Google Trials Travel Package Metasearch in the UK and Germany
Photo Credit: Google Travel's VP of Engineering Oliver Heckman speaking with Skift's Dennis Schaal (R) at Skift Forum Europe in London on April 4, 2017. Skift / Russell Harper
Skift Take
Google revealed Tuesday that it is doing an early experiment in how to sell bundled flights and hotels via its travel search results. Package travel is huge in Europe, and Google's trial will be watched closely.
In the UK and Germany, users of Google's destination product will see the first experimental sales of flight and hotel packages.
Speaking Tuesday at the first Skift Forum Europe, Oliver Heckmann, a Google vice president of engineering who heads the search engine’s travel product, said the product is still in testing. Heckmann stresses that it's not just about selling vacation packages.
"It's a differentiated experience," said Heckmann. "It is a search tool that lets you buy the individual components separately or together." Consumers are not only shown bundled options.
It is not the first time a major metasearch platform has attempted to sell packages, per se. Kayak.com/packages, and one of Kayak's acquisitions (Sidestep), tried it first. Kayak says it launched package metasearch in Europe in 2012 and
