Hi everyone! I’m Mindy Rehse, senior director of the global partner group at Expedia. I’ve been leading marketing, sales, and partnerships teams at Expedia for the past 16 years.
Ask me anything about leadership, go to market, travel tech, and more!
Office Hours: I've led marketing, sales, and partnerships teams at Expedia for 16 years.
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Office Hours: I've led marketing, sales, and partnerships teams at Expedia for 16 years.Featured
Posted in:Office HoursManagement and Leadership
ElphaStaff·Aug 01, 2021ElphaStaff·Aug 01, 2021Thanks so much for joining us @mindyrehse!Elphas โ please ask @mindyrehse your questions before Friday, August 6th. @mindyrehse may not have time to answer every questions, so emoji upvote your favorites ๐ฅ๐๐พโ
In what ways do you think will travel tech be most changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Hi Claycia - thanks for the question - I answered this above, but let me know if you have any follow ups. COVID19 has been hard on travel, we are looking forward to helping travelers get back out there soon!
Hello Mindy! With a few exceptions, I have received less than helpful answers to my questions so far: When starting a partnership program, what do reporting metrics look like? From your experience, what measurements have been useful for those you report to?In short, when running a program are you showing that you are accountable to/reporting on metrics that matter for the business case beyond influenced revenue so that the program stays resoruced?
Hi Amelia, I will answer from my experience, and from the business I run. When I look at a program - there are really three stakeholders - the traveler, Expedia Group and travel partner that I am working with. I think understanding what is important to all three of those and then creating success metrics that we can look for a tipping point where adjustments may be needed. As you mention - revenue is of course a key component, however there is a point, for example, where Expedia and the travel partner may be very happy, but it might effect the traveler experience or it doesn't resonate with the traveler. For me, having transparent expectations for all three will allow us to measure success, and therefore be able to report up to my leaders where we are seeing success and support why resources should continue to be allocated.
Hello @mindyrehse3 and thank you for holding an office hour. How do you break down silos between marketing, sales, and partnership teams?
My short answer is communication and joint recognition. To expand on that, in order to be successful, especially in a enterprise, business development type role it takes a village. They say then when you are raising kids, but I believe it for business success also. Success should be shared by teams and approaching partnerships, even internally with that view has helped me unlock more value when working between many of different business units. I have had the privilege of working with many very smart people over the years, being able to recognize approaches will be different, being open to other opinions and being able to accept feedback, good or bad, allows for silos to broken, in my experience.
Hi Mindy! Which kind of companies are you excited to partner with the most, and why? What do you look for in a travel partnership?
Hi Julia - thanks for your question. My role is primarily working with large travel companies. What I am most excited about at Expedia Group is the strong technology across multiple lines of business that we are offering and expanding to be able to help our partners in the future by using tools to grow their business and being able to expand those partnerships to multiple lines of business.
Hi Mindy, that is so exciting - thank you for the thoughtful reply. My team and I are building a new technology within the travel packing space, and it would be great to set up a call if you ever pursue this path. Cheers!
Thank you for sharing your time. Curious to hear your thoughts on the next trends in traveltech... What are they and how has CV19 permanently or temporarily shaped them.
I wish I could predict the next big thing! I would create it myself. :) From what I have witnessed and heard through all of this is a heavy lean into contactless, touchless, automated options. Travelers want to get back out there, safely and they want assurance that they can minimize risk. While I don't think anything will be risk free, I do think travelers will be more comfortable with these type of options. I also think as CV19 risk reduces (hopefully soon), there will be more "revenge" travel and we see trends of travelers spending more when they do travel. Thanks for the question!
What do you think the next disrupter or major innovation in travel will be?
Hi Maggie - I think this could go a lot of ways, and I think it depends on the travel segment - and I probably would have a hard time predicting. In hotels, robots for concierge service is a real thing today. I think people will look for flexible options - so there may be an increase in travel insurance, anything that they can get that might be contactless or automated - booking a trip via Alexa is cool option today, options like this may increase or become more innovative. We have seen people willing to spend more on their trips for safer options - those properties with cleanliness assurances. I think as travel returns, it will look different and will vary based on different generation groups. Appreciate the question!
Thank you for joining @mindyrehseI am curious to know:1. How did you utilize the vast amounts of data you collected for business decision purposes and also to understand your customers better? (I am trying to understand the AI+ML angle here). Is there a specific approach that worked particularly well? 2. What do you see as the future trends in Travel Tech?
Hi - I wish I had a simple answer here. I think we can always do more with the data we collect both to unlock more for our customers and for our partners. We regularly share what are customers are looking for, what trends we are seeing and what direction we think our partners should go in terms of offerings. For us, being able to customize our data in a way that addresses what the partner is looking for based on their business priorities (I find that every partner I work with is different) has unlocked success in our business. We also have very cool innovation labs that allow us to track customer reactions based on facial cues, we talk to our customers all the time and our technology allows us to uncover who our different customers are through test and learn opportunities - which gives us great data and helps drive our innovation. Hope this helps and gets to your question.
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