Booking.com Taps Into The 'Delight Of Right'

Canadians are about to be let in on the Internet's "best kept secret." Darren Huston said "Depending on the situation, there's the right place for the right person and our whole job is finding that opportunity for the booker to get it right." That's what the ads are all about. 

Introducing the campaign to the market, Huston hosted a media event yesterday where he explained the evolution of the site, which has long been popular in Europe but remains lesser known to North Americans.

Darren Huston Speaker & Booking Information

Darren Huston Speaker & Booking Information: Darren Huston was the President & CEO of The Priceline Group. Mr. Huston was also Chief Executive Officer of Booking.com B.V. (Netherlands), a wholly owned subsidiary of The Priceline Group and the number one online hotel reservation service in the world, a position he held since September 2011.

Darren Huston Builds Priceline in His Own Image

Priceline CEO Darren Huston was trying to watch a hockey game, half-listening to a headhunter talk about a company he had never heard of before.

The Amsterdam-based unit of Priceline Group that dominates the European online travel market. Darren Huston became president and CEO of Priceline Group itself, which has come from dot-com laughingstock to the fifth most-valuable U.S. Internet company — if one still really considers it a U.S. company, because 90 percent of its profits come from overseas, most of them from Booking.com.

Travel site Priceline claims top spot for bookings

The Priceline Group recently surpassed Expedia to become the world’s highest-grossing online hotel reservations company and the largest player in online travel.

CEO Darren Huston spoke to CBC’s The Lang & O’Leary Exchange about the success of Booking.com, which has staff in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal who work with local hotels, motels and B&Bs.

“Those local teams work with the properties very much hand in hand because they want to make sure they get the lowest price for the guest, but they also need to get the availability,” he said.

“Properties in low times, they’ll take all the guests they can, but in high times we want to make sure that our guests can get rooms as well.”

Darren Huston says Priceline was built on a better consumer experience online and leveraging the power of the internet.

Read Full Article @ https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/travel-site-priceline-claims-top-spot-for-bookings-1.2504101

Darren Huston Wants To Stay Humble With More Heart

Darren Huston runs the world’s biggest travel company which shows no signs of stopping and which has been gobbling up almost everything in its path.

According to its latest financial results, announced Nov 4, third quarter gross travel bookings reached $13.8 billion, an increase of 28% over a year ago. Gross profit was $2.6 billion, 32% up on the prior year. And evidence that its international expansion is working – its international operations contributed gross profit of $2.3 billion, a 33% increase versus a year ago.

But during his session at Phocuswright in Los Angeles last month, one almost did. One, he spoke about the problems of size. Two, when asked about how he was managing Steve Hafner and the Kayak acquisition made two years ago, he said, “You don’t manage Steve.” And three, a fire alarm went off in the middle of his interview which left him, and everyone else, wondering what to do. Should we run or should we stay?

But you don’t get to where Darren Huston is by not staying cool and calm under fire, even if it was only a drill. The former Starbucks and Microsoft executive was all heart when he spoke about the challenges of size.

Read Full Article @ https://www.webintravel.com/alarm-bells-huston-wants-stay-humble-heart/

Engineer.ai Has Bootstrapped To $24 Million in Revenue

Engineer.ai, a human-assisted artificial intelligence platform, said it has secured $29.5 million (about Rs 210 crore) funding led by Lakestar and Jungle Ventures with participation from Softbank’s DeepCore.

The funds will be utilized for strengthening engineering operations and customer acquisition, Sachin Dev Duggal, Founder and Chief Wizard of Engineer.ai, said.

Engineer ai was created so that everyone can build an idea without learning to code, he added.

“The capital comes at a time of rapid growth and will propel the platform into the mainstream, allowing ‘Builder’ to open the door for entire categories of companies that could not consider it before,” he said.

Launched in June 2018, Engineer.ai has already attracted hundreds of customers across many geographies.

Its ‘Builder’ solution allows people — even those without technical skills — to get customised apps built for Android, iOS and other platforms.

Asia Pacific region mainly India, MENA, South East Asia including China are key focus areas for Engineer.ai to expand their presence into, building a stronger base for all ‘Builder’ offerings, the company said.

Read Full Article @ https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/engineer-ai-raises-29-5-mn-from-softbanks-deepcore-and-others-3197781.html

Priceline Group Made Changes To Attract More Business Travellers

The Priceline Group, says in its full year earnings report today it is “feeling positive” about the changes it has made in recent months to attract more business travellers.

Darren Huston President and CEO of Priceline , says there is no negative impact on the company’s financial performance as a result of allowing bookings to take place on TripAdvisor, rather than on the mothership.

 

Bookings via TripAdvisor as a percentage of the overall pie are in the “low single-digits”, Huston says.

CEO Darren Huston : See tremendous growth ahead

Nevertheless, Darren Huston adds that the branding that Priceline Group-run companies get on TripAdvisor is “great”, and that in the US this may have helped raise the profile of Booking.com, where traditionally Priceline has been the better known brand.