Today we are interviewing travel industry rockstar Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia Inc. Last Tuesday, Expedia Inc. announced an agreement to acquire Venere.com from Advent International and Venere’s founders.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your fabulous career?
Well, I’m not sure if you can call my career fabulous but it certainly has been interesting and a ton of fun. I was an Engineering major at college and planned to pursue a technical career. That is until I met my girlfriend in New York City and had to go there to be with her. There weren’t many technical jobs in New York, so joined an small Investment Bank called Allen & Company.
I advised a number of clients in the Media and Entertainment industries in the mergers and acquisitions area. It was a time of great consolidation in the area, and incredibly interesting and exciting. Barry Diller became a client of mine and asked me to join him in a new company that he was building, named Home Shopping Network. I joined as the head of strategic planning in 1998, the early heyday of the Internet.
Over the next 7 years we transformed the company from a small shopping network to a media and internet conglomerate, and bought the businesses that would form the base of what is now Expedia - Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com and TripAdvisor.com. In 2005 we decided to seperate the travel businesses from the rest of the portfolio - Expedia Inc. was born and I was lucky enough to be selected as the CEO.
What would you expect to be the next big thing in travel distribution?
I still think that there is a ton of potential in personalizing the travel experience for the traveler. Right now OLTAs [online travel agencies] pretty much treat every customer the same way - show them the same options, give them the same experience. With the wealth of data and tracking available, we should be able to provide a much more tailored experience to the traveler. Hopefully this can drive loyalty in a very competitive environment.
How will the new ownership of venere.com affect users and hotels? How will Venere and Expedia customers benefit from the new situation?
I think it will afford Venere the opportunity to make longer term bets on its future. We are interested in making Venere ten times bigger than it is now. That means many many more customers and hotels all over the world.
What makes Venere special and how do you see Venere’s future?
I love the site - I think Venere is the most distinctive hotel web site out there. There is a certain same-ness that has settled into the industry and I really like the unique look and feel and mapping that Venere has built. We were also very interested in Venere’s terrific inventory in Southern Europe and your success in building out your hotel supply.
I’d like to see Venere aggressively expand not only in its core European markets, but also into Eastern Europe, Asia and the Americas.
What is your favorite travel destination?
Lake Como - I love being able to hike up in the beautiful hills and coming down to a great meal with great wine!
Topic: Travel Industry Rockstars |
7 Comments
Tags: expedia, travel industry
7 responses to “Interview with Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi”
Report an inappropriate commentJuly 20th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Why Mr Dara Khosrowshahi never give an answer about my case (click on my name to read it) when EXPEDIA tried to scam me (1254.95 U$D and failed…..miserably).
I can a answer this question:”How will the new ownership of venere.com affect users and hotels? How will Venere and Expedia customers benefit from the new situation?
”
Response: a significant number of customers probably are going to be cheated/scammed by EXPEDIA. It is a pity Vener eis now in the hands of scammers.
Good luck
July 21st, 2008 at 9:46 am
John,
I am in favour of “no moderation” policies to blog comments, but it’s a real pity that the first comment to this very significant deal in the travel industry becomes an opportunity for an online Jimmmy Jump to get into the court while everyone is watching… I have a lot of sympathy for consumers’ complaints: they are always a good way to streamline company processes and to improve communication, and usually a reflection of true customers concern and determination to see their expectations fulfilled. However, there are places and processes to pursue such endeavours; every company (and the laws of every state) have got them, and a welcome interview on the blog of a company that does not even has systems to process customers’ credit cards (Venere invoices the hotels after the customers paid their bills on check-out!… very difficult for consumers to get scammed) is probably not very appropriate place for it.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
“We are interested in making Venere ten times bigger than it is now”… COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
i mean COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 am
Dear Mr. CEO:
I today requested a refund of the remaining of my reimbirsable travel.
I recently booked a vacation to Cancun and needed a date change. I did not request cancellation but a date change.. I only wanted to change the dates of travel. The package reads, “no refunds”. I did not request a refund. I wanted to change the dates. the Expedia customer guarantee reads,
“You can count on us to provide support throughout your trip. Whether you have questions about your itinerary, have a change in travel plans, or need help resolving a problem with the trip you booked, we’re here to help 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our job is to satisfy you!
We guarantee that the travel you booked with Expedia will meet the descriptions on our site and in your itinerary (as confirmed on our site within 24 hours of travel), or we will work with our partners on your behalf to find a solution.
We’ll take responsibility—at no additional cost to you—if we make a mistake booking your travel.
If you need to change your travel plans at any time, just call us at 1-800-EXPEDIA (1-404-728-8787 outside the continental U.S.), and we’ll work with our partners to find the best available solution.”
I sent a letter to you as CEO and then received a response via email after calling the 1-800 customer service number that gave regrets. I was left with no other option but to cancel since I cannot travel on the dates originally scheduled. It was also apparent that you never received the FEDEX and the support staff opened mailed addressed to you. I am told that my refund amount is less than half of what was payed for this trip.Expedia gets to keep over $1000. Your guarantee did not appear in place during this event. Again, I would have been happy to just change the dates. Unfortunately, you have lost a longterm faithful customer.
It pays to treat customers fairly. When you make a statement and call it a guarantee, it should be a guaratee.
Long live integrity. It’s better than money. Learn that!
JR Fowler
August 4th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Dear JR Fowler,
I am replying to your comment on behalf of venere.com (I am not sure I should and if I am supposed to, as you have a complaint against Expedia, but I do it anyway).
Before a direct answer, let me add the following:
as mentioned on a previous comment, Expedia is taking over Venere, meaning that it will own the shares of Venere; this does not mean that Venere will be merged into Expedia, nor that Venere will change its processes and even its business model, or that Venere will cease being independent as an organization.
On the contrary, one of the very reasons for Expedia to acquire Venere is to be able to count on an “additional” way to provide services to hotels and users, this additional way being the Venere “agency” model, whereby users pay on check-out directly at the hotel. If this was to be changed, then why buying Venere in the first place? or forcing integration and reducing autonomy?
To your complaint to Expedia, in view of the above comment, I cannot help much, because Venere and Expedia (will) have a shareholding relationship, but they are not the same organization. I am confident that all complaints, following appropriate routing, are dealt with applying the required attention by the teams respectively accountable for.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Dear Mr. Khosrowshahi,
I’m an Expedia, Venere and WorldBy.Com customer (as traveler) and at the same time, a manager of a hotel chain with my hotels published on Expedia, Venere and WorldBy.Com.
From your words (”personalizing the travel experience”) it looks like the model that is representing the “next big thing in travel distribution” that the interviewer was asking you, is already “alive and kicking” on WorldBy.Com’s websites. http://www.tuscany.net/booking/bookings.htm (point number 8.)
How do you intend to benefit from the WorldBy.Com model? As hotelier, I like the partnership with WorldBy.Com a lot, and amongst the companies of the Expedia group, we’d love to see more WorldBy philosophy in your Venere and Expedia service in the future.
Congratulations for the acquisition, Venere and WorldBy.Com are really great companies.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:37 am
Mr. Dara Khosrowshahi
ON April 9, 2009 I booked a vacation with Expedia’s customer service. While discussing the reservation I articulated clearly my requirements(hotel name, location, room type, service type) and paid $4800.00 over the phone with a credit card. Instead of getting my confirmation immediately emailed it took two days for confirmation which was wrong. This EXPEDIA sales agent deceitfully altered my initial and agreed upon reservations. I have emailed 5 times, called corporate, and left a voicemail today April 15, 2009 for Barbara, assistant to Vice President, but got no returned phone call. This is my HONEYMOON and I leave on MAY 18, 2009! I am extremely aggrivated with the lack of compassion and professionalism. IF this doesn’t get resolved by tomorrow I will have an attorney write a letter on my behalf and persue legal action.
Howard Cox
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