Darren
Huston on CNBC said that company has the largest inventory on the
planet, and also he discusses with Simon what customers really want out
of hotel and restaurant services.
Simon –
CEO Darren Huston
telling us in the last hour that the Priceline business, an underlying
sense, remains strong and that the euro and the Euro zone weakness is
why he’s warning of slower growth down Huston.
Also,
emphasizing the boots on the ground effort underway way in Europe and
its key booking dot com franchise to boost non hotel inventory. BMB
style alternative lodging like apartments and villas. Take a listen.
Darren Huston –
We
want to be the world’s leader in online booking of accommodation. So
we’ve been working on building up from the biggest hotels now into
apartments and pensions and various other forms of accommodations. We
have the largest inventory on the planet. We’re growing our inventory
year over year, over 50 percent.
ALSO READ: Hot Travel Startups!!
And
this non hotel accommodation, these apartments, these special places to
stay are things that our customers want. I would like to share with
people that with the advent of mobile and things becoming more local,
this next wave of the Internet is all about bringing technology into
local marketplaces and taking the friction out of doing business all
around the world.
And
this is what we’re really excited about. It’s no longer about just
getting a booking. I’m booking dot com or a reservation on open table.
It’s about how can you improve the experience of the customer when
they’re looking, booking and experiencing the local products.
Simon –
So,
Darren, can you break that down for us? Can you give us an example of
what life will be like 10 years down the line? I mean, where does this
take us?
Darren Huston –
Yeah, I think what it is like take an example of pay with opentable. You can sit at your restaurant table; see you’ve booked an Opentable. You’re sitting in your restaurant. You’ve got your Smartphone out and you can literally see your tab on your Smartphone.
I
mean, this is happening today in New York and in San Francisco. Its
gonna be all across the United States soon. And then when you’re ready
to leave, you just pay and leave. And they actually the restaurant loves
it because the tables turn better. The waitresses and waiters love it
because their tipping is a little bit better.
But
it just takes a lot of the friction out of the. Hey, I just had a great
meal, but I’ve been sitting here waiting for 30 minutes to pay because I
need to run. These are just some examples. And in the hotel experience,
it’s the same thing. It’s like arriving at the train station in
Brussels and saying, hey, I want to walk or do we want to take a cab?
And having all of that stuff right in front of you to take those
directions, to know where all the landmarks are, to already have
tickets.
Pre-booked
so that you can go around the lines into the major attractions. It’s
all of these kinds of things. And if you think about the way the world
has changed, we used to all just have computers at home or in our
office.
But
now people everyone’s walking around the computer in their pocket and
young people, particularly millennial, are just expecting, you know,
today it’s Uber or pay with Opentable. But tomorrow they’re gonna expect
that their phones will be able to do all sorts of things to just make
being local a lot more interesting and fun than it is today.
Simon –
Darren Huston,
the CEO and president of Priceline. Let it not be forgotten. He is one
of the next twenty five on CNBC. Don’t miss our coverage of the big gala
tonight starting at 6:00 Eastern. Down in Houston, we’ll be among the
others. Among others will be honored at that event.
