With all the talk in the industry about who owns the customer journey, Yeoh Siew Hoon wonders if travelers want to be owned; 

Many things were said at Phocuswright Dublin including how as part of Expedia’s test and learn strategy, 1,500 changes were made in 2014 versus the 200 changes made in total between 2009 and 2011, indicative of the relentless pace and competition out there �" but three threads of thought stood out for me.

1. Day 1 it is, let’s sound the Disruption Alert 

Everyone seems to think we are just at Page 1 of everything. Oliver Hua, managing director of Booking.com, Asia Pacific, maintains it is Day 1 of the Internet as far as travel e-commerce is concerned in Asia and in Dublin, Kevin O’Shaugnessy, CEO, IndigoConnect, in his pitch for his airport-to-city ground transport platform, said we were only seeing P1 of Uber’s business plan to convince judges of the potential scale of the 24b Euro market.

Which is both thrilling and terrifying to hear. On one hand, the opportunities ahead. On the other, the disruption and uncertainty looming.

Oliver Gremillon spelling out Airbnb’s ambitions at Phocuswright Europe.

What on earth will Airbnb do next seems to be the ringing question? This week, it signalled its expansion into the professional vacation rentals space and is developing software that will make it easier for property managers to link their properties to their platform.

In Dublin, Olivier Gremillon, managing director Europe for Airbnb, likening Airbnb to a “book of many pages”, said, “We only have 1.2m listings and there are 7 billion people. There is still a way to go. At some point in the future, 50% of people will share their home.”

With a booking volume of 35m guests �" it doubled its booking volume in one year �" the company is betting on mobile to transform its business.

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