Sure, I think the discovery flexibility is great. But are there enough people who think that way?
And how many compared to people who think:
- I have the week of April 25-30 off. I can visit my best friend in Phoenix
- What flights are available for Boise, ID on July 2, when my friend gets married?
- time to find a flight for that conference next week
- Time to book a flight to go home for Christmas
I'm guessing: very few. And so even if Adioso's flight finding ability was as good or better than Kayak, I still have the habit of checking Kayak whenever I need a flight. And that is very hard to overcome.
But let's say I overcome my reflexive Kayak visit for special summers when I can just explore...how many of those special summers does anyone have, and is it enough to give Adioso enough traction?
We're betting that there are - or that there would be if they were given the option.
Think about it this way: if you were to build the perfect online travel product from scratch today, would you say "it will be a better product if we only let people search narrow origin/destination/date options; it's fine for people who have flexibility to just spend hours submitting hundreds of different searches"?
We think we have sound basis for believing there's huge demand for a more flexible search product with a company culture that excites people, but it's pointless to debate it here; we're very happy to let the market decide.
The argument that Expedia/Priceline/Kayak etc have the market sewn up is one we've lived with daily for the 5+ years we've been in the space.
Once you examine it closely, it's surprising to find how small a share of the total travel market these companies have, and how little affection and loyalty they command from ordinary people, even within the US, but particularly outside of it.
And how many compared to people who think:
- I have the week of April 25-30 off. I can visit my best friend in Phoenix
- What flights are available for Boise, ID on July 2, when my friend gets married?
- time to find a flight for that conference next week
- Time to book a flight to go home for Christmas
I'm guessing: very few. And so even if Adioso's flight finding ability was as good or better than Kayak, I still have the habit of checking Kayak whenever I need a flight. And that is very hard to overcome.
But let's say I overcome my reflexive Kayak visit for special summers when I can just explore...how many of those special summers does anyone have, and is it enough to give Adioso enough traction?