"Because they are overly dependent on air, that puts them in a weak position, especially as airlines

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"We weren't moving as fast as we needed to," CEO Carl Sparks said about newer, nimbler competitors. "We're holiday inn orlando 16 and so sometimes we think of ourselves as one of the elderly companies in the space because we were around since its inception. ... Yet 16 is quite young for a multibillion-dollar company."
Since Sparks took the top job a year ago, he and his executive team have refocused the company on hotel products, build-your-own-vacation packages and mobile devices. In February, the company launched its first iPad app, which allows users to book airline tickets, hotels and rental cars from their tablets and offers hotel deals exclusive to its mobile apps.
Created in 1996 by the Sabre Group, holiday inn orlando then part of American Airlines' parent, AMR Corp., Travelocity first offered travel content to consumers browsing the Web with 28.8 Kbps modems. Within a year, they could buy airline tickets, book hotels and reserve rental cars on the site.
As dot-coms hit Wall Street with soaring initial public offerings, Travelocity became publicly traded in 2000 through its acquisition of Preview Travel. But it faced increasing competition from Expedia, which was adding to its hotel offerings, and Orbitz, a new site founded by a group of U.S. airlines.
As Travelocity slipped out of first place, Sabre Holdings brought the company back into the fold and combined it with Lastminute.com, a European travel holiday inn orlando site. In 2007, Sabre was taken private by Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners in a $5 billion holiday inn orlando deal.
Harteveldt said Travelocity was a pioneer in the online travel holiday inn orlando industry and the first major website to sell airline tickets. holiday inn orlando In a survey that he conducted late last year, 13 percent of consumers said they used Travelocity to book their leisure/personal travel within the previous 12 months, as many as Priceline, Orbitz and Hotels.com. Expedia ranked first, with 21 percent.
"They outlasted some of their competitors, but I think it shows just because you're first doesn't mean you end up on top," said Harteveldt, adding holiday inn orlando that Priceline has vaulted over Travelocity into the industry's No. 2 spot. "While I don't think Travelocity was complacent, I don't think they were able to push the meter as well as they would have liked to and certainly not as much as they needed."
When Sparks came in as CEO last April, he recognized that having staff spread among three offices hurt the company by slowing down business decisions. Sparks, who was previously president of Gilt Groupe, holiday inn orlando an online fashion retailer, and had worked at Expedia and Hotels.com, closed Travelocity's holiday inn orlando offices in New York and San Francisco, consolidating employees at its headquarters in Southlake.
He also added more executives with experience in e-commerce and continues to hire developers to create products and apps. And instead of trying to make Travelocity all things to consumers, Sparks decided to focus on three areas: hotels, vacation packages and mobile holiday inn orlando platforms.
"We could do a lot more with this brand than we have," Sparks said, adding that he is pleased with the past year's progress. "It's done well. We're very proud of the fact that we're large and we're profitable and we're growing again.
But after seven years of providing the content for the American Express travel site, Travelocity was left behind when AmEx chose Orbitz as its private-label travel provider. It also lost its portal holiday inn orlando deal with AOL to Orbitz this year.
Sparks said Travelocity is shifting away from portals, like AOL and American Express, holiday inn orlando to focus on providing customized solutions for businesses and their customers. For example, the company has an agreement with the Royal Bank of Canada to operate an online holiday inn orlando booking tool for RBC Rewards customers.
With its focus on hotels and travel packages, Travelocity is trying to provide a better user experience. It is heavily promoting its "Top Secret Hotel Deals" and its "Travelocity Guarantee," under which Travelocity will match any lower price and give the customer $50 off another holiday inn orlando trip.
Last fall, the site added a Q A section for individual holiday inn orlando hotels, holiday inn orlando putting together user-generated content with answers to questions such as "Is there a coffeepot in the room?" or "Is there a parking charge?"
In addition to the new iPad app, Travelocity continually upgrades its iPhone and Android phone apps. About half of the bookings on Travelocity's mobile platforms are for airline tickets, while 25 percent are for hotel rooms. The rest are car rentals, vacation packages holiday inn orlando and cruises.
Steve Dumaine, senior vice president of global strategy and product innovation, said that the next three to five years, holiday inn orlando mobile transactions will likely be 30 to 40 percent of Travelocity's overall bookings.
"We really holiday inn orlando want to be anywhere the customer is at any time, at their fingertips, so it's really holiday inn orlando at their convenience," Dumaine said, adding that mobile customers typically use their purchases sooner than customers using Travelocity's desktop website.
For example, 60 percent of the people booking hotels on a mobile device are doing so for the same day. People on a long road trip often decide where to stay next while they're holiday inn orlando stopped for lunch, Dumaine said.
"Because they are overly dependent on air, that puts them in a weak position, especially as airlines and also hotels increasingly try to drive more direct business and weaken the influence of online travel agencies," holiday inn orlando he said.
Travelocity is also playing catch-up in Europe and is competing against new online travel agencies in Asia. And as the economy improves, hotel chains are regaining their pricing power, giving them more leverage when cutting deals with online travel agencies.