The same traveller. Different priorities.

The same traveller might choose a budget flight and a comfortable hotel for one trip, then make entirely different choices on the next.

I do this myself. If I’m taking a short flight, I’m often happy to spend less and put up with a little less comfort. If I’m flying long haul, comfort becomes much more important to me.

Hotels are similar. If I’m visiting a city and only need somewhere to sleep, the room plays a fairly small part in my decision. But if I’m staying at a resort and expect to spend most of my time there, I’m more interested in the facilities, the food and whether it’s somewhere I’ll enjoy spending the week.

I’m the same customer in each case. What changes is the trip.

That creates a challenge for personalisation. Previous bookings give us useful information, but they can also lead us to make assumptions. If someone booked a low-cost flight last time, should we show them the cheapest option first for every journey? If they chose a premium hotel once, does that mean they want one for a short overnight stay?

The answers depend on context: why they’re travelling, who they’re with, how long they’re going for and where they want to spend their budget. Some of that information might be available from the journey itself. Some of it might be better gathered by asking a simple question at the right time.

We also need to make it easy for customers to change their minds. A recommendation can be a useful starting point, but it shouldn’t narrow the options so much that someone has to fight their way back to what they need.

The opportunity for travel products is to combine what we know about a customer with what matters to them now. That gives us a better chance of making recommendations that fit the journey they’re planning, not just the journeys they’ve already taken.