I arrived in Los Angeles on Sun afternoon. Welcoming me to Burbank were the burning and smoking hills of the Los Angeles area. It was pretty scary actually.
Monday morning opened with the Innovators Forum – this was a collection of 32 innovator companies in the Travel space presenting their solution. The focus was on demonstrations and it was very interesting to see what is out there. I categorize what I saw into a couple of categories:
- Trip Planning – planning the destinations and how to get there
- Trip Info Aggregation – aggregating the info that is all over the web into a new personalized results
- Vacation Rentals – creating a complete online booking and distribution solution
See a list of all the companies that presented – PhocusWright Innovator Summit
It is exiting to see vacation rentals take on such a prominent role at this conference. The recent investment of $250M into HomeAway certainly has a lot to with this.
Over the next few weeks I will review some of these innovator companies. One that stood out to me as being a potential partner for us, both LiveRez and you the Vacation Manager, is rezgo. Go check them out.
RezGo manages the planning and online booking of vacation tours and activities. This is something that some of you may be able to use for services you provide, or something that your friends in your destination could use. It is a web-based solution. Stephen Joyce, the founder of rezgo, also has a blog on Travel, Tourism, & Technology Trends Blog - go check it out. His knowledge and passion come through.
More to come from LA.
Ralf
Tags: online vacation booking, vacation home rental, vacation property management, vacation rental, vacation rental software