Kiwi.com has become one of Europe's most successful travel startups through its proprietary algorithm that allows customers to combine flights from nearly 700 airlines into single itineraries, providing significant savings compared to individual airline websites. The CEO states the industry is shifting toward meta-search companies like Kiwi.com that offer interlining capabilities. A key to Kiwi.com's growth has been maintaining a startup culture and mindset as it has expanded to nearly 2,000 employees, while also implementing processes to manage growth. The CEO predicts future growth in voice assistants and mobile booking, and increasing convergence between meta-search and online travel agency companies.

1. Interview with: Oliver Dlouhý, CEO,
Kiwi.com
“At the heart of Kiwi.com’s success lies
its proprietary algorithm that allows
users to automatically combine flights
from nearly 700 airlines into a single
itinerary. This results in significant
customer savings,” according to Oliver
Dlouhý, CEO, Kiwi.com. “The industry is
shifting away from individual hotel and
airline websites to metasearch, and
companies such as Kiwi.com due to our
interlining capabilities,” he adds.
Dlouhý is a keynote speaker at the
marcus evans Travel & Hospitality
Leaders Forum 2018.
How did Kiwi.com become one of
the most admired travel start-ups in
Europe?
A process called “virtual interlining” is at
the heart of our success. Kiwi.com
allows users to combine flights from
nearly 700 airlines into a single
itinerary, including budget carriers that
normally do not collaborate with each
other.
Industry surveys show Kiwi.com is on
average 28 percent and sometimes
even up to 80 percent cheaper than the
competition. Our online travel agency
handles more than 50 million daily
search queries and offers over 225,000
updates per minute, allowing users to
find the best deals via notifications and
price alerts. It guarantees alternative
flights or a refund to customers in case
of flight delays and cancellations.
What lessons did you learn along
the way that could be useful for
other executives in this industry?
I enjoy getting people excited about my
ideas and sharing my vision and
innovations. By engaging all my fellow
teammates together we can create
something really great. Creating
enthusiasm and empathising with
people and ideas is key, in my opinion.
How can other organisations apply
the start-up mindset to achieve
organisational growth?
It all comes down to company culture.
For Kiwi.com it all happened organically.
We were a small family that grew into a
larger family, and now we are nearly
2,000 employees! We managed to keep
our start-up mindset (the cooperative
and goal-oriented culture, as well as the
work-hard-play-hard mindset). We
have, however, matured as an
organisation and were able to put in
processes that helped us manage our
rapid growth.
What trends and innovations do you
predict for the future? How could
travel and hospitality organisations
prepare?
The future of travel booking will
definitely remain on-the-go and by voice
recognition; so far nearly two million
people have downloaded our app. The
industry is shifting away from individual
hotel and airline websites to meta-
search, and companies such as
Kiwi.com due to our interlining
capabilities.
Coupled with this I see an increasing
convergence of metadata players and
online travel agencies currently. We see
a lot of “coopertition” and “frenemies”.
For example, we work as partners with
Skyscanner, Kayak and many others. It
benefits us all.
It is my aim to offer multi-modal
transportation to as wider a global
audience as possible, backed up with
rich, accurate, real-time content and
data.
In the end, this can only be good news
for consumers, who need all the tools at
their fingertips to be inspired, research
and book their chosen travel.
The future
of travel
booking will
definitely
remain
on-the-go
and by
voice
recognition
How Kiwi.com Has Transformed
the Travel Booking Industry

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About the Travel & Hospitality Leaders Forum 2018
The Travel & Hospitality Leaders Forum 2018 allows marketing and branding
leaders, technology and digital directors, and heads of customer experience from
leading organisations in the travel and hospitality industry to unite and actively
collaborate with the travel and hospitality professionals driving innovation in their
sectors. Taking place at Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, Montreux, Switzerland,
18 - 19 June, some of the key areas of discussion include optimising global
distribution channels, refining branding strategies, elevating customer experiences,
driving steady innovation, and leveraging emerging technologies, among others.
http://travelhospitalityforum.marcusevans.com
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To view the web version of this interview, please click here:
http://events.marcusevans-events.com/travelhospitality2018-oliver-dlouhy