I don't know that it would scale up well, but I wouldn't mind travel booking as a personal service:
* Planning the trip: Someone who has expertise in all the sites, options, services, loyalty programs, hidden-city fares, likely delays, smaller nearby airports, fare-tracking, best seats on the plane, best hotels, etc.; who learns my preferences; and who then books everything for me, with absolutely minimal time and effort on my part. I don't want to look through all the sites and gather the options; it seems like a waste that so many people spend so much time gaining a little expertise in the nightmare of travel booking.
* During the trip: Monitor their customer's trips for delays, cancellations, etc., find out before everyone else (i.e., while seats on the next plane still are available) and respond appropriately (find alternative flights, rebook, reschedule ground transportation, obtain refunds, etc., or simply update me). I just want a text message telling me the new plan, or if absolutely necessary, a couple of options.
* At the destination, some concierge service: I need dinner delivered, food waiting in my hotel fridge, a tennis game Wednesday morning, a doctor, another shirt, a bar showing the game back home, etc. It's time consuming to do all that in an unknown town and time is more constrained due to the usually crowded schedule of a traveller.
Every time I have to deal with this stuff, I think about how someone who developed expertise in it would be much more efficient. Just getting to know the resources well would be a big advantage.
As for tech: An app that displays and syncs your current itinerary (including delays, etc.) with the vendor, and with a prominent 'Talk to me!' button that opens an immediate video chat: A friendly, helpful face in a crowded, strange airport, amid cranky flight attendants, during a frustrating trip would make customers very happy. They might pay for that alone.
* Planning the trip: Someone who has expertise in all the sites, options, services, loyalty programs, hidden-city fares, likely delays, smaller nearby airports, fare-tracking, best seats on the plane, best hotels, etc.; who learns my preferences; and who then books everything for me, with absolutely minimal time and effort on my part. I don't want to look through all the sites and gather the options; it seems like a waste that so many people spend so much time gaining a little expertise in the nightmare of travel booking.
* During the trip: Monitor their customer's trips for delays, cancellations, etc., find out before everyone else (i.e., while seats on the next plane still are available) and respond appropriately (find alternative flights, rebook, reschedule ground transportation, obtain refunds, etc., or simply update me). I just want a text message telling me the new plan, or if absolutely necessary, a couple of options.
* At the destination, some concierge service: I need dinner delivered, food waiting in my hotel fridge, a tennis game Wednesday morning, a doctor, another shirt, a bar showing the game back home, etc. It's time consuming to do all that in an unknown town and time is more constrained due to the usually crowded schedule of a traveller.
Every time I have to deal with this stuff, I think about how someone who developed expertise in it would be much more efficient. Just getting to know the resources well would be a big advantage.
As for tech: An app that displays and syncs your current itinerary (including delays, etc.) with the vendor, and with a prominent 'Talk to me!' button that opens an immediate video chat: A friendly, helpful face in a crowded, strange airport, amid cranky flight attendants, during a frustrating trip would make customers very happy. They might pay for that alone.