People feel like traveling again. However, increasingly in their own country. A conversation with Axel Hefer, head of the hotel search engine Trivago, about the changed demand and the competition with Google, which he considers to be an unfair game.
After a massive slump in the pandemic, bookings are increasing again on the hotel search engine Trivago. However, in view of the great uncertainty and the rampant delta variant of the corona virus, German customers are relying more on their own country than before. “Germany is right at the top of the list, but so are Holland and Austria,” says Trivago boss Axel Hefer, “in other words, destinations that are close by. Everything that you know well and where you have the feeling that you assess it well can. ” For the summer vacation with the family it is “of course the safest thing to stay in Germany”.
In view of the changed booking behavior, Trivago has introduced a function in which customers can search for interesting accommodation in their immediate vicinity – for example within a radius of up to 300 kilometers. “It’s about an inspiration for local travel,” says Hefer. The company suffered massively from the decline in global travel during the pandemic. The company’s turnover fell to 249 million euros in 2020 – after almost 839 million euros in the previous year. Trivago countered with tough austerity measures, there was a tough wave of layoffs.
Now the company has to try to lure customers with simplified offers. For example, with the ability to easily withdraw your bookings if the travel conditions change. “Cancellation has become much more important overall,” says Hefer. “But I also think that it will normalize again in a year or two.”
Hefer sees problems in competition with search engines and large platforms such as Google. “Due to increasing digitalization, several players dominate the market. They can have a massive influence on our behavior and increasingly intervene in value creation.” However, this is a social problem that politicians have to worry about. “Of course we suffer from what we consider to be unfair competition from Google,” says Hefer. “But we can only bring new products to market as quickly as possible and convince users that our products are better than those of the monopoly.”
Also listen to the new episode of “Zero Hour”:
- What Hefer plans to do on the supervisory board of Bundesliga relegated Schalke 04
- Where Hefer himself spends his vacation
- How the Trivago boss kept his children busy in the home office
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
