it was harder


for online brands to gain customer loyalty, he said product was the key factor, adding that consumers increasingly wanted fewer interactions, before saying eDreams counted each customer touchpoint as a “failure”. “Not everything is a failure,


obviously,” he said. “But when you take this approach you start looking at the world differently. “We’ve reduced contact


by about 40% and customer satisfaction has gone up massively. “Some of our competitors will


not put that service in to make it easy to find information out. We take the exact opposite philosophy and want to help customers.”


Developing mobile is priority for eDreams


Mobile is the number-one priority for OTA eDreams, a channel in which its chief executive said he had made a “really serious and significant investment”. Dana Dunne said one-third of eDreams’ bookings


globally were now via mobile – higher than the 21% industry average. In the UK, the proportion of mobile bookings was


even higher, he added. “We prioritise mobile over any other platform,” he


told the Travel Weekly Business Breakfast. More than half of searches were made on mobile, but Dunne said some still preferred to complete the


booking via desktop. In emerging markets, such as China, mobile is used even more with its brands. Dunne said the key to a well-rated app – its own is rated


4.5 out of five stars on the App Store – was “great design”. “People just want to get from A to B,” he said. The


OTA invites 1,500 customers to its lab each month to test products and get their feedback. They also hold workshops three times a week in-house. Its mobile app tells customers which baggage


carousel their bags are at, as well as updates about changes and delays. “We develop mobile first to make sure that we keep adding value,” Dunne said.


31 August 2017 travelweekly.co.uk 79


‘Global politics will not dampen desire of people to travel’


Dana Dunne was bullish about the resilience of the travel sector despite fears that global politics could make consumers become more inward-looking in the wake of the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election. “We’ve had a number of


terror attacks in the last year [including recently in Barcelona, home to eDreams’ HQ] and some quite tremendous currency changes,” he said. “But the market is still very good. “I just see that people want to


travel more, expand their world, grow and see other countries; I don’t see [people] becoming more insular.” Dunne felt growth was shifting


to different destinations, citing Turkey as an example of a country that had shrunk in terms of tourism, adding: “Other markets have opened up. It’s the burning desire of individuals to travel.”


PICTURE: SHUTTERSTOCK


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