CheapTickets.com, sister brand of Orbitz.com, recently underwent a revamp that includes a new loyalty program called CheapCash and a new hotel pricing-comparison program. Sam Fulton, the new president of U.S. consumer travel for Orbitz Worldwide, talked with Travel Weekly's Kate Rice about the relaunch.
Q: How do you leverage these two brands, CheapTickets.com and Orbitz.com?
A: We've invested quite a bit into our global technology platform to have all of our consumer brands powered off one technology platform. One of the things the global platform allows us to do is to create unique value propositions for each of our brands. We've been thinking about and refocusing our strategy for CheapTickets.com. We have reinvigorated the brand and spent a bunch of time thinking about the customer and what would be the right value proposition for them.
Q: How has CheapTickets.com benefited from this global platform?
A: One of the huge benefits this has for CheapTickets.com is that it gains access to a vast hotel and package inventory. It has provided CheapTickets.com with high-quality hotel inventory for a brand historically known for airline tickets. We've focused on the types of customers that respond well to CheapTickets.com.
Q: Who is the CheapTickets customer, and what are you offering them?
A: They are bargain hunters. The CheapTickets customer is a price-driven leisure customer. With the name CheapTickets.com, it has historically been known for air; now we're focusing on making sure customers know they can get great hotel values. We're rolling out a suite of tools that help value-conscious customers score some great travel deals and deliver on the brand's promise that "cheap is good."
Q: CheapTickets.com has a new loyalty program, CheapCash. How does that work?
A: Every time a customer comes to the site and books a flight, we give $50 in CheapCash toward any future hotel purchase. Of customers joining the CheapCash program, 60% are new to the brand. Of those customers who redeem the CheapCash, a third of them are using it the same day they purchased the air to purchase their hotel.
Q: CheapTickets pays an additional incentive for bookings made via your mobile app. Why?
A: Ultimately, we want people to think of CheapTickets as the best place to shop. And one way to get them to think that is to get on that really important space: on someone's smartphone or tablet. We are seeing significant mobile penetration on CheapTickets.com.
Q: CheapTickets.com also has a new hotel comparison-pricing tool that displays pricing from up to four of your competitors and offers to match any prices that are lower, plus you'll give that customer $50 in CheapCash. That's a pretty bold move. Why are you doing that?
A: We know customers are going to cross-shop. Part of this is making sure that customers have confidence that they are seeing the lowest prices. There will be times -- although obviously we'll work hard to make that happen as infrequently as possible -- that our competitors may have a lower price. [In those cases] we will match and provide the consumer with $50 in CheapCash.
Follow Kate Rice on Twitter @krtravelweekly.