The boss of travel giant Priceline has cast doubt on the popularity of the dynamic packaging model among consumers.
Speaking at last week’s third Travel Weekly Business Breakfast, hosted by Google in London, Glenn Fogel (pictured), Priceline’s head of worldwide strategy, said customers were not demanding dynamic packages.
He said the volume of consumers “attaching” an air ticket to a hotel booking as part of the same transaction was “lower than you think”, with most customers choosing to shop for trip elements independently of each other.
“They are exhausted after making the first purchase,” said Fogel. “By the time they have done that they just want to turn off the computer and have a drink.
“Dynamic packaging is complex and I’m not too sure consumers love it. It’s been around a long time now and it does not seem to have really taken off.
“I suspect it may have high customer service issues. We know what we are doing so why take the risk of doing something that’s not really working well with other people?
“In the US we do have [dynamic packaging], but it’s not big for us.”
In Europe, Priceline is best-known among consumers for Booking.com, its accommodation-only customer-facing website. This operates an agent model by taking the booking, but the difference is the customer pays the hotel when they have stayed, rather than paying the retailer up front.
Dynamic packaging is the term used to describe what used to be called tailor-made, but has become particularly prevalent due to the rise of technology that can combine components automatically.
Agents have increasingly turned to dynamic packaging to protect revenues as they are undermined by reduced commissions for selling tour operator packages and consumers buying direct.