First, I had an incredible run this morning in the LA hills. I found a little regional park that leads up hills overlooking the LA valley. It was an incredible morning – clear skies and 65 degrees. The day was filled with some great meetings, as well as sitting through some facintating presentations.
I will focus on only one of the presentations for this post. Travel Channel. Yes, they had a bunch of cool videos. Really cool travel videos – short, snipet videos. What makes a great video in the eyes of Patrick Younge, their CEO? Here are 4 items:
- Searchability – must be able to find the video online and integrate it into the website
- Quality – does not mean it has to be expensive; good story, narrative; 1.5 to 3min
- Relevance – expert and trusted advisor tone, not commercial
- Mobility – able to publish to various formats including a mobile device (I will discuss mobile in travel in a future post)
Video is worth doing. But it is only worth doing if you do it well.
It was interesting in my conversation with Priceline, Orbitz, MSN Travel, Yahoo Travel, and others, how prevelant discussions about the future of the vacation rental market are. Our market is definitely seen as a great oppty and a new fronteir for the mainstream online travel and booking business.
Much more to come……stay tuned……I have content for post for the next couple of weeks from this show. Also coming soon, the picture I took with me, Darth Vader, and a Stormtrooper.
Ralf
LiveRez
Tags: online vacation booking, vacation home rental, vacation property management, vacation rental, vacation rental software